Table 1. The detailed characteristic of patients which were qualified the study.
| Depression severity (HAM-D range of scores) | Percentage of patients before treatment | Percentage of patients after treatment |
| None (0–7) | 0.41% | 68.00%* |
| Mild (8–16) | 13.11% | 30.67%* |
| Moderate (17–23) | 34.43% | 1.33%* |
| Severe (≥24) | 52.05% | 0%* |
| Mean age of patients ± SD | 49.34 ± 10.32# | |
| Mean age of controls ± SD | 51.39 ± 13.37 | |
| Gender (male/female) of patients | 146/136 | |
| Gender (male/female) of controls | 155/148& | |
| Duration of disease from the first episode | Percentage of patients | |
| 0–10 years | 52.00% | |
| 11–20 years | 19.56% | |
| 21–30 years | 17.78% | |
| 31–40 years | 9.78% | |
| ≥41 years | 0.89% | |
| Number of episodes | Percentage of patients | |
| 1 | 13.78% | |
| 2 | 31.11% | |
| 3 | 32.00% | |
| 4 | 18.22% | |
| 5 | 4.44% | |
| 6 | 0.44% | |
Notes.
Significance of comparisons estimated with the Yates-corrected chi2 test or the Fisher exact test. &P = 0.881 vs. patients. ∗P < 0.0001; #P = 0.225 vs. controls.