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OBJECTIVE: Generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) is characterized by persistent and chronic anxiety state. Stressful life events and anxiety usually cause an increase in platelet volume and activity through various mechanisms. Mean platelet volume (MPV), which is indicative of platelet size, is accepted as an indication of platelet activity.
METHOD: In this first retrospective cohort study about MPV among GAD patients, we compared complete blood count especially in terms of platelet count (PLT), platelet distribution width (PDW), plateletcrit (PCT) and MPV values of 60 GAD patients with 60 healthy controls.
RESULTS: MPV was found to be significantly higher (p = .008) and platelet count was found to be significantly lower in the GAD group (p = .001). The area under the ROC curve (AUC) of MPV levels for GAD was 0.655 (95% CI: 0.557–0.754, p < .001).
DISCUSSION: Increased MPV levels in GAD patients in our study supports the hypothesis of increased platelet activation due to sympathetic system activation. Also platelet levels were found to be significantly lower in GAD patients in our study. This finding is consistent with the non-linear inverse relation between platelet volume and platelet count. According to ROC curve analysis for differentiation of GAD from those in the control group, MPV would be considered to be a “poor” biochemical marker. We believe that further controlled prospective studies about this issue will be valuable.