A systematic search was conducted for English, peer-reviewed articles from inception until February 2019 that assessed for serum or plasma adiponectin levels in adults with an anxiety, mood or trauma-related disorder.
These observations indicate that adiponectin can directly modulate VTA dopamine neuron activity and anxiety behavior, and that AdipoR1 is required for adiponectin-induced inhibition of dopamine neurons and anxiolytic effects.
Interestingly, in men, better cognitive function was inversely related to adiponectin (p < 0.05) while decreased anxiety was linked to a higher concentration of adiponectin in women (p < 0.05).
In contrast, obese patients diagnosed with anxiety or mood disorders only showed significantly lower expression levels of IL1B in VAT and ADIPOQ in SAT when compared with obese subjects without mental disorders.
Results from our human subjects indicated that anxiety and a subset of depressive symptoms were correlated with adiponectin levels (but not leptin levels).