BDNF and depressive disorder: For example, several studies found that individuals suffering from depression had lower serum BDNF concentrations and pBDNF concentrations than that of healthy subjects (Molendijk et al., 2014; Sagud et al., 2016) and recovered after successful antidepressant therapy (Brunoni, Lopes & Fregni, 2008; Polyakova et al., 2015).