Depression, anxiety, and sleep quality in childhood onset systemic lupus erythematosus and relationship with brain-derived neurotrophic factor.

In patients with cSLE, serum level of BDNF was significantly decreased compared to healthy controls. Our results suggest that serum BDNF levels were not associated with the presence of anxiety, depression and poor sleep quality and might be dictated by the pathophysiological process of SLE rather than mood disorders.