Gene/Protein Disease Symptom Drug Enzyme Compound
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Query: UMLS:C0011570 (depression)
 172,036 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

The recently developed Tridimensional Personality Questionnaire (TPQ) was used to examine personality correlates in women diagnosed with premenstrual syndrome (PMS). The hypotheses were that the TPQ scores, specifically harm avoidance (HA), would be higher in PMS subjects than in the general population but lower than in depressed populations because major mood disorder is an exclusion from the PMS diagnosis; harm avoidance would have the strongest association with PMS, but other TPQ factors might characterize nondysphoric subgroups in the PMS population. The sample included 157 women who sought medical treatment and met clearly defined criteria for PMS. Two comparison groups of age-matched women with major depression (MDD, N = 20) and premenstrual exacerbation of major depression (MDD + PMS, N = 24) were also evaluated. TPQ scores were significantly higher for PMS subjects on all three dimensions compared with external normative TPQ data. The TPQ dimensions of HA and novelty seeking (NS) were modestly correlated with the premenstrual symptom scores. The HA dimension correlated with premenstrual depression and physical aches; high NS scores correlated with premenstrual food cravings, headache, and mood swings. As hypothesized, the HA scores were significantly higher in the comparison groups diagnosed with major depression; the NS and reward dependence (RD) dimensions did not differ between the PMS and MDD groups. PMS was associated with only modest nonnormative personality correlates, as assessed by the TPQ. Elevations of the HA and NS dimensions were associated with a tendency for the PMS to present with specific symptom patterns: depressive symptoms for the HA factor and food cravings and mood swings for the NS factor. Further research employing other assessment methods is needed to confirm these findings.
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PMID:Personality factors in women with premenstrual syndrome. 855 36

In the menopause transition, ovarian steroid production is gradually inhibited and around 35% of women will seek medical help for postmenopausal symptoms. The hot flush is a characteristic manifestation occurring in about 70% of women; it is associated with oestrogen withdrawal and disappears with oestrogen-based hormone replacement therapy. The exact mechanism behind it is still unclear but is probably related to heat loss mechanisms. The flush often occurs in parallel to changes in skin temperature, blood flow, pulse rate and pulses of luteinizing hormone (LH). These are probably secondary to a disturbance in the thermoregulatory centre of the CNS, which is anatomically close to neurons containing gonadotropin-releasing hormone. Depression is no more frequent in the menopausal transition than at other times in life. After surgical menopause, however, oestrogen improves low mood over placebo. In women with premenstrual syndrome, an increased feeling of well-being is associated with the pre-ovulatory oestrogen peak. Progestogens are associated with negative mood changes during the menstrual cycle, oral contraception and postmenopausal replacement therapy. Certain progesterone metabolites are anaesthetic and have anti-epileptic and anxiolytic properties, effects which are mediated via the type A gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABAA) receptor. Oestrogen is associated with increased sensory perception, locomotory activity, limb coordination and balance: this may help explain the increased frequency of bone fractures in the early postmenopausal period. Oestrogen improves memory and performance in patients with mild Alzheimer's dementia and increases epileptic activity in patients with partial epilepsy. These effects can be related to amplifying effects of oestrogen on excitatory amino acids in the CNS.
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PMID:Symptoms related to the menopause and sex steroid treatments. 858 96

To differentiate women who experience patterns of depressed mood with respect to their perceptions of menopausal changes and those that were part of everyday life, women (N=347) from the Seattle Midlife Women's Health Study were studied. Women participated in in-depth interviews, kept symptom diaries, and responded to mailed health updates. Data for years 1 and 2 on the Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale revealed four patterns of depressed mood: consistent depressed mood, emerging depressed mood, resolving depressed mood, and absence of depressed mood. Discriminant function analyses differentiated women with consistent, emerging, and resolving depressed mood from those with absence of depressed mood. Patterns of depressed mood were related to stressful life context, past/present health status, and social learning about midlife. Menopausal status did not differentiate women with patterns of depressed mood from those without depressed mood. Vasomotor symptoms, history of premenstrual syndrome, and postpartum blues helped differentiate women with consistently depressed mood from those recovering from depressed mood.
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PMID:Patterns of depressed mood in midlife women; observations from the Seattle Midlife Women's Health Study. 860 81

Serotonin-releasing brain neurons are unique in that the amount of neurotransmitter they release is normally controlled by food intake: Carbohydrate consumption--acting via insulin secretion and the "plasma tryptophan ratio"--increases serotonin release; protein intake lacks this effect. This ability of neurons to couple neuronal signaling properties to food consumption is a link in the feedback mechanism that normally keeps carbohydrate and protein intakes more or less constant. However, serotonin release is also involved in such functions as sleep onset, pain sensitivity, blood pressure regulation, and control of the mood. Hence many patients learn to overeat carbohydrates (particularly snack foods, like potato chips or pastries, which are rich in carbohydrates and fats) to make themselves feel better. This tendency to use certain foods as though they were drugs is a frequent cause of weight gain, and can also be seen in patients who become fat when exposed to stress, or in women with premenstrual syndrome, or in patients with "winter depression," or in people who are attempting to give up smoking. (Nicotine, like dietary carbohydrates, increases brain serotonin secretion; nicotine withdrawal has the opposite effect.) It also occurs in patients with normal-weight bulimia. Dexfenfluramine constitutes a highly effective treatment for such patients. In addition to producing its general satiety-promoting effect, it specifically reduces their overconsumption of carbohydrate-rich (or carbohydrate-and fat-rich) foods.
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PMID:Brain serotonin, carbohydrate-craving, obesity and depression. 869 46

1. Estrogen exerts profound effects on mood, mental state and memory by acting on both "classical" monoamine and neuropeptide transmitter mechanisms in brain. Here we review an example of each type of action. 2. With respect to the effect of estrogen on central monoamine neurotransmission, low levels of estrogen in women are associated with the premenstrual syndrome, postnatal depression and post-menopausal depression. Sex differences in schizophrenia have also been attributed to estrogen. Previous studies have shown that estrogen stimulates a significant increase in dopamine2 (D2) receptors in the striatum. Here we show for the first time that estrogen also stimulates a significant increase in the density of 5-hydroxytryptamine2A (5-HT2A) binding sites in anterior frontal, cingulate and primary olfactory cortex and in the nucleus accumbens, areas of the brain concerned with the control of mood, mental state, cognition, emotion and behavior. These findings explain, for example, the efficacy of estrogen therapy or 5-HT uptake blockers such as fluoxetine in treating the depressive symptoms of the premenstrual syndrome. and suggest that the sex differences in schizophrenia may also be due to an action of estrogen mediated by way of 5-HT2A receptors. 3. With respect to the effect of estrogen on central neuropeptide transmission, estrogen stimulates the expression of the arginine vasopressin (AVP) gene in the bed nucleus of the stria terminalis (BNST) in rodents. This results in a 100-fold increase in AVP mRNA in the BNST and a massive increase in AVP peptide in the BNST and its projections to the lateral septum and lateral habenula. The BNST-AVP system enhances and/or maintains "social" or "olfactory" memory, and thus provides a powerful model for correlating transcriptional control of neuropeptide gene expression with behavior. Whether similar mechanisms operate in the human remain to be determined. 4. These two examples of the action of estrogen on central neurotransmission are discussed in terms of their immediate clinical importance for the treatment of depressive symptoms, their use as powerful models for investigations on the steroid control of central neurotransmitter mechanisms, and the role of estrogen as "Nature's" psychoprotectant.
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PMID:Estrogen control of central neurotransmission: effect on mood, mental state, and memory. 881

Nine women who had undergone hysterectomy and oophorectomy and who previously suffered from severe premenstrual syndrome (PMS) were given estrogen and progesterone in a naturalistic single-blind paradigm. The 13-item Beck Depression Inventory, Spielberger State Anxiety Inventory, Menstrual Distress Questionnaire and the Daily Ratings Form of the Premenstrual Assessment Form were all given daily. Estradiol and progesterone concentrations were estimated. When results from all subjects were considered together, these measures were not correlated with hormonal status. However, individual subjects showed correlations between some symptom scores and serum progesterone concentrations. We conclude that women diagnosed as having PMS do not respond in a uniform fashion to ovarian hormones. Further quantitative studies are needed to relate these individual differences to the syndrome of PMS.
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PMID:Can one induce premenstrual symptomatology in women with prior hysterectomy and bilateral oophorectomy? 886 Aug 83

Many symptoms that define the premenstrual syndrome (PMS) are present in depressive states. The fact that there are not adequate animal models to study the PMS may explain the lack of knowledge about its etiology. An alternative might be the use of animal models which are useful to study depression, such as the forced swimming test. Eighteen female rats were subjected to the forced swimming test once a week for six consecutive weeks. An increase of immobility was observed during diestrus as compared to estrus. On the other hand, some premenstrual symptoms have been suggested to be caused by the influence of gonadal hormones on the activity of central serotonergic systems. Thus, the effects of clomipramine were further studied. The drug reduced rat immobility during diestrus, so that the differences between the two estrous cycle phases disappeared. We conclude that the use of the forced swimming test might be a helpful model in the study of PMS.
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PMID:Clomipramine modifies fluctuations of forced swimming immobility in different phases of the rat estrous cycle. 886 73

Traditional menstrual cycle research reflects a stereotypical negative bias that does not encompass the complexity of the phenomena. For example, even though the majority of menstrual cycle literature has focused on negative changes during the perimenstruum, some women report positive changes. This article describes a unique intervention aimed at reframing perceptions of menstrual cycle experiences for the purpose of diminishing perimenstrual impairment. The intervention was a health promotion program that provided social support and a positive reframing component for women with premenstrual syndrome (PMS) across four menstrual cycles. Through use of a preexperimental design, data were collected on 18 women. Daily measures included prospective assessment of perceptions of perimenstrual changes (impairment and activation). Retrospective assessments of moods (anxiety and depression), social resources (personal resources and marital satisfaction), and perimenstrual change perceptions were gathered at three time periods--before, during, and after the experimental condition. Data analyses included descriptive and multivariate strategies. Results indicated that, although perimenstrual activation did not increase significantly, impairment did decrease. In addition, there were significant changes from baseline to follow-up on state depression and personal resource variables. Findings from this study underscore the need for further investigation of the wide continuum of women's diverse menstrual cycle experiences.
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PMID:Effect of positive reframing and social support on perception of perimenstrual changes among women with premenstrual syndrome. 911 93

Daily ratings of symptoms are essential to confirm a diagnosis of premenstrual syndrome (PMS). The 17-item Daily Symptom Report (DSR) is relatively brief and appropriate for clinical and primary care settings. We report the reliability, factor structure and relationships with other standard mood measures of the DSR as a measure of PMS. The sample includes 170 women who sought medical treatment for severe PMS and a non-clinical comparison group of 54 healthy women in the same age range. Cronbach's coefficient alpha was 0.92 for the premenstrual DSR scores, indicating very high internal consistency for the 17 symptoms. Factor analysis yielded four factors describing mood, behavioral items, pain, and physical symptoms. In the PMS sample, there were moderate correlations between the DSR and the Hamilton Rating Scale for Depression, the Profile of Mood States, and the Premenstrual Assessment Form. The moderate correlations of the DSR with other standard symptom measures add to the evidence that PMS overlaps with other mood disorders at the premenstrual time but is not simply a brief depression or a truncated anxiety disorder.
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PMID:Reliability and validity of a daily diary for premenstrual syndrome. 912 90

Disruptive changes in mood and low energy level are among the most common reasons women consult a physician. Usually no clear physiological explantation for these changes can be found. Many physicians feel uncomfortable dealing with patients with these complaints. The purpose of this paper is to discuss a practical approach to helping women with such conditions. A variety of terms have been utilized to refer to the situation in which a female patient has decreased energy or labile mood. Premenstrual Syndrome (PMS) and chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS) are currently popular terms. An association of low mood with menstrual cycle phase is undoubted, with the late luteal-early premenstrual phase most commonly associated with depression and irritability. It seems likely that women with PMS and those without it do not differ in circulating hormone levels during their cycles but rather in the brain response to these. Estrogen and progesterone receptors exist in the brain and change during the cycle. Elaborate diagnostic efforts are rarely rewarding in managing mood and energy disorders. Of more value is a careful history particularly concerned with the pattern of mood changes and with life stresses, accompanied by a thorough physical examination and laboratory tests. In most cases, changes in mood and energy are a variant of clinical depression. Changes in energy and sleep may be more evident than low affect. Treatment with an appropriate antidepressant, usually a selective serotonin re-uptake inhibitor (SSRI), benefits most of these patients. Allowing the patient to express concerns about stressful life situations is often of great value.
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PMID:Mood disorders in the female patient. 916 Feb 15


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