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

A variety of endocrine dysfunctions have been reported for anorexia nervosa, protein caloric malnutrition, and depression. The effect of reduced caloric intake and weight loss on endocrine functions was assessed in an experiment with five healthy female subjects during an initial baseline phase, a 3-week phase of complete food abstinence, weight gain to the original level, and a final baseline phase. During fasting, disturbances in hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal function were observed, with elevated plasma cortisol levels, increase in the number of secretory episodes, increase in cortisol plasma half-life, and insufficient suppression following 1.5 mg dexamethasone. While all dexamethasone suppression tests (DSTs) were normal at baseline, 7 of 14 DSTs showed insufficient suppression in the fasting phase. During fasting, basal thyroid-stimulating hormone (TSH) values were lowered and the TSH response to thyrotropin-releasing hormone (TRH) was blunted. The plasma level of growth hormone (GH) over 24 hours was elevated during fasting and administration of the alpha 2-adrenergic receptor agonist clonidine resulted in a subnormal GH response after restoration of original body weight. One of the five subjects showed increased irritability, distress, anxiety, and depression as measured by various psychological scales. The results show that reduced caloric intake, weight loss, or catabolic state have powerful effects on several endocrine systems. The specificity of measures of endocrine disturbances (DST, TRH tests, and clonidine tests) as biological markers for certain types of depression must be questioned, and the metabolic state should be given more consideration in future studies.
 ...
PMID:Weight loss causes neuroendocrine disturbances: experimental study in healthy starving subjects. 308 Jul 66

To determine the prevalence of major depression in cancer patients and assess the usefulness of the dexamethasone suppression test (DST) and the thyrotropin-releasing hormone (TRH) stimulation test for diagnosing major depression in these patients, the authors studied 83 women hospitalized for gynecological cancer. Nineteen (23%) had major depression according to DSM-III criteria. The sensitivity and specificity of the DST were 40% and 88%, respectively. No relationship between DST and TRH test results was found. These findings indicate a high prevalence of depression in cancer patients, but further research on these tests in cancer patients is needed; their routine use with cancer patients is premature at this time.
 ...
PMID:Depression in women treated for gynecological cancer: clinical and neuroendocrine assessment. 308 23

Male Syrian hamsters were kept under either 14 h light/10 h dark (lights on at 06.30 h) or 2 h light/22 h dark (lights on at 14.30 h) photoperiods. Groups of hamsters under each photoperiod were rendered hypothyroid by addition of 0.4% thiourea to the drinking water. These hamsters received, in addition, either a daily evening injection of saline or a daily injection of 25 micrograms melatonin in saline. Groups of intact controls and pinealectomized control hamsters were also maintained under the two photoperiodic conditions. After 10 weeks under the different conditions the hamsters were killed by decapitation, and serum samples assayed for thyroxin, thyroid-stimulating hormone (TSH), and prolactin (PRL). Pituitary extracts were assayed for TSH and PRL. Hypothyroidism in hamsters receiving thiourea was confirmed by radio-immunoassay data showing low serum thyroxin and greatly elevated serum TSH concentrations. Melatonin injections resulted in significant depression of serum TSH in thiourea-treated hamsters under short photoperiod compared to saline-injected controls. Both melatonin injections and short photoperiod resulted in a significant reduction of pituitary TSH in hamsters on thiourea compared to values obtained from similarly treated animals under the 14 h light/10 h dark photoperiod. Hypothalamic concentrations of thyrotropin-releasing hormone (TRH) were significantly elevated by melatonin injections and by short photoperiodic conditions, but not by thiourea administration. The short photoperiod resulted in testicular involution which was completely reversed by pinealectomy and partially reversed (to 53% of controls) by thiourea treatment. Involution of gonads was complete in thiourea-treated animals under short photoperiod, if they received melatonin injections.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)
 ...
PMID:Effects of afternoon injections of melatonin in hypothyroid male Syrian hamsters. 308 89

Several investigators have reported a paradoxical growth hormone (GH) response to thyrotropin-releasing hormone (TRH) in depressed patients, but other studies have failed to confirm this. In the present study, the GH response to TRH was studied in depressed patients and normal subjects. The rate of paradoxical GH response to TRH in depression was no different than that observed in control subjects. This was the case whether the data was examined using mean values or using frequency of abnormal responses. Patients with blunted thyrotropin (TSH) responses did not differ in GH release from patients with normal TSH response. A variety of factors may have contributed to the earlier reports of a positive GH response to TRH, including the definition of paradoxical GH release and the fact that depressed patients exhibit more frequent spontaneous diurnal GH release than do normal subjects.
 ...
PMID:Is there paradoxical growth hormone response to thyrotropin-releasing hormone in depression? 308 39

The thyrotropin (thyroid-stimulating hormone; TSH) response to thyrotropin-releasing hormone (TRH) was studied in 64 age-matched healthy volunteers, 44 patients with endogenous depression, and 21 patients with schizophrenia. A significant negative correlation between delta TSH and age was found both in healthy subjects and in depressed patients. We based our comparison on normal ranges for delta TSH calculated from the delta TSH values in the healthy subjects related to age. It was then seen that blunted TSH response to TRH does not occur significantly more often in depression (13.6%) than in healthy controls (4.7%). Blunted TRH test results were also found in a considerable number of severely ill schizophrenic patients (19%). Application of an improved radioimmunoassay revealed a highly significant correlation between TSH values at baseline and after stimulation, and showed decreased baseline TSH levels in subjects with blunted TRH test results.
 ...
PMID:Effects of age and diagnosis on thyrotropin response to thyrotropin-releasing hormone in psychiatric patients. 308 11

When rats were pretreated with ethanol (3.0 g/kg, IP), subsequent microinjection of thyrotropin-releasing hormone (TRH) (500 or 1000 ng) into the medial septum, 30 minutes later, significantly shortened the time necessary for the rats to regain their righting reflex. Conversely, microinjection of TRH into the nucleus accumbens (1000 ng/side) or the area of the raphe obscurus (1000 ng) had no effect on ethanol-induced depression, although both of these structures mediate specific TRH effects in the CNS. In order to determine if this antagonism was due to a specific TRH interaction, TRH Fab fragments were microinjected into the medial septum just prior to the microinjection of TRH. Under these conditions, TRH did not alter ethanol's depressant actions. Finally, this TRH antagonism of ethanol-induced depression appears attributable to a net increase in neuronal activity, because electrical stimulation (160 microA, 120 Hz, 1.5 msec duration) of the medial septum antagonized ethanol's impairment of the righting reflex. These results are discussed in relationship to a potential CNS site for the action of ethanol.
 ...
PMID:Interactions between TRH and ethanol in the medial septum. 308 7

The authors measured thyroid-stimulating hormone (TSH) response to thyrotropin-releasing hormone in 32 healthy volunteers who had never sought or received psychiatric treatment. Nine (28%) had a family or personal history of depression or alcoholism. Five of these nine subjects and one of 22 subjects without such a history showed TSH blunting (TSH data were not available for one subject). This difference was statistically highly significant. Although there were sex differences in TSH response, TSH blunting occurred most frequently in men with a family or personal history of depression or alcoholism. The fault may have utility as a marker of past episodes or as a true marker of trait.
 ...
PMID:TRH-induced TSH response in healthy volunteers: relationship to psychiatric history. 310 34

Both the dexamethasone suppression test (DST) and the thyrotropin-releasing hormone (TRH) stimulation test have been reported to be useful in subtyping some depression diagnoses. Whether the DST discriminates delusional from nondelusional depression remains controversial, but this possibility has not been studied for the TRH test. The authors evaluated DST and TRH test results in 29 depressed hospitalized patients; both tests significantly discriminated patients with nonendogenous depression from those with endogenous depression. Furthermore, postdexamethasone cortisol levels but not the change in thyroid-stimulating hormone discriminated the patients with endogenous delusional depression from those with endogenous nondelusional depression.
 ...
PMID:DST and TRH stimulation test in mood disorder subtypes. 310 35

Electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) is often efficacious in severe depression, and it is occasionally used in the treatment of schizophrenia. The mechanism of action of ECT is still poorly understood. We evaluated thyroid-stimulating hormone (TSH) and prolactin responses to thyrotropin-releasing hormone (TRH) after a first ECT and at the end of a series of seven ECTs in eight unipolar depressed patients with blunted basal TSH/TRH response, eight unipolar depressed patients with normal TSH/TRH response, and eight schizophrenic patients. The hormone patterns obtained after the first ECT showed an increase in prolactin and a decrease in TSH in all groups of patients, suggesting a nonspecific response. At the end of the therapeutic course, TSH responses increased in both groups of depressed patients, and the elevation was more relevant in depressed patients with normal TSH/TRH. Our data suggest that the mechanism of action of ECT becomes more specific when it is performed chronically and differs according to the organic substrate underlying different mental disorders. Moreover, an aminergic activation in the two groups of depressed patients seems to take place.
 ...
PMID:Mechanism of action of ECT in major depressive disorders: a neuroendocrine interpretation. 310 18

Intravenous administration of 50 micrograms or 200 micrograms thyrotropin-releasing hormone (TRH) to men with common migraine elicited blunted prolactin (PRL) responses, when compared with healthy controls. The thyroid-stimulating hormone (TSH) response was enhanced after 50 micrograms TRH in the migraineurs, but not after 200 micrograms. The physiologic TSH dose-response relationship was abolished in migraine sufferers. The data may be interpreted in the light of dopaminergic and noradrenergic supersensitivity, for PRL and TSH, respectively. The TSH response in migraine differs from the one that occurs in depression.
 ...
PMID:Thyroid-stimulating hormone and prolactin responses to thyrotropin-releasing hormone in common migraine. 312 67


<< Previous 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Next >>