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Query: UMLS:C0011570 (depression)
 172,036 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

Primary organic disorders of the thyroid gland must be excluded in interpreting the thyrotropin (TSH)-releasing hormone (TRH) test in affective disease. Both endogenous depression and subclinical thyrotoxicosis are frequently associated with low basal TSH levels and a blunted (<5 mIU/L) TSH response to TRH despite thyroid hormone levels within the normal range. The present study was performed to establish whether a reduction of the hypothalamic somatostatinergic tone by treatment with the acetylcholinesterase inhibitor pyridostigmine before TRH might be useful to distinguish endocrine from affective diseases. Twelve male depressed patients (aged 41.4 +/- 3.1 years) and 12 men (aged 43.4 +/- 4.1 years) with subclinical thyrotoxicosis because of autonomous thyroid nodules were selected according to the presence of a low basal TSH level and a blunted TSH response to 200 microg TRH intravenously (IV) (TSH increment was <5 mIU/L at 30 minutes [peak] after TRH) but thyroid hormone levels within the normal range. All patients were tested again with TRH 60 minutes after treatment with 180 mg pyridostigmine orally. Eleven normal men served as controls. Basal TSH levels were 0.2 +/- 0.2 mIU/L (mean +/- SE) in depression and 0.1 +/- 0.2 in subclinical thyrotoxicosis (normal controls, 1.4 +/- 0.3). In both groups, the mean peak response to TRH was significantly higher than baseline; however, according to selection, the TSH increase was less than 5 mIU/L. Pyridostigmine did not change basal TSH levels in any group, but significantly enhanced the TRH-induced TSH increase in normal controls and in depressed subjects (TSH increment became >7 mIU/L in all depressed subjects). In contrast, no significant change in the TSH response to TRH was observed in subclinical thyrotoxicosis after pyridostigmine treatment. Basal and TRH- and pyridostigmine + TRH-induced TSH levels were significantly higher in the normal controls than in the other groups. These data show a cholinergic involvement in the blunted TSH response to TRH in patients with endogenous depression, but not in subjects with subclinical thyrotoxicosis, suggesting that these diseases could be separated on the basis of the pyridostigmine + TRH-induced TSH response test.
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PMID:Different effects of pyridostigmine on the thyrotropin response to thyrotropin-releasing hormone in endogenous depression and subclinical thyrotoxicosis. 944 Apr 77

Multiple chemical sensitivity (MCS) could be called a phenomenon rather than an illness. No single widely accepted test of physiological function can be shown to correlate with the symptoms presented by the patients. In addition to allergy and asthma, patient history can include various "illnesses", and the "diagnosis" is often made by the patient, usually alone or with the help of clinical ecologists. This paper reports the experiences from a department of occupational medicine. More than 80% of the patients were women and solvent exposure was the most common cause of chemical intolerance reported by the patients. Many patients also reported psychosocial stressors. The patients also showed mood disorders with irritability, anxiety, sleep disturbances and depression, often with thoughts centered around different organ symptoms. The symptomatology of MCS is still nonspecific and in no way diagnostic of a specific illness or a medically acceptable syndrome. It may indicate many other conditions, both organic disease and psychopathology.
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PMID:Clinical features of multiple chemical sensitivity. 945 70

Although support for the biologic basis and effective somatic therapy of geriatric depression is increasing, both patients and clinicians are reluctant to identify and treat the symptoms associated with late-life depression, a broad-based problem in the geriatric population. There is much clinical and biologic overlap between depression and other organic brain disorders such as dementia, with evidence that late-onset depression may sometimes be a prodrome for other organic disorders. These and other issues surrounding geriatric depression are reviewed with a focus on future research questions.
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PMID:Depression in the elderly: biologic considerations. 947 35

Psychogenic (dissociative) amnesia is a psychiatric disorder characterised by a sudden loss of memory which is too extensive to be explained by ordinary forgetfulness, but which has no organic disease or explanation. Psychogenic amnesia is categorised among the dissociative disorders in DSM-IV and ICD-10 and begins suddenly, usually after severe psychosocial stress. The prognosis is good with complete recovery, and there is seldom relapse. This article describes a man, 45 years of age, who developed severe depression and amnesia following a very troublesome divorce. He did not talk, he communicated by signs and gestures, and he isolated himself in his mother's home. After being admitted to a psychiatric ward he became anorectic and developed erosive eoesophagitis/gastroduodenitis. Initially he was given perfenazin (Trilafon) 24 mg/day. The psychiatric treatment produced no results for the first three weeks, but the patient gradually recovered when the therapist and the patient recapitulated the conflicts associated with the divorce, using documents from the patient's lawyer as a guide. This method is called "therapeutic anamnesis" and is similar in many ways to psychiatric treatment of post-traumatic stress reactions.
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PMID:[Treatment of patients with psychogenic amnesia with the help of therapeutic anamnesis]. 983 Mar 45

In consulting with anxious medical patients, the psychiatrist needs to consider the possibility of organic disease, differentiate anxiety and depression, and ascertain whether comorbid conditions are present. Guidelines for differential diagnosis are presented. With the anxious patient, treatment goals are to establish rapport, help the patient mobilize intellectual defenses, and enhance self-esteem. Many anxious medical patients will benefit from benzodiazepines, selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors, or doxepin. The therapeutic potential of the consultation is increased by the psychiatrist's meeting with the nursing staff and by a humanistic approach to the patient.
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PMID:Consulting with anxious medical patients. Part II: Diagnostic and therapeutic considerations. 1015 Feb 71

Depression is considered to occur more frequently in multiple sclerosis than in other chronic organic disorders. The determining factors of this specific association have been appraised by most authors in a dichotomic manner, confronting organic to psychogenic hypotheses. To assess these hypotheses two investigational methods have been used in the literature: either the search for correlations between depression and other parameters linked to the neurologic process, or the comparison of the course of neurologic and thymic symptoms. Systematically scrutinizing this literature enabled us to discuss its findings as well as its methodologic and conceptual limitations.
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PMID:[determining factors of depression in multiple sclerosis: review of the literature]. 1020 38

Effective adaptation to PD demands that patients and their caregivers elaborate coping strategies that empower them and promote a more salutary orientation to formidable psychosocial difficulties and thus, perhaps, blunt or prevent depressive responses. Patients and their loved ones should be encouraged to seize the initiative in terms of promoting an acceptable life-style: in short, "breaking through" rather than "breaking down." The notion of a "healthy" PD patient is not necessarily a contradiction in terms if the patient and family can be encouraged to view organic disease as a learning opportunity, continuing to find meaning in life despite the inevitable threats to identity posed by PD (e.g., loss of work). PD patients and their families may benefit by grieving (over a finite interval) or observing other rituals associated with universal life changes. These adaptive processes should be promoted in the context of a trusting physician-patient alliance that addresses both the biochemical foundations and adverse psychosocial consequences of PD; the latter problems require that the clinician or nurse furnish both education and emotional support. Three well-established phenomena from the depression literature must be combatted: a normal depression reaction associated with the failure to attain closely held life goals; outer locus of control, in which PD patients may perceive that the disease is dictating their existences; and learned helplessness, which may result when coping behaviors are not positively reinforced.
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PMID:Patient perspective and self-help. 1022 8

About 30% of depressed patients exhibit depression that is resistant to antidepressant treatment. This resistance may be primary or associated with a concomitant psychiatric or somatic disease. Venlafaxine has shown potent efficacy in certain severe depressions in in-patients and in patients presenting with resistant depression in an open-label study. It was considered of interest to compare, under double-blind, the efficacy of venlafaxine (200 to 300 mg/day) and that of paroxetine (30 to 40 mg/day) (for 6 weeks) in 123 patients presenting with major depression resistant to two correctly conducted antidepressant treatments in the course of an episode of depression of duration not exceeding 8 months. The patients were required not to present with organic disease, particularly endocrine disease. After 28 days of treatment, half of the patients receiving venlafaxine and one third of the patients receiving paroxetine showed a 50% reduction in their total score on the Hamilton scale. In addition, the percentage of patients presenting with remission was significantly higher in the group receiving venlafaxine (42%) compared to that receiving paroxetine (20%). These results require confirmation over the long term and in other forms of resistant depression.
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PMID:[The concept of resistant depression and therapeutic strategies, particularly, with venlafaxine]. 1043 60

Thirteen patients with DSM-III-R diagnosis of either major depression or bipolar I depression participated in the study. The control group consisted of 10 subjects evaluated for headache or suspected meningitis, none of whom were found to suffer from any organic disease. CSF was withdrawn from all subjects for the measurement of soluble interleukin 2 receptor (sIL-2R). CSF sIL-2R levels were found to be lower in patients as compared to controls (df = 1, 20; F = 84; p<0.000001).
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PMID:Low CSF soluble interleukin 2 receptor levels in acute depression. Short communication. 1059 81

Thirty adults with upper gastrointestinal symptoms in the absence of structural organic disease diagnosed with non-ulcer dyspepsia (NUD) were compared to 30 healthy adults who had visited the hepatobiliary clinic for medical evaluation of non-organic complaints without NUD. Medical investigation in both groups were negative. Before independent gastrointestinal physicians conducted diagnostic evaluations, all subjects were evaluated for anxiety and depressive symptoms, stressful life events, coping style, and social support. The measures included Symptom Checklist 90-Revised (SCL-90-R), Beck Depression Inventory (BDI), Spielberger State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI), Ways of Coping Checklist, and Interpersonal Support Evaluation List, and a self-report questionnaire, which measured the quantity of perceived stressful life events. The NUD patients reported significantly more symptoms of depression, more perceived stressful life events, less problem-focused coping, and less social support than the control subjects. Depressive symptoms were negatively correlated with interpersonal support, whereas, problem-focused coping was positively correlated with interpersonal support in the NUD patients. The two groups did not differ significantly in terms of anxiety and emotion-focused coping. The implications of these findings for the diagnosis and treatment of NUD are discussed.
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PMID:Stress, coping, and depression in non-ulcer dyspepsia patients. 1105 9


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