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 authors exposed 10 healthy human volunteers to the stress of loud (100 dB) noise under controllable and uncontrollable conditions on two separate days. Subjects reported higher self-ratings of helplessness, lack of control, tension, stress, unhappiness, anxiety, and depression; had greater hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis function as measured by elevations in plasma adrenocorticotropic hormone; and had higher levels of sympathetic nervous system and electrodermal activity after the uncontrollable stress condition than after exposure to controllable stress. Thus, lack of control over even a mildly aversive stimulus can produce alterations in mood as well as neuroendocrine and autonomic nervous system changes in healthy subjects.
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PMID:Controllable and uncontrollable stress in humans: alterations in mood and neuroendocrine and psychophysiological function. 282 17

The effects of experimentally elevated plasma thyroxine levels on the subsequent response of interrenals of coho salmon (Oncorhynchus kisutch) to adrenocorticotropic hormone (ACTH) in vitro were examined. Animals were treated with thyroxine by immersion (200 micrograms/L) for 3 days, which resulted in physiological elevations in circulating thyroxine. In animals treated before the parr-smolt transformation was completed (early smolts), thyroxine had no effect on plasma cortisol levels but significantly enhanced the sensitivity of the interrenal to ACTH in vitro. In animals treated after the period of smoltification (postsmolts), plasma cortisol levels were significantly higher than those of controls; both experimental and control animals had plasma cortisol levels higher than normally observed at this stage of development. The response of the interrenals of thyroxine-treated postsmolts to ACTH in vitro was significantly lower than that of controls. Results from the experiments using early smolts are in agreement with studies in other vertebrates showing that thyroid hormones are involved in maintaining the normal functioning of corticosteroidogenic tissue and suggest that thyroid hormones may be involved in the activation of the interrenal that occurs during smoltification. The results obtained using postsmolts are more difficult to interpret because of the possibility that these animals were physiologically stressed by the treatment. Increased ACTH release in vivo resulting from stress may have led to a depression of interrenal sensitivity to ACTH in vitro and may have masked a refractoriness of the pituitary-interrenal axis to thyroxine.
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PMID:Response of the interrenal to adrenocorticotropic hormone after short-term thyroxine treatment of coho salmon (Oncorhynchus kisutch). 283 11

We studied recently bereaved individuals with the corticotropin-releasing hormone (CRH) stimulation test. Subjects with a bereavement complicated by a depressive illness (n = 9) had significantly higher basal plasma cortisol levels and smaller plasma adrenocorticotropic hormone (ACTH) responses to CRH than either subjects with an uncomplicated bereavement (n = 19) or normal controls (n = 34). Subjects with depressed bereavement showed ACTH responses to CRH similar to those of depressed patients (n = 30). Bereaved subjects who had received psychotropic medications in the past (n = 13), compared with those who had not (n = 15), showed significantly smaller plasma ACTH responses to CRH. Significantly more subjects with bereavement complicated by depression, as compared to subjects whose bereavement was uncomplicated, had a past history of treatment for depression. These results suggest that predisposed individuals may respond to the stress of bereavement with a depressive illness accompanied by dysregulation of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis.
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PMID:The CRH stimulation test in bereaved subjects with and without accompanying depression. 284 58

The neuropeptide ACTH 4-10, a nonsteroidogenic fragment of adrenocorticotropic hormone, has two distinct and opposite effects on developing nerve and muscle. Muscle is positively influenced by ACTH during the first part of gestation (G days 3-12) before innervation occurs. Subsequent effects on innervation are largely depressive and exerted only during G13-21. Treatment during G3-12 increases twitch amplitude, rise time and speed of contraction of directly and indirectly stimulated extensor digitorum longus (EDL) muscle of two wk old rats. Treatment during G13-21 slows contractions of indirectly stimulated EDL, whereas treatment throughout gestation (G3-G21) shows little effect. Thus, ACTH first accelerates muscle development then modulates this development through neuronal depression.
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PMID:Mammalian neuromuscular development accelerated with early but slowed with late gestational administration of ACTH peptide. 285 Jun 27

The data on the status of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis in haemodialysis (HD) patients are conflicting. Moreover, a state reminiscent of Cushing's syndrome has been reported in this group of patients. Corticotropin-releasing hormone (CRH), that is produced by the hypothalamus and modulates the secretion of adrenocorticotropic hormone (ACTH), has been shown to be useful as a provocative test of the HPA axis. We investigated the effect of exogenous ovine CRH (oCRH) on plasma levels of ACTH and cortisol in 13 chronic HD patients. The plasma concentrations of immunoreactive CRH following oCRH administration were similar in patients and controls. In all patients, oCRH given intravenously as bolus injection caused a further increase in the already elevated levels of cortisol. The mean basal plasma levels of ACTH were within the normal range. There was, however, a blunted ACTH response to oCRH. We conclude that the HPA axis in chronic HD patients retains the ability to respond to exogenous oCRH. The patterns of the ACTH and cortisol response to this peptide resemble those observed in chronic stress (depression, anorexia nervosa). Besides, the kinetics of disappearance of oCRH indicate that the kidney may not be the major organ that metabolizes oCRH.
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PMID:Ovine corticotropin-releasing hormone stimulation test in patients with chronic renal failure: pharmacokinetic properties, and plasma adrenocorticotropic hormone and serum cortisol responses. 285 25

The current concept that blunted adrenocorticotropic hormone (ACTH) response to human corticotropin-releasing-hormone (h-CRH) in depression is primarily determined by elevated circulating plasma cortisol levels is still unproven. We tested this hypothesis by comparing ACTH release following intravenous administration of 100 micrograms h-CRH in 10 normal controls and in 21 inpatients with a major depressive episode. Eleven of these depressed patients were pretreated with an oral dose of 2 g metyrapone, which inhibits cortisol biosynthesis by blocking C-11 beta-steroid-hydroxylase. This intervention deprives the entire system of cortisol, which is the major feedback signal for the regulation of ACTH secretion at various pituitary and limbic sites. ACTH responses, assessed as areas-under-time-course-curves, were: in normal controls, 6.8 +/- 2.4 (SD) pg/ml/min x 10(3); in unmedicated patients, 2.6 +/- 1.1 pg/ml/min x 10(3); and in metyrapone pretreated patients, 9.0 +/- 6.7 pg/ml/min x 10(3). Thus, ACTH release in unmedicated depressed patients was significantly (p less than 0.001, Mann-Whitney U-test) blunted when compared with normal controls. In contrast, this blunting was completely avoided after metyrapone pretreatment, which resulted in net ACTH responses that were indistinguishable from those of the controls.
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PMID:Blunting of ACTH response to human CRH in depressed patients is avoided by metyrapone pretreatment. 285 10

The role of spinal pathways in the regulation of adrenal medullary tyrosine hydroxylase and catecholamines was studied in adult rats subjected to spinal cord transection at the third thoracic level. In these animals the sympathoadrenal preganglionic neurons were isolated from their supraspinal afferents. This treatment led after three days to a progressive reduction of tyrosine hydroxylase activity and dopamine content (as compared to unoperated controls) until at least the 10th day. The results of the administration of dexamethasone or adrenocorticotropic hormone to spinalized rats suggest that in these animals glucocorticoid hypersecretion is not involved in the decline of adrenal tyrosine hydroxylase and that in fact adrenocorticotropic hormone supplementation can prevent it. A neurogenic origin for the depression of adrenomedullary function is favoured because unilateral splanchnicotomy (which by itself does not affect adrenal tyrosine hydroxylase), prior to cord section, prevented the diminution of tyrosine hydroxylase activity in the denervated gland. The decline of adrenal tyrosine hydroxylase and dopamine after spinal section may result from a decrease of modulatory impulses to the adrenal from decentralized sympathoadrenal preganglionic neurons in the isolated cord, following the loss of a descending facilitation of these neurons and/or the release of a segmental interneuronal inhibition of these neurons from a descending inhibitory influence. Such descending pathways may decussate partially below the low cervical level because rats with hemisection of the cord at C6-C7 exhibited no decline of adrenal tyrosine hydroxylase or of dopamine measured on either side seven days postoperatively.
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PMID:Differential effects of transection of the spinal cord and splanchnic nerve on adrenal tyrosine hydroxylase and catecholamines. 285 54

Synthetic ovine corticotropin releasing factor (o-CRF) was administered as an intravenous bolus (100 micrograms) to eight patients suffering from a major depressive disorder, endogenous subtype. All patients showed inadequately suppressed cortisol levels after 1 mg dexamethasone. After clinical remission and normalized dexamethasone responses, these patients were reinvestigated with o-CRF stimulation. The mean adrenocorticotropic hormone (ACTH) release from the pituitary corticotroph cells was indiscriminate at both test sessions. Cortisol and corticosterone output after o-CRF tended to be higher during depression than after recovery. The o-CRF-induced increments observed with corticosterone were more marked in comparison with cortisol. Within the limitations of the current protocol, our preliminary data lend support to the view that an increased pituitary ACTH reserve or adrenocortical steroid reserve is not likely to be responsible for the defective pituitary-adrenal regulation in some dexamethasone-resistant depressives.
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PMID:ACTH, cortisol, and corticosterone output after ovine corticotropin-releasing factor challenge during depression and after recovery. 298 88

In each of two trials, plasma corticosterone (B) was measured in Large White turkey tom poults after the following treatments were applied: 1) .9% saline injected; 2) cold water immersion, and 3) adrenocorticotropic hormone (ACTH) injected (10 IU/kg body weight). Poults were treated at 3- to 4-day intervals from the day of hatching to 21 days of age. Plasma samples were obtained at 1, 2, 3, 4, and 6 hr posttreatment. In both trials, there was a depression in B levels within the first 3 hr following ACTH or cold water immersion treatment. Significant increases in plasma B levels of the cold water treatment occurred at 4 hr posttreatment in Trial 1 in 7-day-old poults and in Trial 2 in 21-day-old poults. A significant adrenal cortical response to ACTH injection was observed in 3- and 7-day-old poults at 6 hrs posttreatment in Trial 2. Plasma B concentrations were also measured in three groups of nontreated Large White tom poults on the day of hatching at a commercial hatchery. Plasma samples were obtained from poults in incubators at 1000 hr, immediately following commercial processing procedures at 1030 hr, and at poult placement at 1330 hr. Plasma B levels of poults sampled in the incubator and after processing were similar. However, B levels of poults sampled at placement were increased significantly above the other two groups.
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PMID:Adrenal cortical response of tom poults. 299 46

Twenty-three patients with pituitary adrenocorticotropic hormone (ACTH)-dependent Cushing's syndrome were studied before and after treatment. The relationship between the amelioration of the depressive syndrome and changes in cortisol and ACTH levels was investigated. There was a significant difference in mean change in 24-hour urinary free cortisol (UFC) excretion for changes in the depressed mood score from first to last visit. There were also significant correlations between decreases in UFC and decreases in both the depressed mood score and the modified Hamilton depression score. These relationships were not found for ACTH. Furthermore, with cortisol decreased to normal levels, continued high ACTH levels did not prevent improvement in depressed mood. The possibility that cortisol may also play a role in the pathogenesis and/or maintenance of the mood disorder in psychiatric patients is discussed.
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PMID:Cushing's syndrome after treatment: changes in cortisol and ACTH levels, and amelioration of the depressive syndrome. 302 5


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