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)

Reviewing biological research in depressive illness, this work focuses on the DST as most practical and useful investigation in today's psychiatry. This study is empirically based on more than 10,000 test results from in- and outpatients recruited over six years. This work might be the missing link between highly selective and sometimes difficult to integrate university research and the daily practice. This experience with the DST on various areas is illustrated with numerous cases. Considerable attention goes to DST as diagnostic marker, prognostic indicator, DST and postpartum psychosis, DST and schizo-affective disorder, DST and masked depression. Possibilities and limits of this important aid in psychiatry are discussed in connection with measuring psychiatric illness and integrate approach.
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PMID:[Contribution of the DST (dexamethasone suppression test) to the diagnosis, prognosis and treatment of depression]. 248 23

Abnormalities in neuroendocrine regulation are widespread in depressive illness. In this article, abnormalities found in five different endocrine systems are evaluated. There has been a wide-spread use of the dexamethasone suppression test in investigation of depressed patients. Use of this test as a diagnostic test for melancholia may be confounded because abnormalities are found in overlapping illnesses such as Alzheimer's disease or anorexia nervosa as well as in a variety of other conditions such as fasting. However, this test has promise in monitoring clinical status in patients who have an abnormal DST. Abnormalities found in the TRH test and in growth hormone regulation are of limited use clinically, but point to underlying biologic abnormalities. Aberrent regulation of prolactin is now well established, but this hormone has been investigated to a limited extent and warrants further investigation. There is currently a good deal of interest in the pineal hormone melatonin. Reduction in the normal nocturnal peak is found in depressed patients and there is an increase in nocturnal melatonin levels found in patients during treatment with desipramine. Bipolar patients are reported to be abnormally sensitive to melatonin suppression by light. This finding points to the abnormality in the photoperiodic regulation of the pineal output in these patients. Further refinement of neuroendocrine approaches to the investigation of depression should be very productive.
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PMID:Psychoneuroendocrinology of depression. 250 40

Abnormal neuroendocrine responses have been found in depression and eating disorders. It remains unclear whether these reflect an underlying shared biology or epiphenomena. To evaluate this further, we conducted the 1 mg DST and the TSH response to 500 micrograms i.v. TRH in normal-weight bulimics and controls. Bulimics (n = 18) demonstrated significantly more DST non-suppression (45%) than controls (18%; n = 20). In the bulimic group, non-suppressors were significantly thinner than suppressors, but did not differ from them on any measure of depression. Bulimics (n = 19) and controls (n = 12) responded similarly without blunting on the TSH response to TRH. These data suggest that DST non-suppression may be related to non-specific variables such as weight. Bulimics do not demonstrate TSH blunting as found in some depressed patients. These tests do not support evidence for a biological link between these disorders.
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PMID:The DST and TRH test in bulimia nervosa. 250 82

Depressed inpatients have a DST non-suppression rate that is several times greater than that of depressed outpatients. To explore what clinical features of depression might explain this difference, 25 depressed inpatients who were DST non-suppressors were compared with 16 DST suppressors, using 70 clinical variables. Those variables that were different between these two groups of inpatients were then used to compare depressed inpatients and outpatients. Three variables that were significantly associated with DST status in depressed inpatients were also found to differentiate between depressed inpatients and depressed outpatients. DST suppression was associated with a family history of alcoholism, with the symptom hypersomnia, and with a younger age at index interview.
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PMID:Is DST status associated with depression characteristics? 252 15

We had previously reported that imipramine was superior to placebo for the treatment of chronic depression. As a part of that study, we subsequently investigated clinical and demographic variables which might be associated with favorable or poor outcome for treatment with imipramine or placebo. Results are reported herein. Eight-six patients were entered and 53 completed an 8-week protocol. Outcome was assessed based on a 6-week, double-blind treatment phase, which followed a 2-week, single-blind placebo phase. Outcome was not found to significantly relate to demographic variables, severity or course of depression, diagnostic subtype, symptom profile, or DST results. Some modest associations were found between 'neurotic' personality traits and poor outcome. Results are discussed and compared with prior studies of prediction of tricyclic antidepressant response in both acute and chronic depressions.
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PMID:Prediction of response of chronic depression to imipramine. 252 94

Several endocrine parameters were assessed in 35 alcoholic inpatients after admission to hospital, and 17 of the 35 were retested after several weeks of sobriety. No difference was found in clonidine-stimulated growth hormone (GH) secretion between male alcoholics and male healthy controls, but significant positive correlations of GH secretion and alcohol content in expired breath on admission and gamma-GT values after abstinence were observed. Nonsuppression in the dexamethasone suppression test was found in 17% of the patients on admission, which seemed to be due to alcohol withdrawal. Postdexamethasone cortisol levels were significantly positively correlated with the "apathic syndrome" (r = 0.40; p less than or equal to 0.05). About one-third of the patients showed a blunted response in the TRH-test both on admission and after abstinence. No significant influence of alcohol intake, withdrawal or familial disposition on prolactin values could be detected. The results of the TRH test and the DST point to similar endocrinological patterns in alcoholics as in depressive patients and thus support the hypothesis of a link between alcoholism and depression.
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PMID:Endocrinological studies in alcoholics during withdrawal and after abstinence. 254 97

Adrenocortical stimulation with ACTH both in the morning (M-test) and in the evening (E-test) and the dexamethasone suppression test were carried out in patients suffering from endogenous depression (DEP) and normal controls (NOR). A greater cortisol release in DEP was recognized than in NOR in the M-test, an earlier peak response of DEP was shown in the M-test than in the E-test, and a lack of association between hypersecretion of cortisol during depression and cortisol output after ACTH administration was noted. These findings, together with the results of DST, suggest that excessive activity of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis in depression may result, partly, from adrenocortical hyperresponsiveness.
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PMID:Morning and evening adrenocortical responses to ACTH stimulation in endogenously depressed patients: a preliminary report. 254 55

To determine the usefulness of the DST in differentiating depression from dementia, the test was administered to three diagnostic groups of psychogeriatric patients: depression; dementia; and dementia with depression. Clinical assessments were supplemented by ratings on the HRSD and SCAG, as well as by EEG and CT. All three groups showed a high incidence of abnormal DST results unrelated to presence or severity of affective symptoms, but showing a better association with SCAG and its 'organic' subsets. The mechanism(s) underlying these abnormal results may reflect organic brain disease. The usefulness of the DST in differentiating depression from dementia in the elderly was not confirmed.
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PMID:Dexamethasone suppression test in dementia and depression. Clinical and biological correlates. 259 40

Depressive disorders in children and adolescents are valid clinical entities which can be identified using adult diagnostic criteria. Recent research has resulted in significant progress in the areas of diagnosis, epidemiology, family pathology, pharmacokinetics and psychopharmacology. Many rating instruments have been developed to screen, diagnose and measure changes of depression in children and adolescents. The prevalence of depressive disorders in prepubertal children is about 2% and in adolescents about 5%. Depressive episodes are usually of long duration, with high rates of relapse. These relapses are usually associated with school, family and social failure. Follow-up studies of depressed adolescents indicated that about half of the patients continue to suffer from mood disturbances and psycho-social adaptational problems. In North America suicidal behaviour in adolescents has increased 300% in the past 30 years. However, its relationship to depression is more complex than in adults. There is a significant excess of affective illness and alcoholism in the families of depressed adolescents. Similarly, there is a high rate of impairment among children of parents with affective disorders. During depressive episodes, prepubertal children show abnormalities of growth hormone and cortisol secretion. However, DST findings are contradictory. Polysomnographic findings in childhood depression appear unremarkable. In adolescent depression these findings are similar to those in depressed adults. Biological manifestations of depressive disorders may be significantly affected by developmental and hormonal changes. Antidepressants have been effective in the therapy of several disorders in childhood. These include enuresis, school phobias, attention deficit, conduct disorders and obsessive-compulsive disorders. Open drug studies suggest that antidepressants are useful in depressed children.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)
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PMID:Depressive disorders in children and adolescents. 266 89

The relationship between chronic pain and depression is complex, and nonorganic chronic pain has been hypothesised (at least in some cases) as the expression of an underlying affective disturbance. Postdexamethasone cortisol nonsuppression was assessed in two groups of patients with chronic organic (n = 43) and nonorganic (n = 20) pain, none of them suffering from a major depressive disorder. Non-suppression occurred in 16.3% of the organic group and 20% of the nonorganic one. No difference emerged between the two groups for mean postdexamethasone cortisol values. The DST test results did not suggest the existence of a close relationship between chronic pain and major depressive disorder; however, a wider relationship between chronic pain and affective disturbances, at least in a subgroup of patients, cannot be ruled out.
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PMID:DST in chronic pain patients not suffering from major depression. 271 Aug 10


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