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

Investigators continue to debate whether the Dexamethasone Suppression Test (DST) reflects clinical severity or degree of melancholia ("endogeneity"). To evaluate this question, we studied 73 drug-free inpatients diagnosed with Schedule for Affective Disorders and Schizophrenia/Research Diagnostic Criteria (SADS/RDC) as having major depressive disorder (MDD). We compared absolute and dichotomous DST values (DST suppression versus nonsuppression) with absolute and dichotomous measures of endogeneity (as measured by operationally defined RDC items) and with Hamilton Rating Scale for Depression (HRSD) scores that were collected immediately prior to treatment. We found that degree of endogeneity correlated moderately (r = 0.27) but significantly (p = 0.02) with absolute DST values; DST nonsuppression increased proportionately with changes in categorical endogenous subtype (0% of the nonendogenous patients were nonsuppressives, 52% of probable endogenous, and 61% of subjects definitely endogenous); mean values for maximum DST concentrations increased steadily with categorical endogeneity (nonendogenous, 1.44 microgram/dl; probable endogenous, 7.65 micrograms/dl; definite, 10.93 micrograms/dl; p = 0.01); HRSD scores correlated more strongly (r = 0.45, p = 0.000) with maximum DST levels than did the degree of endogeneity. Age and weight changes did not account for the relationship of endogeneity to DST values. These data suggest that maximum postdexamethasone plasma cortisol levels reflect overall severity of depression and endogeneity and that endogeneity per se is highly confounded with severity.
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PMID:Relationships of the dexamethasone suppression test to clinical severity and degree of melancholia. 369 34

Thirty-four adolescents with mean age 14.25 years who met RDC criteria for major depressive disorder as assessed with the K-SADS, were treated for 6 weeks on a fixed schedule of imipramine hydrochloride titrated to a dosage of 5.0 mg/kg/day except as limited by side effects. Mean dose was 246 mg/day (4.5 mg/kg/day). In spite of good indications of compliance with treatment only 44% of the adolescents improved to the level of no or only slight depressed mood or anhedonia, though most had less depressive symptomatology at the end of treatment. There was neither a linear nor curvilinear relationship between total plasma level of IMI plus DMI and clinical response, despite a wide range of both plasma level (77 ng/ml to 986 ng/ml) and outcome. Adolescents with associated separation anxiety had significantly poorer response to treatment of their depressive disorder than those with major depression alone. Poor response was also weakly associated with being female, having endogenous subtype of depression, and having higher plasma IMI (but not DMI) level. In the context of similar studies of IMI on depression in other age groups, it is hypothesized that high levels of sex hormones during adolescence and young adulthood may interfere with IMI's antidepressant effects. It is concluded that other types of antidepressants should be tested in adolescents with major depression.
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PMID:Imipramine in adolescent major depression: plasma level and clinical response. 371 45

Depressed patients who showed significant improvement after a 10-day placebo washout trial were followed for 3 months. Twenty-five relapsed and 20 remained well. Relapsing patients more frequently had a family history of depression, more had prior psychiatric treatment, their illness course was more chronic once ill, mean age of onset was younger, and fewer had obvious precipitants. More relapser had RDC diagnoses of intermittent depressive disorder. Among those with major depressive disorder, fewer relapsers met subtype criteria for simple, situational, or recurrent. Nonaffective psychiatric disorders were present in 64% of relapsers and no placebo responders who remained well. Overall, 10-day placebo responders included patients with different clinical characteristics and subsequent course.
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PMID:Follow-up of patients who improved during placebo washout. 377 8

Platelet monoamine oxidase (MAO) activity was assayed in 42 unmedicated, elderly, RDC depressed, unipolar outpatients over 60 years of age, 17 nondepressed controls, and 17 younger volunteers without psychiatric illness. Elderly depressed women (n = 22) had significantly higher MAO activity than sex- and age-comparable controls. No significant relationships between MAO activity and duration of current depressive episode, duration of illness, or family history of affective disorder were obtained. These results extend to elderly female outpatients the finding that depression is associated with increased platelet MAO activity, exceeding the normal age-related increase.
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PMID:Platelet monoamine oxidase activity in elderly depressed outpatients. 379 Jun 24

We studied bipolar (ever manic; n = 297) primary unipolar (never secondary; n = 328), and secondary unipolar (n = 241) RDC major affective disorder patients in the NIMH--CRB Collaborative Study of the Psychobiology of Depression--Clinical. We examined rates of immigration, for patients and their parents, in these three diagnostic groups. Primary patients had a twofold increase in the odds in favor of immigration, compared to secondary patients. The difference persisted when proband age was statistically controlled, and could not be accounted for by any difference in sex ratios between groups. Previous findings of an increased rate of immigration in bipolar patients could not be replicated.
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PMID:Immigration and major affective disorder. 382 78

The relationship between borderline personality disorder and primary major depression was studied prospectively using Schedule for Affective Disorders and Schizophrenia-Lifetime Version (SADS-L) interviews and electroencephalographic (EEG) sleep studies. Ten consecutively admitted borderline patients (a prospective sample), defined by Gunderson's Diagnostic Interview for Borderlines (DIB), underwent EEG sleep studies on two consecutive nights and were compared to previously reported samples of nonborderline depressed patients (defined by Research Diagnostic Criteria; RDC), normal controls, and DIB-defined borderline patients who had been referred "to rule out major depression" (a retrospective sample). EEG sleep data were analyzed visually and by automated techniques. Rapid eye movement (REM) latency values were similar in depressed and both borderline groups but significantly different from controls. Eighty-five percent of REM latency values in RDC major depressives were less than or equal to 65 minutes, compared to similar rates of 75% in the prospective sample of borderline patients and 65% in the retrospective sample, versus 35% for controls (chi 2 = 10.7, p less than 0.005). The REM latency in borderline patients did not vary with the severity of depression as measured by the Hamilton Rating Scale for Depression. In the prospective borderline sample, the major SADS-L diagnoses were chronic intermittent depression (five), current major depression (four) (two unipolar, two bipolar II), and labile personality (one). A convergence of nosologic and EEG sleep data is suggested, and supports the concept of a close relationship between criteria-defined borderline personality disorder and affective illness.
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PMID:Depression in borderline patients: a prospective EEG sleep study. 385 45

How common and how significant are brief depressive episodes (BDE) lasting less than 2 weeks? The authors propose splitting the BDE into two groups: one occurring monthly over 1 year of observation, termed 'recurrent brief depression' (RBD), and those occurring less frequently, labeled 'nonrecurrent brief depression' (NRBD). From a medical point of view, the RBD are a relevant group. Different thresholds of definition are tested, the narrowest of which (including occupational impairment and predetermined minimum number of symptoms) is accepted for 'case'-definition. The such defined RBD (SYM) group differs from major depression only by length and frequency of episodes. In a young cohort, its 1-year prevalence rate was found to be 4.4% (males 3.9%, females 4.9%). One-third of these cases needed treatment, a fourth suffered from pronounced subjective and social impairment as well as from persistent suicidal ideation. The self-reporting of subjective impairment, assessed with the SCL-90 symptom inventory and an analog-rating, yields high scores which are in no way inferior to major depression diagnosed with RDC, DSM-III or EDE (SYM) criteria. The RBD (SYM) demonstrate less hypomania than the major depressive disorders. On the other hand, a family history of depression is equally frequent across all groups. The validity of the RBD (SYM) group has yet to be confirmed by a follow-up study, and further research is needed to delineate it from secondary depression. The findings largely support the hypothesis of a continuum from mild and short to more severe, longer lasting depressive syndromes, but they do not exclude heterogeneity of RBD (Angst and Dobler-Mikola 1984b).(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)
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PMID:The Zurich Study--a prospective epidemiological study of depressive, neurotic and psychosomatic syndromes. IV. Recurrent and nonrecurrent brief depression. 387 89

A large sample (N = 3159) of noninstitutionalized older adults (aged 65 to 105 years) residing in two rural Iowa counties participated in an assessment of a wide range of health-related factors, including depression. Prevalences of significant depressive symptomatology (9.0%; based on a modified version of the Center for Epidemiological Studies Depression Scale [CES-D]) and clinical depression (2.9%; based on self-report of Research Diagnostic Criteria [RDC]-like criteria) were low. The relationships between several demographic measures and the depression indices were examined. While expected sex differences were obtained for the CES-D, they were not found for the depression RDC. Subjects who lived alone and subjects with lower incomes were more at risk for depression. There was also evidence that being married and having a higher educational level were associated with lower risk for depression as measured by the CES-D (but not the RDC). The role of social support in rural communities was discussed as a factor contributing to the low rate of depression found in this study. The importance of sex, social support, and economic resources in accounting for depression among the elderly was also discussed.
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PMID:Depression among the rural elderly. A study of prevalence and correlates. 387 86

To assess whether tricyclic antidepressants are useful in patients with a serious physical disorder who develop symptoms of major depression, 42 medically ill outpatients who met RDC criteria for endogenous major depression and had a Raskin depression score of at least 7 were studied. The patients were randomly assigned to a 6-week trial of trimipramine or placebo under double-blind conditions. In the placebo group, depressive symptoms improved when the physical disorder improved; in the trimipramine group, improvement was seen in the depressive symptoms even when there was no concomitant improvement in physical condition.
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PMID:Trimipramine in physical illness with depression. 388 18

Depression is a major complication of cancer. The efficacy and safety of mianserin were evaluated in a randomized placebo-controlled trial of 73 depressed women with cancer. According to RDC diagnosis, all patients showed situational major depression. Both groups were well matched for cancer localization, clinical stages, Karnofsky scores, duration of depression, baseline values on the Hamilton Depression Rating Scale (HDRS), Zung Self-Rating Depression Scale (ZSRDS), and Clinical Global Impression of Illness Severity (CGI-S), and for type of depression, whether dominantly depressive or depressive-anxious. Between days 7-21, there were significantly fewer dropouts with mianserin (7) than with placebo (15). When compared with placebo, there were significant improvements for mianserin for HDRS on days 7, 21 and 28, for ZSRDS on days 7 and 28, and for CGI-S on days 7, 14, 21 and 28. According to Clinical Global Impression of Illness Improvement (CGI-I) there were significantly more responders with mianserin (28) than with placebo (18). The efficacy index for mianserin was significantly greater than for placebo on days 21 and 28. At the end of the trial the scores for HDRS sleep disturbance factor and HDRS anxiety-somatization factor were significantly reduced for mianserin than for placebo. There were no significant differences in side-effects between treatment groups. It is concluded that mianserin is superior to placebo in reducing the severity and duration of depression which is present especially in patients with advanced cancer.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)
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PMID:Efficacy and safety of mianserin in the treatment of depression of women with cancer. 390 75


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