Gene/Protein Disease Symptom Drug Enzyme Compound
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Query: UMLS:C0917801 (insomnia)
 10,606 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

The combined dexamethasone/corticotropin-releasing hormone (DEX/CRH) test was performed in forty patients with depression (12 male, 28 female), aged 20-68 years, in the course of affective illness (16 bipolar, 24 unipolar) both during acute depressive episode and in remission. The results were compared with those of 20 healthy control subjects (10 male, 10 female), aged 22-52 years. During acute depressive episode, cortisol concentration at 16 h after dexamethasone, 1.5 mg, and cortisol release after subsequent infusion of CRH, 100 microg, were significantly elevated in bipolar patients compared with unipolar ones and with control subjects. Patients with multiple episodes of unipolar depression exhibited greater cortisol levels after CRH than control subjects. In remission, significantly higher cortisol concentrations measured at 30 min(-1) h after CRH infusion were found in bipolar than in unipolar patients. Male bipolar patients had significantly higher cortisol level than bipolar females before and at 1.5 h after CRH. First episode unipolar patients during remission had lower levels of cortisol than control subjects before and at 1.5 h after CRH. Correlation between the magnitude of cortisol response and age was found within unipolar depressed patients but not in bipolar ones. On the other hand, correlation of test results with intensity of depression measured by Hamilton scale as well as with insomnia and anxiety subscales was more robust in bipolar subjects than in unipolar ones. It is concluded that the dysregulation of hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis activity, detected by DEX/CRH test is significantly more marked in patients with depression in the course of bipolar affective illness than in unipolar depression. Within unipolar depression, this dysregulation may increase with the time course of the illness.
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PMID:The dexamethasone/corticotropin-releasing hormone test in depression in bipolar and unipolar affective illness. 1050 4

Hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA)-system activity is regulated by the suprachiasmatic nucleus, the primary endogenous circadian pacemaker. In addition, sleep plays an important modulatory role. However, data on HPA-system activity in sleep disorders are quite conflicting. A sensitive challenge test to assess negative feedback sensitivity of the HPA-system like the dexamethasone/corticotropin-releasing-hormone (DEX/CRH)-test has never been used so far in sleep disorders. Therefore we studied 25 obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) patients, 18 restless legs syndrome (RLS) patients, 21 patients with primary insomnia and compared them to 33 healthy controls. The dynamic response of the HPA-system was assessed by the DEX/CRH-test which combines suppression (dexamethasone) and stimulation (CRH) of the stress hormone system. After HPA-axis suppression the number of non-suppressors did not differ among groups indicating normal negative feedback sensitivity. In RLS patients ACTH levels were slightly lower compared to controls while cortisol levels were similar between groups. Following CRH stimulation we did not detect differences in ACTH- or cortisol levels and adrenocortical responsitivity to ACTH was comparable between groups. These results for the first time document normal HPA-system feedback sensitivity in various sleep disorders and suggest that abnormalities of the stress hormone system in affective disorders are unlikely due to concomitant sleep problems.
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PMID:The stress hormone system in various sleep disorders. 2150 49