Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-dzt6s Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-25T07:45:54.815Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Dexamethasone Suppression Test in Depressive Illness: Its Relation to Anxiety Symptoms

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 January 2018

P. T. Saleem
P. T. Saleem*
Affiliation:
The General Infirmary at Leeds, Great George Street, Leeds LS1 3EX
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Summary

Fifty-nine depressed inpatients who satisfied Feighner's criteria for depression were separated into two groups by the response of their plasma Cortisol (1600 hours) to a dose of 1 mg of dexamethasone given at 2100 hours. No statistically significant differences were found between suppressors and non-suppressors as regards severity of anxiety or depressive symptoms in the Leeds and the MADRS rating scales. No single item either in the Leeds or the MADRS scale was associated with a positive DST. The reason for this negative finding is discussed.

Type
Research Article
Information
The British Journal of Psychiatry , Volume 144 , Issue 2 , February 1984 , pp. 181 - 184
Copyright
Copyright © 1984 The Royal College of Psychiatrists 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Asnis, G. M. et al (1982) The dexamethasone suppression test in depressive illness: clinical correlates. Journal of Psychoneuroendocrinology, 7, 295–301.Google Scholar
Asnis, G. M., Sachar, E. J., Halbreich, U., Nathan, R. S., Navacenko, H. & Costrow, L. C. (1981) Cortisol secretion in relation to age in major depression. Psychosomatic Medicine, 43, 235–42.Google Scholar
Blumenfield, M., Rose, L. I., Richmond, L. H. & Beering, S. C. (1970) Dexamethasone suppression in basic trainees under stress. Archives of General Psychiatry, 23, 199–304.Google Scholar
Brown, W. A., Johnston, R. & Mayfield, D. (1979) The 24 hour dexamethasone suppression test in a clinical setting: relationship to diagnosis symptoms and response to treatment. American Journal of Psychiatry, 136, 543–7.Google Scholar
Brown, W. A. & Shuey, I. (1979) Response to dexamethasone and subtype of depression. Archives of General Psychiatry, 37, 747–51.Google Scholar
Brown, W. A. & Qualls, C. B. (1981) Pituitary-adrenal disinhibition in depression: marker of a subtype with characteristic clinical features and response to treatment. Psychiatric Research, 4, 115–28.Google Scholar
Butler, P. W. P. & Besser, G. M. (1968) Pituitary-adrenal function in severe depressive illness. Lancet, ii, 1234–6.Google Scholar
Carroll, B. J. (1972) The hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis in depression. In: Depressive illness: some research studies (eds. Davies, B., Carroll, B. J. and Mowbray, R. M.). C. C. Thomas, Springfield, pp 23–201.Google Scholar
Carroll, B. J. (1976) Limbic system-pituitary-adrenal cortex regulation in depression and schizophrenia. Psychosomatic Medicine, 38, 106–21.Google Scholar
Carroll, B. J. (1982) The dexamethasone suppression test for melancholia. British Journal of Psychiatry, 140, 292–304.Google Scholar
Carroll, B. J., Curtis, G. C. & Mendels, J. (1976) Neuroendocrine regulation in depression. I. Limbic systemadrenocortical dysfunction. Archives of General Psychiatry, 33, 1039–44.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Carroll, B. J. & Davies, B. M. (1970) Clinical associations of 11 hydroxycorticosteroid suppression and non-suppression in severe depressive illness. British Medical Journal, i, 789–91.Google Scholar
Carroll, B. J. et al (1981) A specific laboratory test for the diagnosis of melancholia: standardisation, validation and clinical utility. Archives of General Psychiatry, 38, 15–32.Google Scholar
Gibbons, J. L., Gibson, J. G., Maxwell, A. E. & Wilcox, D. R. C. (1960) An endocrine study of depressive illness. Journal of Psychosomatic Research, 5, 32–41.Google Scholar
Insil, T. R., Kalin, N. H., Guttamacher, L. B., Cohen, R. M. & Murphy, D. C. (1982) The dexamethasone suppression test in patients with primary obsessive-compulsive disorder. Psychiatric Research, 6, 153–60.Google Scholar
Montgomery, S. A. & Asberg, M. (1979) A new depression scale designed to be more sensitive to change. British Journal of Psychiatry, 134, 382–9.Google Scholar
Murphy, B. E. P. (1976) Some studies of the protein binding of steroids and their application to the routine micro and ultra micro measurement of various steroids in body fluid by competitive protein binding radio assay. Journal of Clinical Endocrinological Metabolism, 274, 1171–3.Google Scholar
Schatzberg, A. F., Rothchild, A. J., Stahl, J. B., Bond, T. C., Rosenbaum, A. H., Lofgren, S. B., MacLaughlin, R. A., Sullivan, M. A. & Cole, J. O. (1983) The dexamethasone suppression test: identification of subtypes of depression. American Journal of Psychiatry, 140, 88–91.Google Scholar
Snaith, R. P., Bridges, G. W. K. & Hamilton, M. (1976) The Leeds scales for the self assessment of anxiety and depression. British Journal of Psychiatry, 128, 156–65.Google Scholar
Stokes, P. E., Pick, G. R., Stoll, P. M. et al (1975) Pituitary-adrenal function in depressed patients: resistance to dexamethasone suppression. Journal of Psychiatric Research, 12, 271–81.Google Scholar
Submit a response

eLetters

No eLetters have been published for this article.