The rate of excretion of VMA in depressed patients before and after the administration of methionine.
The results of a previous experiment in which the relationship between VMA-excretion in the 24-hr-urine and a depressive syndrome was found were examined on the basis of the following hypothesis: 1. The patients of the present study show an increased VMA-excretion, because there are more depressed patients than in the previous experiment. 2. The amount of excreted VMA correlates positively with the degree of severity of their depression. The mean value of the VMA-excretion in the urine of 20 depressive patients of the present study corresponds to that obtained from the depressive patients in the previous exploratory experiment. The degree of severity of depression of the patients correlated with the VMA-excretion. Patients with an increased VMA-excretion were significantly more often treated with antidepressive drugs than those with normal VMA-values.
D003863:Depression / Q000188:drug therapy / Q000652:urine*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008715:Methionine / Q000008:administration & dosage / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D014642:Vanilmandelic Acid / Q000652:urine*
D014642:Vanilmandelic Acid; D008715:Methionine