Biological classification of depressive illness.
1 A number of biological criteria have been used for refining clinical classification to identify patients who will respond to antidepressant treatment. 2 Subtypes of depressive illness have been postulated to occur depending on whether there is a relative deficiency of central noradrenaline or 5-hydroxytryptamine. However, antidepressants having selective effects on amine systems have similar therapeutic effects and inhibition of re-uptake of these amines does not correlate with clinical outcome. 3 An abnormal response to thyrotrophin-releasing hormone has not been confirmed as specific for depressive illness. Failure to control for age and sex may account for some of the discordant findings. 4 It has been suggested that depressed patients secrete less growth hormone to a variety of stimuli. It appears that the predictive value of a growth hormone response for the diagnosis of endogenous depression is 53%. 5 The dexamethasone suppression test appears to have high sensitivity for the diagnosis of endogenous depression but low specificity and should therefore be used only in conjunction with clinical assessments.
D001679:Biogenic Amines / Q000378:metabolism; D003866:Depressive Disorder / Q000145:classification / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000378:metabolism*; D003907:Dexamethasone; D013006:Growth Hormone / Q000378:metabolism; D006728:Hormones / Q000378:metabolism; D006801:Humans; D013973:Thyrotropin-Releasing Hormone / Q000378:metabolism
D001679:Biogenic Amines; D006728:Hormones; D013973:Thyrotropin-Releasing Hormone; D003907:Dexamethasone; D013006:Growth Hormone