title: Dexamethasone suppression in major depression.
abstract: Overnight 1 mg dexamethasone suppression tests were performed on 37 hospitalized patients with unipolar major depression and 13 psychiatric controls: 62% of the depressives and 38% of controls failed to suppress below 6 micrograms/dl of plasma cortisol at least once on the day after dexamethasone. Specificity for depressive diagnosis was only 62% but rose to 100% when a plasma cortisol value of 10 micrograms/dl was used as the criterion for normal suppression. Depressed patients were significantly more likely to show normal suppression if they were under age 65 (56% vs. 24% in the geriatric sample). Other demographic and clinical variables examined in the depressed sample did not assort by suppressor status.
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000367:Age Factors; D003866:Depressive Disorder / Q000503:physiopathology*; D003907:Dexamethasone; D003937:Diagnosis, Differential; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D006854:Hydrocortisone / Q000097:blood; D008297:Male; D001523:Mental Disorders / Q000503:physiopathology; D008875:Middle Aged
chemical_list: D003907:Dexamethasone; D006854:Hydrocortisone