[Various factors common to the pathogenesis of endogenous depression and chronic alcoholism].
A test with dexamethasone was performed in 52 patients with endogenous depression, 35 chronic alcoholics, and 85 healthy individuals. In the patients with the depression the test was pathological (inhibition in 19%), and in chronic alcoholics abnormal but to a lesser degree (44%). In the healthy subjects the inhibition was 64%. In periods of remissions the test was normal in all the persons examined. A treatment with tryptophan, DOPA and phenazepam increased the degree of the inhibition. On the basis of these findings, as well as proceeding from literary data it was supposed that the disturbance of the inhibition of corticosteroid secretion by dexamethasone was due to a deficit of serotonin and norepinephrine in the brain, since serotonin directly stimulates the secretion of the corticotropin-releasing factor, but at the same time intensifies the inhibitory action of glucocorticoids on its secretion. These results, as well as the literary data of the existence of a genetic connection between endogenous depression and chronic alcoholism in a number of cases give one grounds to assume that in patients with endogenous depression and in a part of chronic alcoholics the predisposition to the disease is associated with some common, hereditarily-determined defects of the metabolism of biogenic amines in the brain.
D015062:11-Hydroxycorticosteroids / Q000097:blood; D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000437:Alcoholism / Q000209:etiology* / Q000503:physiopathology; D014151:Anti-Anxiety Agents; D001569:Benzodiazepines; D001570:Benzodiazepinones / Q000627:therapeutic use; D003866:Depressive Disorder / Q000188:drug therapy / Q000209:etiology* / Q000503:physiopathology; D003907:Dexamethasone; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007980:Levodopa / Q000627:therapeutic use; D008297:Male; D001523:Mental Disorders / Q000503:physiopathology; D008875:Middle Aged; D014364:Tryptophan / Q000627:therapeutic use
D015062:11-Hydroxycorticosteroids; D014151:Anti-Anxiety Agents; D001570:Benzodiazepinones; D001569:Benzodiazepines; C017928:phenazepam; D007980:Levodopa; D003907:Dexamethasone; D014364:Tryptophan
Nekotorye obshchie zven'ia v patogeneze éndogennoĭ depressii i khronicheskogo alkogolizma.