title: Seasonal variation in postdexamethasone cortisol values in depressed inpatients. Results of least squares cosine spectral analysis.
abstract: Recently, a significant seasonal variation in postdexamethasone (post-DST) cortisol values in depressed patients has been reported. This study aimed to investigate seasonal variation in post-DST cortisol values in 269 depressed patients admitted to a psychiatric ward during 70 consecutive months. By means of analysis of variance no significant differences could be detected in post-DST values in depressed men or women, alone or together, between the 12 months, the period November-February versus March-October, or between the tour quartiles. By means of spectral analysis no significant seasonal rhythms, i.e. annual or harmonic rhythms, could be found in the time series of post-DST cortisol values either in the total group of depressed patients or in depressed women separately (n = 190). Spectral analysis showed a significantly biannual rhythm in the post-DST cortisol values in depressed men, with peaks in June and December and troughs in March and September. This biannual rhythm explained 12.4% of the variance in the post-DST cortisol values of depressed men. The results show that there is a significant seasonal variation in post-DST cortisol values in depressed men, but not in depressed women.
authors.affiliation: University Department of Psychiatry, A.Z. Stuivenberg, Antwerp, Belgium.
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Maes
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Schotte
mesh_terms: D003907:Dexamethasone; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D006854:Hydrocortisone / Q000097:blood*; D008297:Male; D010507:Periodicity; D012621:Seasons
chemical_list: D003907:Dexamethasone; D006854:Hydrocortisone