Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-xbtfd Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-17T15:07:43.616Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Skin melanin concentrations in the affective disorders: possible relationships to the catecholamine hypothesis1

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 July 2009

Ashley H. Robins
Ashley H. Robins
Affiliation:
From the Department of Psychiatry, Johannesburg Hospital and the University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Synopsis

SYNOPSIS Skin melanin concentrations were measured by reflectance spectrophotometry in patients during the active phase of a primary affective illness and in normal subjects. There were no significant differences between 27 females with depression (unipolar illness) and 17 females with mania (bipolar illness) or between a mixed group of 30 male patients with mania and depression (predominantly mania) and a normal sample of 27 male subjects. These negative results are discussed in terms of the catecholamine hypothesis of the affective disorders. A study of brain pigmentation is suggested as being a potentially useful investigation in manic-depressive psychosis.

Type
Research Article
Information
Psychological Medicine , Volume 2 , Issue 4 , November 1972 , pp. 391 - 396
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1972

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

Abdulla, Y. H., and Hamadah, K. (1970). 3′, 5′ cyclic adenosine monophosphate in depression and mania. Lancet, 1, 378–381.Google Scholar
Antón-Tay, F., Diaz, J. L., and Fernández-Guardiola, A. (1971). On the effect of melatonin upon human brain. Its possible therapeutic implications. Life Sciences, Part I, 10, 841–850.Google Scholar
Bamshad, J. (1970). Catecholamines in epidermis, dermis and whole skin. Journal of Investigative Dermatology, 55, 188–189.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Bazelon, M., Fenichel, G. M., and Randall, J. (1967). Studies on neuromelanin. I. A melanin system in the human adult brainstem. Neurology, 17, 512–519.Google Scholar
Buckley, W. R., and Grum, F. (1961). Reflection spectro-photometry: use in evaluation of skin pigmentary disturbances. Archives of Dermatology, 83, 249–261.Google Scholar
Bunney, W. E. Jr., Brodie, H. K. H., Murphy, D. L., and Goodwin, F. K. (1971). Studies of alpha-methyl-para-tyrosine, L-dopa, and L-tryptophan in depression and mania. American Journal of Psychiatry, 127, 872–881.Google Scholar
Collins, R. N., Lerner, A. B., and McGuire, J. S. (1966). The relationship of skin color to zygosity in twins. Journal of Investigative Dermatology, 47, 78–82.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Court, J. H. (1968). Manic-depressive psychosis: an alternative conceptual mode. British Journal of Psychiatry, 114, 1523–1530.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Duffy, P. E., and Tennyson, V. M. (1965). Phase and electron microscopic observations of Lewy bodies and melanin granules in the substantia nigra and locus caeruleus in Parkinson's disease. Journal of Neuropathology and Experimental Neurology, 24, 398–414.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Engelman, K., Horwitz, D., Jéquier, E., and Sjoerdsma, A. (1968). Biochemical and pharmacologic effects of α-methyl-tyrosine in man. Journal of Clinical Investigation, 47, 577–594.Google Scholar
Garrard, G., Harrison, G. A., and Owen, J. J. T. (1967), Comparative spectrophotometry of skin colour with EEL and photovolt instruments. American Journal of Physical Anthropology, 27, 389–395.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Granville-Grossman, K. (1971). Recent Advances in Clinical Psychiatry, pp. 202–204. Churchill: London.Google Scholar
Hare, P. J. (1970). ‘Visage mauve’ (? from imipramine). British Journal of Dermatology, 83, 420.Google Scholar
Harmse, N. S. (1964). Reflectometry of the bloodless living human skin. Proceedings Koninklijke Nederlandse Akademie van Wetenschappen, 67, 138–143.Google Scholar
Harrison, G. A., and Owen, J. J. T. (1957). The application of spectrophotometry to the study of skin colour inheritance. Acta Genetica, 6, 481–485.Google Scholar
Hempel, K., and Deimel, M. (1963). Einfluss des Dopa-Decarboxylase-Hemmers α-Methyl-Dopa auf die Umwandlung von Dopa in Melanin und Brenzcatechinamine. In vivo-Untersuchungen an Melanom-Mäusen mit tritiertem Dopa. Naunyn-Schmiedebergs Archiv für Experimentelle Pathologie und Pharmakologie, 246, 203–214.Google Scholar
Hornykiewicz, O. (1966). Dopamine(3-hydroxytyramine) and brain function. Pharmacological Review, 18, 925–964.Google Scholar
Horowitz, N. H., Fling, M., Macleod, H. L., and Sueoka, N. (1960). Genetic determination and enzymatic induction of tryrosinase in Neurospora. Journal of Molecular Biology, 2, 96–104.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ishii, T., and Friede, R. L. (1968). Tissue binding of tritiated norepinephrine in pigmented nuclei of human brain. American Journal of Anatomy, 122, 139–144.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Kastin, A. J., Kullander, S., Borglin, N. E., Dahlberg, B., Dyster-Aas, K., Krakau, C. E. T., Ingvar, D. H., Miller, M. C., Bowers, C. Y., and Schally, A. V. (1968). Extrapigmentary effects of melanocyte-stimulating hormone in amenorrhoeic women. Lancet, 1, 1007–1010.Google Scholar
Lerner, A. B. (1966). Gray hair and sympathectomy. Report of a case. Archives of Dermatology, 93, 235–236.Google Scholar
Lerner, A. B. (1971). Neural control of pigment cells. In Session on the Biology of the Normal and Abnormal Melanocyte, Tokyo, 1969, pp. 3–13. Edited by Kawamura, T., Fitzpatrick, T. B., and Seiji, M.. University Park Press: Baltimore.Google Scholar
Lerner, A. B., and Case, J. D. (1960). Melatonin. Federation Proceedings, 19, 590–592.Google Scholar
Maeda, T., and Wegmann, R. (1969). Infrared spectrometry of locus coeruleus and substantia nigra pigments in human brain. Brain Research, 14, 673–681.Google Scholar
Marsden, C. D. (1969). Brain melanin. In Pigments in Pathology, pp. 395–420. Edited by Wolman, M.. Academic Press: New York.Google Scholar
Mendels, J. (1965). Electroconvulsive therapy and depression. II. Significance of endogenous and reactive syndromes. British Journal of Psychiatry, 111, 682–686.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mishima, Y., and Tanay, A. (1968). The effect of alpha-methyldopa and ultraviolet irradiation on melanogenesis. Dermatologica, 136, 105–114.Google Scholar
Miyamoto, M., and Fitzpatrick, T. B. (1957). Competitive inhibition of mammalian tyrosinase by phenylalanine and its relationship to hair pigmentation in phenylketonuria. Nature, 179, 199–200.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Möller, H. (1964). On catecholamines of the skin. Acta Dermato-Venereologica, 44, Supplement 55.Google Scholar
Pakkenberg, H., and Brody, H. (1965). The number of nerve cells in the substantia nigra in paralysis agitans. Acta Neuropathologica, 5, 320–324.Google Scholar
Paul, M. I., Cramer, H., and Bunney, W. E. Jr., (1971). Urinary adenosine 3′, 5′-monophosphate in the switch process from depression to mania. Science, 171, 300–303.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Paul, M. I., Ditzion, B. R., Pauk, G. L., and Janowsky, D. S. (1970). Urinary adenosine 3′, 5′-monophosphate excretion in affective disorders. American Journal of Psychiatry, 126, 1493–1497.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Perris, C. (1966). A study of bipolar (manic-depressive) and unipolar recurrent depressive psychoses. Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavia, 42, Supplement 194.Google Scholar
Robins, A. H. (1972). Skin melanin concentrations in schizophrenia. British Journal of Psychiatry. (In pess.)Google Scholar
Schildkraut, J. J. (1965). The catecholamine hypothesis of affective disorders: a review of supporting evidence. American Journal of Psychiatry, 122, 509–522.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Scott, G. T. (1968). The action of phenothiazines on pigment cells of the flatfish Scopthalmus aquosus. Agressologie, 9, 231–239.Google Scholar
Shelley, W. B., and Öhman, S. (1969). Epinephrine induction of white hair in ACI rats. Journal of Investigative Dermatology, 53, 155–158.Google Scholar
Sourkes, T. L. (1965). The action of α-methyldopa in the brain. British Medical Bulletin, 21, 66–69.Google Scholar
Takahashi, R., Utena, H., Machiyama, Y., Kurihara, M., Otsuka, T., Nakamura, T., and Kanamura, H. (1968). Tyrosine metabolism in manic depressive illness. Life Sciences, Part 2, 7, 1219–1231.Google Scholar
Vander Wende, C., and Spoerlein, M. T. (1963). Oxidation of dopamine to melanin by an enzyme of rat brain. Life Sciences, 6, 386–392.Google Scholar
Van Woert, M. H., Prasad, K. N., and Borg, D. C. (1967). Spectroscopic studies of substantia nigra pigment in human subjects. Journal of Neurochemistry, 14, 707–716.Google Scholar
Weiner, J. S., and Lourie, J. A. (1969). Skin colour measurement by spectrophotometry. in Human Biology: A Guide to Field Methods, pp. 155–162. International Biological Programme Handbook No. 9. Blackwell: Oxford.Google Scholar
Whybrow, P. C., and Mendels, J. (1969). Toward a biology of depression: some suggestions from neurophysiology. American Journal of Psychiatry, 125, 1491–1500.Google Scholar