Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-gb8f7 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-24T23:00:19.222Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Urinary-free cortisol in depressed patients and controls: relationship to urinary indices of noradrenergic function

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 July 2009

Alec Roy ,
Markku Linnoila ,
Farouk Karoum  and
David Pickar
Alec Roy*
Affiliation:
Section of Clinical Studies, Clinical Neuroscience Branch, National Institute of Mental Health, Bethesda; Laboratory of Clinical Studies, DICBR, National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, Bethesda; Adult Psychiatry Branch, National Institute of Mental Health, St. Elizabeth's Hospital, Washington, DC, USA.
Markku Linnoila
Affiliation:
Section of Clinical Studies, Clinical Neuroscience Branch, National Institute of Mental Health, Bethesda; Laboratory of Clinical Studies, DICBR, National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, Bethesda; Adult Psychiatry Branch, National Institute of Mental Health, St. Elizabeth's Hospital, Washington, DC, USA.
Farouk Karoum
Affiliation:
Section of Clinical Studies, Clinical Neuroscience Branch, National Institute of Mental Health, Bethesda; Laboratory of Clinical Studies, DICBR, National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, Bethesda; Adult Psychiatry Branch, National Institute of Mental Health, St. Elizabeth's Hospital, Washington, DC, USA.
David Pickar
Affiliation:
Section of Clinical Studies, Clinical Neuroscience Branch, National Institute of Mental Health, Bethesda; Laboratory of Clinical Studies, DICBR, National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, Bethesda; Adult Psychiatry Branch, National Institute of Mental Health, St. Elizabeth's Hospital, Washington, DC, USA.
*
1Address for correspondence: Dr Alec Roy, Laboratory Clinical Studies, Bldg 10, Rm 3B-19, National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, 9000 Rockville Pike, Bethesda, MD 20892, USA.
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Synopsis

We measured urinary outputs of urinary-free cortisol in 28 medication-free depressed patients and 32 normal controls. Depressed patients had significantly greater urinary outputs of urinary-free cortisol than controls. Also, there were significant correlations among depressed patients, but not among controls, between urinary-free cortisol and urinary outputs of norepinephrine and its metabolite vanillylmandelic acid (VMA). These urinary data extend recent findings suggesting that dysregulation of both the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis and noradrenergic system occur together in depression.

Type
Research Article
Information
Psychological Medicine , Volume 18 , Issue 1 , February 1988 , pp. 93 - 98
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1988

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

American Psychiatric Association. (1980). Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, 3rd ed. (DSM-III). APA: Washington, D C.Google Scholar
Anton, R. (1987). Urinary free cortisol in psychotic depression. Biological Psychiatry 22, 24–34.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Barnes, R., Veith, R., Borson, S., Verhey, J., Raskind, M. & Halter, J. (1983). High levels of plasma catecholamines in dexamethasone-resistant depressed patients. American Journal of Psychiatry 140, 1623–1625.Google ScholarPubMed
Blombery, P., Kopin, I. J., Gordon, E., Markey, S. & Ebert, M. (1980). Conversion of MGPG to vanillylmandelic acid. Archives of General Psychiatry 37, 1095–1098.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Carroll, B. (1976). Limbic system-adrenal cortex regulation in depression. In Handbook of Studies on Depression, (ed. G. D., 121.Google Scholar
Carroll, B. (1977). The hypothalamus-pituitary-adrenal axis in depression. In Handbook of Studies on Depression, (ed. Burrows, G. D.), ch. 18, pp. 325–341. Elsevier: Amsterdam.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Carroll, B., Curtis, G., Davies, B., Mendels, J. & Sugerman, A. (1976). Urinary-free cortisol excretion in depression. Psychological Medicine 6, 431–450.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Carroll, B. (1986). Depression and urinary free cortisol. Letter to British Journal of Psychiatry 148, 218.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Charney, D., Heninger, G., Sternberg, D. & Landis, H. (1982). Abrupt discontinuation of tricyclic antidepressant drugs: evidence for noradrenergic hyperactivity. British Journal of Psychiatry 141, 377–386.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Dolan, R., Calloway, S., Fonagy, P., DeSouza, F. & Wakeling, E. (1985). Life event, depression and hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis function. British Journal of Psychiatry 147, 429–433.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Endicott, J. & Spitzer, R. (1979). A diagnostic interview: the schedule for affective disorders and schizophrenia. Archives of General Psychiatry, 35, 837–844CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Essler, M., Turbott, J., Schwarz, R., Leonard, P., Bobik, A., Skews, H. & Jackman, G. (1982). The peripheral kinetics of norepinephnne in depressive illness. Archives of General Psychiatry 39, 295–300.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fullerton, D., Wenzel, F., Lohrenz, F. & Fahs, H. (1968). Circadian rhythm of adrenal cortical activity in depression. Archives of General Psychiatry 19, 674–681.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Fergusson, H., Bartram, A., Fowlie, H., Cathro, D., Birchall, K. & Mitchell, F (1964). A preliminary investigation of steroid exertion in depressed patients before and after electro-convulsive therapy. Acta Endocrinologia 47, 58–68.Google Scholar
Gibbons, J. (1964). Cortisol secretion rate in depressive illness. Archives of General Psychiatry 10, 572–575.Google ScholarPubMed
Hamilton, M. (1960). A rating scale for depression. Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery and Psychiatry 23, 56–62.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Jimerson, D., Insel, T R., Reus, V. I. & Kopin, I. (1983). Increased plasma MHPG in dexamethasone resistant depressed patients. Archives of General Psychiatry 40, 173–176.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Kennedy, S., Thompson, R., Stancer, H., Roy, A. & Persad, E. (1983). Life events precipitating mania. British Journal of Psychiatry 142, 465–470.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Karoum, F. & Neff, N. (1982). Quantitative gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (BC-MS) of biogenic amines: theory and practice. In Modern Methods in Pharmacology, (ed. Spector, S. and Beck, N.) pp. 39–54. Alan R. Liss: New York.Google Scholar
Kopin, I. (1984). Avenues of investigation for the role of catecholamines in anxiety. Psychopathology 17, 83–97.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Linnoila, M., Karoum, F., Miller, T. & Potter, W. (1983). Reliability of urinary monoamine and metabolite output measurements in depressed patients. American Journal of Psychiatry 140, 1055–1057.Google ScholarPubMed
Paykel, E., McGuiness, B., & Gomez, J. (1976). An Anglo-American comparison of the scaling of life events. British Journal of Medical Psychology 49, 237–247.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Paykel, E. (1979). Recent life events in the development of the depressive disorders. In The Psychobiology of the Depressive Disorders, (ed. Depue, R.), ch. 11, pp. 245–262. Academic Press: New York.Google Scholar
Paykel, E., Emms, E., Fletcher, J. & Rasaby, E. (1980). Life events and social supports in puerperal depression. British Journal of Psychiatry 136, 339–346.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Rosenbaum, A., Maruta, T., Schatzberg, A., Orsulak, P., Jiang, N., Cole, J. & Schildkraut, J. (1983). Towards a biochemical classification of depressive disorders. VII: Urinary-free cortisol and urinary MHPG in depression. American Journal of Psychiatry 140, 314–317.Google Scholar
Roy, A., Thompson, R. & Kennedy, S. (1983). Depression in chronic schizophrenia. British Journal of Psychiatry 142, 465–470.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Roy, A., Pickar, D. & Paul, S. (1984). Biologic tests in depression. Psychosomatics 25, 343–351.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Roy, A., Breier, A., Doran, A & Pickar, D. (1985 a). Life events in depression: relationship to subtypes. Journal of Affective Disorders 9, 143–148.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Roy, A., Pickar, D., Linnoila, M. & Potter, W. (1985 b). Plasma norepinephrine in affective disorder. Archives of General Psychiatry 42, 1181–1185.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Roy, A., Pickar, D., Douillet, P., Karoum, F. & Linnoila, M. (1986 a). Urinary monoamines and monoamine metabolites in subtypes of unipolar depressive disorder and normal controls. Psychological Medicine 16, 541–548.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Roy, A., Jimerson, D. & Pickar, D. (1986 b). Plasma MHPG in depression and relationship to dexamethasone suppression test. American Journal of Psychiatry 143, 846–851.Google ScholarPubMed
Roy, A., Pickar, D., Karoum, F. & Linnoila, M. (1986 c). Relative activity of metabolic pathways for norepinephrine in endogenous depression. Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavica 73, 624–628.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Rubinow, D., Post, R., Gold, P., Ballenger, J. & Wolff, E. (1984). The relationship between cortisol and clinical phenomenology of affective illness. In Neurobiology of Mood Disorders, (ed. Post, R. and Ballenger, J.), ch. 17, pp. 271–289. Williams and Wilkins: Baltimore.Google Scholar
Rubin, L., Price, L., Charney, D. & Heninger, G. (1985). Noradrenergic function and the cortisol response to dexamethasone in depression. Psychiatry Research 15, 5–15.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Sachar, E. (1971). Corticosteroids in depressive illness. II. A longitudinal psychoendocrine study. Archives of General Psychiatry 17, 554–567.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Stokes, P., Stoll, P., Koslow, S., Maas, J., Davis, J., Swann, A. & Robins, E. (1984 a). Pretreatment DST and hypothalamic pituitary-adrenocortical function in depressed patients and comparison groups. Archives of General Psychiatry 41, 257–267.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Stokes, P., Koslow, S., Swann, A., Stoll, P., Mass, J., Koscis, J. & Jawaid, J. (1984 b). Neurochemical/neuroendocrine interactions in depression and mania. Paper S448.Proceedings of the 14th Collegium Internationale Neuropsychopharmacologicum Congress, 7(1), Raven Press: New York.CrossRefGoogle Scholar