Methyltestosterone with Imipramine in Men: Conversion of Depression to Paranoid Reaction
IAN C. WILSON M.D.1,
ARTHUR J. PRANGE JR. M.D.2, , and
PATRICIO P. LARA M.D.3
1 Research Psychiatrist, Dorothea Dix Hospital, Raleigh, N.C. 27611
2 University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill and Professor of Psychiatry and Director of Research Development, Department of Psychiatry and Biological Sciences Research Center
3 Research Fellow, Department of Psychiatry and University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill
Five men with primary unipolar depression were treated with methyltestosterone and imipramine. Four promptly showed a paranoid response that cleared rapidly when treatment with the hormone was discontinued. The shift from depression to a paranoid reaction may have resulted from an increase in aggression, which may in turn have been the result of the interplay between the hormone and the drug and the effects of this interplay on brain biogenic amine metabolism.
