Am J Psychiatry 1987; 144:472-475
Copyright © 1987 by American Psychiatric Association
DST and TRH stimulation test in mood disorder subtypes
AB Levy and SL Stern
Both the dexamethasone suppression test (DST) and the thyrotropin-
releasing hormone (TRH) stimulation test have been reported to be useful in
subtyping some depression diagnoses. Whether the DST discriminates
delusional from nondelusional depression remains controversial, but this
possibility has not been studied for the TRH test. The authors evaluated
DST and TRH test results in 29 depressed hospitalized patients; both tests
significantly discriminated patients with nonendogenous depression from
those with endogenous depression. Furthermore, postdexamethasone cortisol
levels but not the change in thyroid-stimulating hormone discriminated the
patients with endogenous delusional depression from those with endogenous
nondelusional depression.
