Am J Psychiatry 1994; 151:216-220
Copyright © 1994 by American Psychiatric Association
Effects of gender and diagnosis on growth hormone response to clonidine for major depression: a large-scale multicenter study
M Schittecatte, G Charles, R Machowski, F Dumont, J Garcia-Valentin, J Wilmotte, P Papart, W Pitchot, J Wauthy and M Ansseau
Department of Psychiatry, Hopital Vincent Van Gogh, Marchienne-Au-Pont, Belgium.
OBJECTIVE: The authors' goal was to establish, in a large multicenter
sample of patients classified according to gender and menopausal status, if
the growth hormone (GH) response to clonidine discriminated patients with
episodes of major depression from patients with episodes of minor
depression. METHOD: The GH response to intravenous clonidine administration
(150 micrograms) was compared in 71 male and 140 female patients with major
depressive episodes and 47 male and 53 female patients with minor
depressive episodes. These patients were diagnosed according to Research
Diagnostic Criteria. RESULTS: Differences in the GH response to clonidine
between diagnostic groups occurred only between male patients. These
results were found in the group as a whole and in each center. The GH
responses to clonidine of premenopausal women differed significantly from
those of postmenopausal women in each diagnostic group. CONCLUSIONS: These
results confirm that gender and menopausal status are of the utmost
importance in the interpretation of the clonidine GH test.
