Am J Psychiatry 1994; 151:600-602
Copyright © 1994 by American Psychiatric Association
Differences in CSF concentrations of thyrotropin-releasing hormone in depressed patients and normal subjects: negative findings
A Roy, OM Wolkowitz, G Bissette and CB Nemeroff
NIMH, Bethesda, Md.
Since there have been reports of elevated CSF concentrations of
thyrotropin-releasing hormone (TRH) in depression, the authors compared the
TRH levels of 17 depressed patients and 19 normal subjects. All subjects
underwent lumbar punctures after fasting overnight, and CSF concentrations
of TRH were determined by radioimmunoassay. CSF concentrations of
norepinephrine and monoamine metabolites were also measured. There was no
significant difference between the two groups on any measure, and in the
depressed patients there was no significant relation between CSF
concentrations of TRH and thyrotropin-stimulating hormone responses to TRH
infusion.
