Research Paper
The metyrapone test in affective disorders and schizophrenia*

https://doi.org/10.1016/S0165-0327(84)80002-6Get rights and content

Summary

The metyrapone test was applied to patients suffering from major depressive illness with melancholia, from mania, and from schizophrenia. Hypoactivity of the HPA axis as assessed by the test appears to occur infrequently in affective disorders and schizophrenia. High normal or exaggerated responses to metyrapone, as observed in Cushing's disease, appear to be correlated to DST non-suppression in melancholia.

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  • Cited by (11)

    • Lower cortisol levels predict recurrence in remitted patients with recurrent depression: A 5.5 year prospective study

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      Citation Excerpt :

      However, hypocortisolism has been reported as well; a phenomenon that is characterized by a hyporesponsiveness on different levels of the HPA axis in a number of stress-related states as Fries et al. (2005) stated in their overview. It was first reported in the eighties by using single-dose metyrapone test in depressed patients (Fava et al., 1984; Fava, 1994). Recently, Vreeburg (2010) studied in a longitudinal study including 837 patients with depressive and/or anxiety disorders, the association between salivary cortisol measures at baseline and the course of psychopathology.

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    *

    Supported in part by Grants No. 24211 from the National Institutes of General Medical Sciences, NIH and No. 2507RR0540021 from the Division of Research Resources, NIH, to the School of Medicine, State University of New York at Buffalo.

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