Hormone release in depressed patients before and after recovery

(1) In 19 deeply depressed patients suffering from primary affective disorders, the thyroid stimulating hormone (TSH) and prolactin (hPRL) responses to thyrotrophin releasing hormone (TRH) were measured. In ten of them, the growth hormone (hGH) and cortisol responses to hypoglycaemia (ITT) were also determined. (2) In the depressed state, TSH secretion was extremely low or non-existent and hPRL was below normal. Half of the tested patients had zero or subnormal hGH secretion in response to hypoglycaemia. (3) After recovery, 16 of these patients were retested by TRH injection. TSH responses showed a fourfold increase and hPRL showed an increase of 45%. In the seven retested by ITT, the mean hGH response was not different, but the three previous non responders, herein included, were normalized. In all seven, the fall in glycaemia was more marked and the cortisol discharge was more sustained. (4) These findings draw attention to (a) the high frequency of alterations in the functional endocrine tests in depressed patients, (b) the discrepancy between these observations and the absence of any overt clinical signs of endocrine disease in these subjects, (c) the interest in using the patient as his own control, (d) the reversible nature of these alterations after recovery. © 1977.SCOPUS: ar.j