Defining Melancholia: Properties of a Refined Sign-Based Measure

1994 ◽  
Vol 164 (3) ◽  
pp. 316-326 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gordon Parker ◽  
Dusan Hadzi-Pavlovic ◽  
Kay Wilhelm ◽  
Ian Hickie ◽  
Henry Brodaty ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Reaction Time ◽  
Treatment Response ◽  
Biological Marker ◽  
Dexamethasone Suppression Test ◽  
Melancholic Depression ◽  
Independent Measure ◽  
Depressed Patients ◽  
Suppression Test ◽  
Dexamethasone Suppression ◽  
Response Variables

We hypothesised that psychomotor disturbance is specific to the melancholic subtype of depression and capable of defining melancholia more precisely than symptom-based criteria sets. We studied 413 depressed patients, and examined the utility of a refined, operationally driven set of clinician-rated signs, principally against a set of historically accepted symptoms of endogeneity. We specified items defining psychomotor disturbance generally as well as those weighted either to agitation or to retardation. We demonstrated the system's capacity to differentiate ‘melancholic’ and ‘non-melancholic’ depression (and the comparable success of DSM–III–R and Newcastle criteria systems) by reference to several patient, illness and treatment response variables, to an independent measure of psychomotor disturbance (reaction time) and to a biological marker (the dexamethasone suppression test).

Speech Pause Time as a Method for the Evaluation of Psychomotor Retardation in Depressive Illness

1985 ◽  
Vol 146 (5) ◽  
pp. 535-538 ◽  
Author(s):  
G. M. A. Hoffman ◽  
J. C. Gonze ◽  
J. Mendlewicz
Keyword(s):  
Reaction Time ◽  
Biological Markers ◽  
Sleep Latency ◽  
Depressive Illness ◽  
Psychomotor Retardation ◽  
Dexamethasone Suppression Test ◽  
Pause Time ◽  
Depressed Patients ◽  
Suppression Test ◽  
Dexamethasone Suppression

SummaryPsychomotor retardation is important in some depressed patients. We found that speech pause time (SPT) during a counting test correlated with the reaction time of both depressed patients and controls. It also correlated with global psychomotor retardation measured on Widlocher's scale. We demonstrated increased SPT in unipolar depressives, and also in retarded depressives as a group when compared with controls and with non-retarded depressives. SPT varied diurnally in controls, but not in depressed subjects. It did not correlate with biological markers of depression (REM sleep latency and the dexamethasone suppression test). It did, however, shorten during clinical improvement with antidepressant chemotherapy.

A study of the dexamethasone suppression test in hospitalized depressed patients

1984 ◽  
Vol 144 (3) ◽  
pp. 311-313 ◽  
Author(s):  
D. Ames ◽  
G. Burrows ◽  
B. Davies ◽  
K. Maguire ◽  
T. Norman
Keyword(s):  
Dexamethasone Suppression Test ◽  
Depressed Patients ◽  
Suppression Test ◽  
Dexamethasone Suppression

Agoraphobia and the Dexamethasone Suppression Test: Atypical Depression?

1984 ◽  
Vol 18 (4) ◽  
pp. 374-377 ◽  
Author(s):  
H. A. Whiteford ◽  
Larry Evans
Keyword(s):  
Tricyclic Antidepressants ◽  
Biological Marker ◽  
Dexamethasone Suppression Test ◽  
Panic Attacks ◽  
Control Group ◽  
Atypical Depression ◽  
Panic Disorders ◽  
State Dependent ◽  
Suppression Test ◽  
Dexamethasone Suppression

The tricyclic antidepressants and the monoamine oxidase inhibitors have been shown to be effective in the treatment of some patients with phobic and panic disorders. To explain this action it has been suggested that a number of these patients may have an atypical biological depression. In an attempt to test this hypothesis we used the dexamethasone suppression test (DST), which has been proposed as a state dependent biological marker of depression. We compared the non-suppression rate of agoraphobic patients suffering panic attacks with controls and with patients suffering major depression. Twenty-nine per cent of the agoraphobics showed non-suppression compared with 12% of the control group and 64% of the depressives.

National Differences in Dexamethasone Suppression Test Results and Suicide Rates

1991 ◽  
Vol 69 (3) ◽  
pp. 878-878
Author(s):  
David Lester
Keyword(s):  
Dexamethasone Suppression Test ◽  
Test Results ◽  
Depressed Patients ◽  
Suicide Rates ◽  
National Differences ◽  
Suppression Test ◽  
Dexamethasone Suppression

For 10 nations suicide rates were not correlated with the percentages of depressed patients who responded abnormally to the Dexamethasone Suppression Test.

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