Impact of comorbid depressive symptoms on nonverbal memory and visuospatial performance in obsessive-compulsive disorder.

Introduction: Recent research has suggested that some executive dysfunctions in obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) represent an epiphenomenon of comorbid depressive symptoms. The present study investigated whether the impact of comorbid depressive symptoms on cognitive dysfunction in OCD extends to nonverbal memory impairment.

Methods: A total of 32 OCD patients and 20 healthy controls took part in the study.

Metyrapone as additive treatment in major depression: a double-blind and placebo-controlled trial.

Background: Inhibitors of steroid synthesis have been reported to exert antidepressive effects, according to preliminary findings.

Objective: To test whether the addition of metyrapone to standard antidepressants induces a more rapid, more efficacious, and sustained treatment response in patients with major depression.

Design: Double-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled trial.

Metyrapone tests in patients with panic disorder.

Background: Studies of hypothalamic secretion of corticotropin-releasing hormone (CRH) in patients with panic disorder in the nonpanic state (using CRH tests) are contradictory. No data about the hypothalamic-pituitary response to metyrapone are available.

Methods: Study participants included 14 patients with panic disorder (DSM-IV criteria) and 14 healthy control subjects who underwent a standard overnight metyrapone test and a combined metyrapone/low-dose dexamethasone test.

Adjunctive use of reboxetine in schizophrenia.

Background: Schizophrenia is frequently complicated by depressive or negative symptoms that respond only moderately to treatment with antipsychotic drugs. Reboxetine is a novel antidepressant, which inhibits the reuptake of norepinephrine. We sought to study the efficacy and tolerability of the adjunctive use of reboxetine in a cohort of schizophrenic patients with prominent depressive or negative symptoms.

Overnight metyrapone and combined dexamethasone/metyrapone tests in post-traumatic stress disorder: preliminary findings.

Using overnight metyrapone and combined dexamethasone/metyrapone tests, hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenocortical (HPA) axis feedback regulation was characterised in 10 patients with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and 10 matched healthy comparison subjects. Significant treatment effects of both metyrapone and the combination of dexamethasone and metyrapone were observed for adrenocorticotropic hormone (ACTH), 11-deoxycortisol (11-DOC) and cortisol, but no differences between patients and comparison subjects emerged. Dose-response studies using metyrapone and glucocorticoid agonists are needed to further investigate HPA axis regulation in PTSD.

Dimensional structure of the Hamilton Depression Rating Scale in patients with obsessive-compulsive disorder.

Comorbid depression is frequent in obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) and is acknowledged as a major confound in biological and neurocognitive investigations in OCD. The aim of the present study was to assess the distribution of depressive symptoms in a large OCD sample (n=162) and to analyze the dimensional structure of the Hamilton Depression Rating Scale (HDRS) in OCD. Major depressive disorder according to DSM-IV criteria was apparent in approximately one third of the patients.

Sleep endocrine effects of the 11-beta-hydroxysteroiddehydrogenase inhibitor metyrapone.

Study Objectives: Besides regulating hormone secretion, steroids also modulate sleep architecture in specific ways. To simulate a state of altered glucocorticoid- and mineralocorticoid-receptor occupation, we administered metyrapone, an 11-beta-hydroxylase inhibitor, that blocks adrenal cortisol synthesis and inhibits the 11-beta-hydroxysteroiddehydrogenase type-1 enzyme in the central nervous system and investigated endocrine changes and the sleep electroencephalogram.

Design: Each volunteer spent 4 nights in the sleep laboratory, the first of which served to habituate the subject to the conditions in the laboratory.