Diurnal hormonal responses to thyrotropin-releasing hormone in normal men.

Bolus injections of synthetic thyrotropin-releasing hormone (TRH) were administered to five young normal men in the morning (0900 hr) and the evening (1800 hr) on different days. Frequent blood samples for prolactin (PRL) and TSH analyses were collected before and after TRH infusion. Although there were no differences between the morning and the evening basal PRL levels, a significantly greater PRL response to TRH in the evening was observed (delta PRL, a.

Relaxation training tapes: preferences and effects of gender and background.

Relaxation training tapes vary in voice gender and background, but little has been published regarding the preferences and effects of these parameters. Four classes, totalling 40 male and 36 female undergraduates, listened to parts of two commercially available sets of relaxation tapes. Both sets offered progressive relaxation and autogenic training in a choice of a male or a female voice.

Paradoxical cortisol responses to dextroamphetamine in endogenous depression.

Dextroamphetamine hydrochloride was administered intravenously (IV) in the morning and evening to 22 unmedicated patients with severe endogenous depressions and 18 normal control subjects. While the normal subjects generally had a sharp increase in plasma cortisol level by 30 minutes after drug administration, two thirds of the depressed patients showed instead a paradoxical suppression of cortisol levels by 60 minutes. Discrimination between normal subjects and depressives was greatest in the evening.

Endocrine responses to thyrotropin-releasing hormone in major depressive disorders.

The endocrine response to thyrotropin-releasing hormone (TRH) was studied in severely endogenously depressed patients during illness (n = 21) and after recovery (n = 18). The thyroid-stimulating hormone (TSH) response to TRH was blunted (deltaTSH less than 5 microIU/ml) in over one third of depressives during illness and remained blunted in most even after recovery. There was no correlation between multiple measures of cortisol secretion (the mean 24-hour plasma cortisol, dexamethasone suppression test, and plasma cortisol during the TRH procedure) and the TSH response during illness and after recovery.

Cortisol secretion and dexamethasone response in depression.

The authors administered 2 mg of dexamethasone at 11:00 p.m. to 37 unmedicated hospitalized endogenously depressed patients and assessed their plasma cortisol response at 4:00 and 11:00 p.

The prolactin-stimulating potency of reserpine in man.

The prolactin (PRL) response to 0.5 mg i.m.

Cortisol secretion in relation to age in major depression.

Twenty-five unmedicated hospitalized patients, ages 26-64, with severe major depressive disorders, endogenous subtype, were evaluated both clinically and endocrinologically. Although measures reflecting cortisol secretion did not correlate with symptom dimensions and diagnostic subtypes, we did find a significant relationship between cortisol secretion and age during endogenous depressive illness; this included the mean 24 hour plasma cortisol, assessed by sampling every 30 minutes for 24 hours, as well as other single plasma cortisol assessments on other days. After clinical recovery, when plasma cortisol levels returned to normal, there was no significant relationship between cortisol secretion and age.

Relative insulin insensitivity and cortisol secretion in depressed patients.

Relative insulin insensitivity occurs in a substantial portion of patients with major endogenous depressions, and about half such cases also hypersecrete cortisol in the afternoon and evening. This study assessed the relation between these two abnormalities in 16 patients with major endogenous depression. Over several days, insulin tolerance tests (ITTs) were performed in the morning and evening, and measures of cortisol secretion taken: plasma cortisol at 0800, 1600, and 2300 hours, both before and after dexamethasone; baseline cortisol before ITTs; and mean 24-hour plasma cortisol concentrations (in 10 cases).

Failure of dopaminergic blockade to affect prolactin, growth hormone, and cortisol responses to insulin-induced hypoglycemia in schizophrenics.

The PRL, GH, and cortisol responses to insulin tolerance tests (ITTs) were evaluated in 12 medically healthy schizophrenic patients during a drug-free period and after 1 and 6 weeks of treatment with penfluridol, a potent, long acting, dopamine-blocking neuroleptic. Hypoglycemic responses were the same before and during penfluridol therapy. Although resting PRL levels were evaluated during initial penfluridol therapy (week 1), hypoglycemia provoked a further substantial PRL increment, not significantly different in magnitude from that induced by hypoglycemia during the drug-free period.

A comparison of the actions of H1 and H2 antihistamines on histamine-induced bronchoconstriction and cutaneous wheal response in asthmatic patients.

The effect of an H1 antihistamine, an H2 antihistamine, and the combination of the two drugs on both histamine-induced bronchoconstriction and dermal whealing was examined in five patients with mild asthma. Chlorpheniramine 8 mg, cimetidine 300 mg, the combination of both, and placebo were administered orally to each patient for a single dose and for seven consecutive doses given every 6 hr after a double-blind, randomized protocol. The airway response to inhaled histamine and the wheal size induced by the intradermal injection of histamine were determined in every patient 2 hr after the final drug dose.

Comparison of response formats for the Depression Adjective Check Lists.

Studied potential checking and response bias on the Depression Adjective Check Lists (DACL) by comparing the scores of 144 college students on three administration formats: True-false, forced-choice, and standard format. The DACL scores on the three formats were interrelated significantly with one another as well as with an independent measure of state depression of college students (CID). Correlations between the number of depressive adjectives checked and the depression score were significant in the true-false format, but not in the standard format.

Dreams, first memories, and brain atrophy in the elderly.

A five-year longitudinal study of the healthy aged was begun utilizing several measures. These include a sociological instrument, the Older Americans Resources Scale (OARS), psychological tests, physical and laboratory examinations, Computerized Transaxial Tomography (CTT), and a psychiatric interview. In the first year of the study 215 individuals over the age of 65 (average age 73) were examined, and preliminary data are now emerging.

Sialic acid: regulation of electrogenesis in cultured heart cells.

Removal of up to 50% of the sialic acid from aggregates of 7-day chick embryo heart cells during incubation in a highly purified preparation of neuraminidase resulted in hyperpolarization of the maximum diastolic potential, reduction in the slope of diastolic depolarization leading to slowing of beating, negative shifts of threshold potential and the voltage at which upstroke velocity was maximal, and an initial increase in the action potential overshoot. These effects were opposite to those induced by phospholipase C, a possible contaminant. The modification of electrical properties by neuraminidase is suggested to result from an enhanced influx of calcium ions that might "screen" or bind specifically to internal negative fixed charges and thereby shift the voltage dependence of conductance and kinetic parameters to more negative potentials.

Dextroamphetamine and cortisol in depression. Morning plasma cortisol levels suppressed.

Dextroamphetamine sulfate administered intravenously in the morning to 11 unmedicated depressed patients suppressed previously elevated plasma cortisol levels to normal in 90 minutes, a fall of 33% from baseline. Ten other depressed patients, without amphetamine, maintained high cortisol levels during the same time period. In each of five normal young men, amphetamine identically administered stimulated a rise in cortisol between 15 and 30 minutes after infusion, an acute response absent in ten of the 11 depressed patients; by 90 minutes after amphetamine administration, plasma cortisol had fallen to normal and identical levels in both groups.

Effect of cyproheptadine and atropine on the diurnal prolactin responses to insulin-induced hypoglycemia in normal men.

There is a diurnal variation in the PRL response to insulin-induced hypoglycemia in normal men, with a substantially larger response in the evening. This study investigated the possible serotonergic and cholinergic influences on these diurnal PRL responses. Morning and evening PRL responses to hypoglycemia were compared in the same five normal young men without drug pretreatment, after cyprohepatadine, and after atropine sulfate.