The Dexamethasone Suppression Test in Clinical Psychiatry

摘要: Over the past three decades, changes in serum Cortisol have been associated with psychological and physical stress. Early studies suggested possibility of an alteration feedback sensitivity hypothalamic-pituitary-ad-renal (HPA) axis certain psychiatric patients. As early as 1949, Pincus associates reported a resistance psychotic men to normal urinary sodium change seen after administration adrenal cortex extract. In 1954, Rizzo colleagues noted failure detect expected fall 17-ketosteroid excretion when hydrocortisone was administered cyclothymic patient. By 1966, dexamethasone suppression had subgroup depressed patients by Stokes (1966).