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Elizabeth A. Young, MD; Roger F. Haskett, MD; Virginia Murphy-Weinberg, RN, BSN; Stanley J. Watson, MD, PhD; Huda Akil, PhD

Arch Gen Psychiatry. 1991;48(8):693-699.

Abstract
• A rate-sensitive fast-feedback inhibition of stress-induced corticotropin secretion by glucocorticoids is well documented in rats. Studies in patients with Cushing's disease or adrenal insufficiency have also supported the existence of fast feedback in humans. However, few studies exist in normal healthy subjects or depressed patients. This study compared fast-feedback inhibition of β-endorphin/β-lipotropin secretion by hydrocortisone in 16 control subjects and 16 depressed patients. A fast-feedback effect of hydrocortisone on β-endorphin/β-lipotropin secretion during the hour of the hydrocortisone infusion was demonstrated in control subjects. Depressed patients demonstrated no increase in β-endorphin/β-lipotropin concentrations during the infusion. These data suggest a decreased sensitivity to glucocorticoid fast feedback in depressed patients and complement existing studies demonstrating decreased sensitivity to proportional feedback by dexamethasone in depressed patients. We believe the data presented herein are the first demonstration that abnormal feedback occurs at the level of the brain rather than pituitary in depressed patients.

Author Affiliations
From the Mental Health Research Institute, The University of Michigan, and the Department of Psychiatry, The University of Michigan Medical Center, Ann Arbor.

Footnotes
Accepted for publication February 14, 1991.

Read in part at the 43rd Annual Society of Biological Psychiatry Meeting, Montreal, Canada, May 6, 1988.

Reprint requests to Mental Health Research Institute, 205 Washtenaw PI, Ann Arbor, MI 48109-0720 (Dr Young).

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