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Are We Making Progress?

Arch Gen Psychiatry. 1999;56:405-406.

	Since this article does not have an abstract, we have provided the first 150 words of the full text and any section headings.

IN THE ARTICLE by Berman et al,¹ in this issue of the ARCHIVES, the authors report that administration of -methylparatyrosine to subjects with a history of depressive episodes evoked a brief "relapse" of depressive symptoms. In related articles, the authors have reported that healthy subjects without a history of depressive episodes do not display this sensitivity to -methylparatyrosine.² The authors' interpretation of these findings is that the behavioral sensitivity of individuals to -methylparatyrosine may be a "phenotypic trait marker for depression," and useful for identifying individuals who are prone to develop depressive episodes even though they have no current symptoms. If true, such a marker might also be useful for identifying individuals with latent mood disorders during a preclinical phase of their illness. The development of a laboratory test to aid in the diagnosis of individuals with mood disorders would be an important advance in our capacity to treat depression; . . . [Full Text of this Article]

John G. Csernansky, MD; Joel A. Posener, MD
Department of Psychiatry
Washington University
School of Medicine
4940 Children's Place
Box 8134
St Louis, MO 63110-1093

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