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Laboratory Tests to Aid in Psychiatric Diagnosis
Are We Making Progress?
Arch Gen Psychiatry. 1999;56:405-406.
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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
RELATED ARTICLE
Transient Depressive Relapse Induced by Catecholamine Depletion: Potential Phenotypic Vulnerability Marker?
Robert M. Berman, Meera Narasimhan, Helen L. Miller, Amit Anand, Angela Cappiello, Dan A. Oren, George R. Heninger, and Dennis S. Charney
Arch Gen Psychiatry. 1999;56(5):395-403.
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