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  Vol. 56 No. 5, May 1999 TABLE OF CONTENTS
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Laboratory Tests to Aid in Psychiatric Diagnosis

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 {alpha}-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 {alpha}-methylparatyrosine.2 The authors' interpretation of these findings is that the behavioral sensitivity of individuals to {alpha}-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.
ABSTRACT | FULL TEXT  






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