To understand the relationship between DST and depressive symptoms in depression and
schizophrenia, 28 depression patients and 30 schizophrenic patients underwent DST during
their hospitalization along with HRSD and BDI to assess depressive symptoms. ...
To understand the relationship between DST and depressive symptoms in depression and
schizophrenia, 28 depression patients and 30 schizophrenic patients underwent DST during
their hospitalization along with HRSD and BDI to assess depressive symptoms. The mean postdexamethasone
cortisol levels were 4.74+5.87 (ig/dl in depression group and 4.39+4.09 (ig/dl
in schizophrenic group. DST nonsuppression being defined as postdexamethasone cortisol level
above 5 |ig/dl, 9 of 28 depression patients (30.2 % ) and 9 of 30 schizophrenic patients (30%)
were nonsuppressors. In depression group, DST nonsuppressors had significantly severe depressive
symptoms in HRSD and BDI. Among individual symptoms, depressed mood, retardation
and lack of insight of HRSD, and sadness, sense of failure, irritability, indecisiveness, work
difficulty and fatigability of BDI were higher in DST nonsuppressors. In schizophrenic group,
there was no difference in the severity of depression between nonsuppressors and suppressors,
but psychic anxiety and somatic anxiety of HRSD were higher in nonsuppressors. There were
significant positive correlations between the severity of depression and postdexamethasone cortisol
levels in depression group, but not in schizophrenic gruop. Those symptoms that had positive
correlations with postdexamethasone cortisol levels were retarded depressive symptoms in depression
group and anxiety symptoms in schizophrenic group. This results partially support the
hypothesis that, while DST nonsuppression might be a specific biological reaction in depressive
disorder, it is a nonspecitfic reaction to stress in schizophrenia.