Corticosteroids in Depressive Illness

THIS PAPER will report a longitudinal psychoendocrine study of three parameters of adrenal cortical function in 20 patients hospitalized for depressive illness. The focus of the research was on the question, is adrenal cortical activity characteristically affected in depressive illness? The preceding paper, reviewing the literature on this subject, concluded that most of the reported data was difficult to interpret because of failure to control for significant factors, such as response to admission to the hospital milieu, interfering medications, and selection of appropriate control comparison data. The present study was designed to reexamine the problem of adrenal cortical function in depressed patients under more rigorously controlled conditions. Methods of Procedure The basic design was to assess the psychiatric state and measure urinary corticosteroids for three 72-hour periodsduring depressive illnessand for two 72-hour periodsfollowing recoveryin 20 depressed patients hospitalized on