Why the study?
Does the dexamethasone suppression index improve diagnostic utility for depression compared to cortisol levels alone?
Does the dexamethasone suppression index improve diagnostic utility for depression compared to cortisol levels alone?
The dexamethasone suppression index may enhance the diagnostic utility of the dexamethasone suppression test for depression compared to using cortisol levels alone.
May improve DST diagnostic metrics; hypothesis-generating and should not yet change depression diagnostic practice.
The authors sought to determine whether the performance of the dexamethasone suppression test (DST) could be enhanced by expressing cortisol as a function of dexamethasone. Because cortisol concentration is a function of the reciprocal of dexamethasone concentration, this relationship was approximated by calculating the product of cortisol and dexamethasone as a dexamethasone suppression index. Preliminary assessment of test performance measures (sensitivity, specificity, and predictive power) showed that use of the dexamethasone suppression index was an improvement over the use of cortisol levels alone. Factoring dexamethasone levels into post-dexamethasone cortisol level measures may enhance the utility of neuroendocrine assessment in psychiatry.
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Arana et al. (1988) studied this question.
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