A Comparison of the Growth Hormone Responses to Clonidine and Apomorphine in the Same Patients with Endogenous Depression

The growth hormone responses to clonidine (1.3 micrograms/kgm) and apomorphine (0.005 mg/kgm) have been measured in 8 drug free patients with endogenous depression. In these patients the growth hormone responses to clonidine were significantly smaller than to apomorphine. As these doses of clonidine and apomorphine have previously been reported to cause similar growth hormone responses in normal subjects, these findings support the hypothesis of a defect in the adrenergic but not the dopaminergic regulation of growth hormone in patients with endogenous depression.