Growth hormone response to clonidine as a probe of noradrenergic receptor responsiveness in affective disorder patients and controls

Content Provider	Semantic Scholar
Author	Siever, Larry J. Uhde, Thomas W. Silberman, Edward K. Jimerson, David C. Murphy, Dennis L.
Copyright Year	1982
Abstract	The growth hormone (GH) response to the alpha-adrenergic agonist clinidine was blunted in 19 depressed patients compared to 20 controls. The difference remained significant when age- and sex-matches pairs of patients and controls were compared from this sample, either including or excluding subjects with elevated GH baseline levels. Plasma levels of free 3-methoxy-4-hydroxyphenyl-glycol (MHPG) were assayed in blood samples drawn just before the clonidine infusion. A modest negative correlation was found between the plasma MHPG values and the magnitude of the GH responses to clonidine, although baseline plasma MHPG levels were not significantly different between patients and controls. The diminished GH response to clonidine observed suggests that many depressed patients may have decreased alpha-adrenoreceptor responsiveness. Decreased responsiveness may in some cases be associated with relatively increased indices of presynaptic noradrenergic availability. Such a model might have implications for understanding the functional status of the noradrenergic neurotransmitter system in depressed patients and the possible subtyping of affective disorder patients.
Starting Page	171
Ending Page	183
Page Count	13
File Format	PDF HTM / HTML
DOI	10.1016/0165-1781(82)90005-1
PubMed reference number	6283576
Journal	Medline
Volume Number	6
Alternate Webpage(s)	https://api.elsevier.com/content/article/pii/0165178182900051
Alternate Webpage(s)	https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/0165178182900051?dgcid=api_sd_search-api-endpoint
Alternate Webpage(s)	https://doi.org/10.1016/0165-1781%2882%2990005-1
Journal	Psychiatry Research
Language	English
Access Restriction	Open
Content Type	Text
Resource Type	Article