Endocrine Psychiatry: The Dexamethasone Suppression Test and Electroconvulsive Therapy
نویسنده
چکیده
Electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) is making something of a comeback because it remains a paragon of efficacy amidst other relatively disappointing treatments. The dexamethasone suppression test (DST), once the poster child for a laboratory test in psychiatry, is of minor theoretical and historical interest. Edward Shorter and Max Fink1 intertwine the stories of ECT, DST, and the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis in their recently published book, Endocrine Psychiatry: Solving the Riddle of Melancholia. The book chronicles the rise and fall of the HPA axis in psychiatry and offers some lessons relevant to the practice of ECT today.
منابع مشابه
Monitoring of antidepressant response to ECT with polysomnographic recordings and the dexamethasone suppression test.
Ten patients treated with electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) only were followed with serial sleep polysomnographic recordings and dexamethasone suppression tests (DSTs). Both biological correlates of depression showed improvement with ECT. The use of serial sleep measures and serial DSTs in monitoring the clinical response to ECT is discussed.
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