Psychopharmacoendocrinology and Depression Research

This study investigates how psychotropic drugs influence anterior pituitary hormone (APH) secretion in healthy subjects and depressed patients. The study was designed to find out if psychotropic drugs with differing pharmacological actions also influence APH secretion differently. The examinations are presented in detail and enable the reader to follow the strategy, check the data, and interpret the results. The authors ask whether it is possible to draw from the data conclusions about the effects of drugs such as antidepressants, neuroleptics, and benzodiazepine-type tranquilizers on certain neurons in the human body. The comparisons between healthy individuals and neurotic or endogenous depressed patients provide interesting results, some of which hint at a disturbed metabolism in the patients suffering from depression.