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Plasma noradrenaline response to a cognitive stressor in subtypes of depressive illness
Author(s) -
Cooper Stephen J,
Kelly Christopher B
Publication year - 2000
Publication title -
human psychopharmacology: clinical and experimental
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.461
H-Index - 78
eISSN - 1099-1077
pISSN - 0885-6222
DOI - 10.1002/1099-1077(200006)15:4<265::aid-hup170>3.0.co;2-7
Subject(s) - melancholic depression , stressor , stroop effect , psychology , depression (economics) , anxiety , cognition , clinical psychology , medicine , melancholia , psychiatry , economics , macroeconomics
Noradrenergic function has been shown to be disrupted in depressive illness. The plasma noradrenaline response to a cognitive stressor (the Stroop test) was used to investigate noradenergic activity in subtypes of depressive illness. A Stroop test was carried out, under standardised conditions, on patients with melancholic or psychotic depression, non‐melancholic depression, general anxiety disorder and normal controls. Blood samples were taken during testing for measurement of plasma noradrenaline. Although there was a trend for the plasma noradrenergic response to be reduced in the melancholic/psychotic depressed patients compared to all other groups, this did not reach statistical significance. No other inter‐group comparisons were statistically significant. The plasma noradrenaline response to a cognitive stressor does not discriminate subtypes of depressive illness from normal controls. Copyright © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.