NEUR 3403 Lecture Notes - Lecture 18: Dexamethasone Suppression Test, Cortisol, Protective Factor
20 Dec 2019
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Women develop depression 2-3x more than men. Interacts with nts (da, 5-ht) and other neurological factors: may be affecting mood in this way. Estrogen is a protective factor in heart disease. Crh and cortisol show elevated levels in depression: pfc and hippocampus. Blocking crh receptors did not reduce depression: not able to work on specific receptors to have an effect. Measuring suppression (how easy) tells vulnerability of individual. How malleable cortisol was is not predictive of depression or vulnerability to depression. Normal response: predictive if whether you"ll relapse back into depression. Abnormal dexamethasone response: more likely to dip back into depression: treatment masks symptoms rather than fixing the problem, stop treatment and illness comes back. Acute inflammation: good, but too long can have damaging effects: depressive behaviours, anhedonia, social withdrawal, sickly, difficult to dissociate general sickness and depressive. Mice given an injection which causes viral responses (without a virus) exhibit depressive like behaviours: anhedonia, look sick, lethargic.
