Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-p9bg8 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-26T07:42:45.548Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Pre-treatment neurotransmitter metabolites and response to imipramine or amitriptyline treatment

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 July 2009

James W. Maas ,
James H. Kocsis ,
Charles L. Bowden ,
John M. Davis ,
D. Eugene Redmond ,
Israel Hanin  and
Eli Robins
James H. Kocsis
Affiliation:
Payne Whitney Psychiatric Clinic, New York, New York, USA.
Charles L. Bowden
Affiliation:
Department of Psychiatry, The University of Texas Health Science Center, San Antonio, Texas, USA.
John M. Davis
Affiliation:
Illinois State Psychiatric Institute, Chicago, Illinois, USA.
D. Eugene Redmond
Affiliation:
Department of Psychiatry, Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, Connecticut, USA.
Israel Hanin
Affiliation:
Department of Psychiatry, Western Psychiatric Institute and Clinic, University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA.
Eli Robins
Affiliation:
Department of Psychiatry, Washington University School of Medicine, St Louis, Missouri, USA.
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Synopsis

Preliminary data are presented from the NIMH Collaborative Study on the psychobiology of depression, biological studies, dealing with relationships between the pre-treatment levels of the neurotransmitter metabolites 3-methoxy-4-hydrophenethyleneglycol (MHPG), 5-hydroxyindoleacetic acid (5-HIAA) and homovanillic acid (HVA) and the subsequent therapeutic response of depressed patients to imipramine or amitriptyline. Eighty-seven depressed patients were studied during pre-treatment and treatment periods. It has been found that (1) both low pre-treatment urinary MHPG and low CSF 5-HIAA values are associated with a response to imipramine; these relationships were not artefacts due to sex or age; (2) there were no significant relationships between pre-treatment urinary MHPG, CSF MHPG, 5-HIAA, or HVA values and the subsequent response, or failure of response, to amitriptyline; (3) there was not a bimodal distribution for CSF 5-HIAA. For both males and females, there were positive and statistically significant correlations between CSF MHPG and urinary MHPG; for the females, there were positive and significant correlations between both urinary and CSF MHPG and CSF 5-HIAA. The theoretical and practical implications of these findings are discussed.

Type
Research Article
Information
Psychological Medicine , Volume 12 , Issue 1 , February 1982 , pp. 37 - 43
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1982

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

Åsberg, M., Bertilsson, L., Tuck, D., Cronholm, B. & Sjoqvist, F. (1973). Indoleamine metabolites in the cerebrospinal fluid of depressed patients before and during treatment with nortriptyline. Clinical Pharmacology and Therapeutics 14, 277–286.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Åsberg, M., Thoren, P., Traskman, L., Bertilsson, L. & Ringberger, V. (1976). ‘Serotonin depression’ – A biochemical subgroup within the affective disorders? Science 191, 478–480.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Beckmann, H. & Goodwin, F. (1975). Antidepressant response to tricyclics and urinary MHPG in unipolar patients. Archives of General Psychiatry 32, 17–21.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Berger, P. A., Faull, K. M., Kilkowski, J., Anderson, P. L., Kraemer, H., Harris, K. L. & Barchas, J. D. (1980). CSF monoamine metabolites in depression and schizophrenia. American Journal of Psychiatry 137, 174–180.Google ScholarPubMed
Bowden, C. L., Redmond, D. E., Swann, A. C. & Maas, J. W. (1981). Pretreatment amine neurotransmitter system interrelationships in depression. Psychopharmacology Bulletin 17 (11), 70–71.Google ScholarPubMed
Bowers, M. (1972). Clinical measurements of central dopamine and 5-hydroxytryptamine metabolism: Reliability and interpretations of cerebrospinal fluid acid monoamine metabolite measures. Neuropharmacology 11, 101–111.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Bowers, M. & Gerbode, F. (1968). Relationship of monoamine metabolites in human cerebrospinal fluid to age. Nature 219, 1256–1257.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Cobbin, D. M., Requin-Blow, B. & Williams, L. R. (1979). Urinary MHPG levels and tricyclic antidepressant drug selection. Archives of General Psychiatry 36, 1111–1118.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Coppen, A., Rama Rao, V. A., Ruthven, C. R. J., Goodwin, B. L. & Sandler, M. (1979). Urinary 4-hydroxy-3-methoxyphenylglycol is not a predictor for clinical response to amitriptyline in depressive illness. Psychopharmacology 64, 95–97.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fyro, B., Wode-Helgodt, B., Borg, S. & Sedvall, G. (1974). The effect of chlorpromazine on homovanillic acid levels in cerebrospinal fluid of schizophrenic patients. Psychopharmacologia 35, 287–294.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Gottfries, C. G., Gottfries, I., Johansson, B. & Olsson, R. (1971). Acid monoamine metabolites in human cerebrospinal fluid and their relations to age and sex. Neuropharmacology 10, 665–672.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Green, A. R. & Deakin, J. F. W. (1980). Brain noradrenaline depletion prevents ECS-induced enhancement of serotonin- and dopamine-mediated behaviour. Nature 285, 232–233.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Hollister, L. E., Davis, K. L. & Berger, P. A. (1980). Subtypes of depression based on excretion of MHPG and response to nortriptyline. Archives of General Psychiatry 37, 1107–1110.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Katz, M. M. & Itil, T. M. (1974). Video methodology for research in psychopathology and psychopharmacology. Archives of General Psychiatry 31, 204–210.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Kety, S. S. (1971). Brain amines and affective disorder. In Brain Chemistry and Mental Disease (ed. Ho, B. T. and McIssac, W. M.), pp. 263–273. Plenum Press: New York.Google Scholar
Klein, D. F. & Davis, J. M. (1969). Diagnoses and Drug Treatment of Psychiatric Disorders. Williams and Wilkins: Baltimore.Google Scholar
Maas, J. W. (1975). Biogenic amines and depression. Biochemical and pharmacological separation of two types of depression. Archives of General Psychiatry 32, 1357–1361.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Maas, J. W., Fawcett, J. A. & Dekirmenjian, H. (1972). Catecholamine metabolism, depressive illness, and drug response. Archives of General Psychiatry 26, 252–262.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Maas, J. W., Hattox, S. E., Greene, N. M. & Landis, D. H. (1979). 3-Methoxy-4-hydroxyphenethyleneglycol production by human brain in vivo. Science 205, 1025–1027.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Maas, J. W., Koslow, S. H., Davis, J. M., Katz, M. M., Mendels, J., Robins, E., Stokes, P. E. & Bowden, C. L. (1980). Biological component of the NIMH Clinical Research Branch Collaborative Program on the psychobiology of depression: I. Background and theoretical considerations. Psychological Medicine 10, 759–776.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Post, R. M. & Goodwin, F. R. (1978). Approaches to brain amines in psychiatric patients: A re-evaluation of cerebrospinal fluid studies. In Handbook of Psychopharmacology (ed. Iversen, L. L., Iversen, S. and Snyder, S.), pp. 147–185. Plenum Press: New York.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Prange, A. J. (1973). The use of drugs in depression: Its theoretical and practical basis. Psychiatry Annals 3, 56–75.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Robins, E. & Guze, S. B. (1971). Classification of affective disorders: the primary–secondary, the endogenous-reactive, and the neurotic-psychotic concepts.In Recent Advances in the Psychobiology of the Depressive Illnesses. Proceedings of a Workship Sponsored by NIMH (ed. Williams, T. A., Katz, M. M. and Shield, A. Jr), pp. 283–293. US Government Office: Washington, D.C.Google Scholar
Rosenbaum, A. H., Schatzberg, A. F., Toshihiko, M., Orsulak, P. J., Cole, J. O., Grab, E. L. & Schildkraut, J. J. (1980). MHPG as a predictor of antidepressant response to imipramine and maprotiline. American Journal of Psychiatry 137, 1090–1092.Google ScholarPubMed
Sacchetti, E., Smeraldi, E., Cagnasso, M., Biondi, P. A. & Bellodi, L. (1976). MHPG, amitriptyline and affective disorders: a longitudinal study. International Pharmacopsychiatry 11, 157–162.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Schildkraut, J. J. (1973). Norepinephrine metabolites as biochemical criteria for classifying depressive disorders and predicting responses to treatment: preliminary findings. American Journal of Psychiatry 130, 695–698.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Schildkraut, J. J., Orsulak, P. J., Schatzberg, A. F., Gudeman, J. E., Cole, J. O., Rohde, W. A. & LaBrie, R. A. (1978). Toward a biochemical classification of depressive disorders. I. Differences in urinary excretion of MHPG and other catecholamine metabolities in clinically defined subtypes of depressions. Archives of General Psychiatry 35, 1427–1433.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Secunda, S., Koslow, S. H., Redmond, D. E., Garver, D., Ramsey, T. A., Croughan, J., Kocsis, J. H., Hanin, I. & Lieberman, K. (1980). Biological component of the NIMH Clinical Research Branch Collaborative Program on the psychobiology of depression: II. Methodology and data analysis. Psychological Medicine 10, 777–793.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Sedvall, G., Fyro, B. & Nyback, H. (1974). Mass fragmentometric determination of homovanillic acid in lumbar cerebrospinal fluid of schizophrenic patients during treatment with antipsychotic drugs. Journal of Psychiatric Research 11, 75–80.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Sjostrom, R. & Roos, B. E. (1972). 5-Hydroxyindoleacetic acid and homovanillic acid in cerebrospinal fluid in manic depressive psychosis. European Journal of Clinical Pharmacology 4, 170–176.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Spitzer, R. L., Endicott, J. & Robins, E. (1978). Research Diagnostic Criteria. Archives of General Psychiatry 35, 773–782.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Van Praag, H. M. (1979). Central serotonin. Its relation to depression vulnerability and depression prophylaxis. Biological Psychiatry Today 19, 485–498.Google Scholar
Van Praag, H. M. & Korf, J. (1971). Endogenous depressions with and without disturbances in the 5-hydroxytryptamine metabolism: a biochemical classification. Psychopharmacologia 19, 148–152.CrossRefGoogle Scholar