No abstract

Recent investigations suggest that there may be an abnormality of calcium and magnesium in depressive illness. Flach (1964) followed the urinary excretion of calcium in depressed patients maintained on a constant intake of calcium before and during recovery. Those patients that recovered showed a significant decrease in the excretion of calcium. Coiraultet al.(1959) reported an increase in ionized calcium and a decrease in total plasma calcium on recovery from depression. Cade (1964) reported considerably raised total plasma magnesium levels in depressed patients both before and after recovery. A connection between affective disorders and calcium metabolism is suggested by the common occurrence of such states in both hypo- and hypercalcaemia (Denco and Kaelbling, 1962; Rookus and Speelman, 1961). The present paper reports an investigation into total and ionized plasma calcium and magnesium in a group of depressed patients both before and after recovery. The effects of lithium carbonate, a compound used in the treatment and prophylaxis of affective disorders (Baastrup and Schou, 1967; Schou, 1963) on plasma concentrations of magnesium and calcium was also investigated.

One of the hypotheses advanced to explain the processes underlying severe depression postulates a change in brain function due to an alteration in the distribution of cations across the neuronal membranes (Shaw and Coppen, 1966; Shaw, 1966). Electrophysiological evidence of abnormal function of pathways in the nervous system in depression has been obtained by the study of evoked cortical potentials (Shagass and Schwartz, 1966), but evidence of derangement in the distribution of cations between the cells and extracellular space has come only from “whole body” studies (Coppen and Shaw, 1963; Coppen, Shaw, Malleson and Costain, 1966; Shaw and Coppen, 1966).

No abstract

Drugs that increase the concentration of catechol and indolic amines in brain may relieve depression, while those that lower their concentration may cause it.