Many studies showed that depression is correlated with osteoporosis, while others showed that low cholesterol level is also related to depression. However, these relationships still remain controversial. Since the bone mineral density (BMD) is related to depression and depression is related to hypocholesterolemia, there might exist a correlation between BMD and plasma cholesterol levels. To prove this, we enrolled 5000 individuals, 2170 males, and 2830 females, who had health check-ups at a private clinic between 1998 and 1999. They were divided into three groups. Group 1 was composed of male subjects; Group 2, female subjects; and Group 3, females aged over 50 to exclude pre-menopausal females. Each subject had a routine physical examination, fasting blood drawing, BMD measured by dual energy x-ray absorptiometry (DEXA) over the wrist, and was given a questionnaire to answer. Between Groups 1 and 2, the females were significantly younger, had higher body mass index (BMI), total cholesterol (TC), high density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDLC), low density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDLC), and platelet, but lower BMD, fasting plasma glucose (FPG), triglycerides (TG), hemoglobin (Hgb), and white blood cell (WBC) count. As for Groups 1 and 3, all the aforementioned findings still remained the same except that the systolic blood pressure (SBP) was higher and diastolic blood pressure (DBP) was lower in Group 3. Our results showed that BMD is negatively related to age in males. In females, it is negatively correlated with age, FPG, PPG, SBP, DBP, TC, LDLC, TG, and Hgb, but positively related to BMI and platelet. However, for females in Group 3, BMD is only negatively related to age, FPG, SBP, and TG but positively related to BMI. Stepwise multiple regression analysis showed that the BMD is negatively related to age but positively related to BMI in both males and females. In Group 3, BMD is negatively related to age and FPG but positively related BMI. In conclusion, no correlation exists between BMD and cholesterol. This implies that the depression is not significantly related to cholesterol and/or BMD. This might be due to various confounding factors, which could affect their relationships. The negative correlation between BMD and FPG is only observed in females older than 50 years. Further studies are needed to clarify these relationships.

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Co-administration of dextromethorphan (DM) with morphine during pregnancy and throughout lactation has been found to reduce morphine physical dependence and tolerance in rat offspring. No evidence was presented, however, for the effect of DM co-administered with morphine during pregnancy on morphine-induced reward and behavioral sensitization (possibly related to the potential to induce morphine addiction) in morphine-exposed offspring. Conditioned place preference and locomotor activity tests revealed that the p60 male offspring of chronic morphine-treated female rats were more vulnerable to morphine-induced reward and behavioral sensitization. The administration of a low dose of morphine (1 mg/kg, i.p.) in these male offspring also increased the dopamine and serotonin turnover rates in the nucleus accumbens, which implied that they were more sensitive to morphine. Co-administration of DM with morphine in the dams prevented this adverse effect of morphine in the offspring rats. Thus, DM may possibly have a great potential in the prevention of higher vulnerability to psychological dependence of morphine in the offspring of morphine-addicted mothers.

Rosiglitazone treatment significantly improved insulin resistance and reduced postchallenge glucose and insulin concentrations in patients with impaired glucose tolerance without remarkable effects on beta-cell secretory function.

Hyperglycemia after stress is a very common clinical phenomenon. It is generally hypothesized that the underlying cause is a neuroendocrine-mediated deterioration in glucose metabolism. However, the detailed roles of insulin sensitivity, glucose effectiveness and acute insulin response to glucose load in response to stress have not been well established. Hernioplasty was used as a minor stress model for studying stress-induced hyperglycemia. Eleven healthy young men were enrolled voluntarily in this study. Their mean age was 22.0 +/- 0.9 yr and BMI 23.3 +/- 0.6 kg/m2. Frequently sampled i.v. glucose tolerance tests were performed one day before and one day after the surgery. Insulin sensitivity (SI), glucose effectiveness (EG) and area under acute insulin response (AIR) were calculated from "minimal model" algorithms. We also measured fasting concentrations of human GH, ACTH and F on the days of the test. Compared to the pre-operation data, levels of ACTH and F did not change significantly after the surgery. Only GH levels were marginally significant. On the other hand, the SI (0.75 +/- 0.1, 0.52 +/- 0.9 x 10(-5) min(-1)/pmol, p = 0.04), EG (0.023 +/- 0.03, 0.016 +/- 0.003 min(-1), p = 0.01) and AIR (6738.5 +/- 1111.6, 5130.0 +/- 1047.2 pmol, p = 0.005) were all significantly decreased after surgery. The percentages of decrease were 16.3 +/- 15.5, 32.1 +/- 10.3 and 17.8 +/- 10.3%, respectively. Finally, only the changes of EG positively correlate with the changes of ACTH before and after surgery. No significant changes were noted among other stress hormones and the changes of SI, EG and AIR. In conclusion, hernioplasty results in reduced SI, EG and AIR. Among them, although not statistically significant, the EG showed the most distinct decrease after the surgery, which has not been found in previous literature.

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