3-Methoxy-4-Hydroxy Phenylglycol (MHPG) Excretion in Depressive States

Brain Chemistry and Mental Disease

“…The urinary excretion of MHPG in human subjects, therefore, may provide the best available index of norepinephrine synthesis and metabolism in the brain, although urinary MHPG may also derive in part from norepinephrine coming from peripheral sympathetic nerves. Maas and his collaborators have reported that MHPG excretion was decreased in a heterogeneous group of dep~essed patients (Maas, Fawcett, and Dekirmenjian 1968a), and we found that MHPG levels were decreased during depression and increased during mania in a small group of manic-depressive patients studied longitudinally (Greenspan et ai. 1970).…”

Biochemical Criteria for Classifying Depressive Disorders and Predicting Responses to Pharmacotherapy: Preliminary Findings from Studies of Norepinephrine Metabolism

“…All depressed patients, however, do not excrete comparably low levels of MHPG, and recent preliminary findings from our laboratory, as well as others, suggest that MHPG excretion may provide a biochemical criterion for classifying depressive disorders and for predicting the responses to specific forms of antidepressant pharmacotherapy (25,26,44,46). In a recent study (46,47,42) of a group of 12 patients with various clinically defined subtypes of depressive disorders, examined prior to treatment with antidepressant drugs or ECT, MHPG excretion was significantly lower in patients with manicdepressive depressions (i.e.…”

Urinary Excretion of Catecholamines and Their Metabolites in Relation to Circulating Catecholamines

“…To evaluate the effect of increased catecholamine levels in the peripheral circulation on urinary catecholamine and metabolite levels, we infused healthy volunteers during 6 hours with epinephrine, norepinephrine, or placebo, respectively, in a three-period, double-blind, crossover design. The results indicate that (1) urinary epinephrine and norepinephrine levels were the most sensitive indicators of increased circulating epinephrine and norepinephrine levels, respectively; (2) changes in circulating epinephrine or norepinephrine levels were not readily reflected in changes in urinary vanillylmandelic acid or 3-methoxy-4-hydroxyphenylglycol levels; and (3) increased normetanephrine excretion was not only induced by infusion of norepinephrine but also by epinephrine. This last finding may be due to activation of the sympathetic nervous system by circulating epinephrine.…”