Cortisol in the CSF of Depressed and Suicidal Patients

Cytokines, “Depression Due to A General Medical Condition,” and Antidepressant Drugs

“…In particular, dysregulation of the HPA axis has been suggested as an important aspect of the pathophysiology of depression. Patients with major affective disorders exhibit elevated serum, urinary, and cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) levels of Cortisol (CaroU, Curtis, & Mendels, 1976;Sachar, Hellman, Fukushima, & Gallaghaer, 1970;Traskman,Tybring, Asberg, Bertilsson, & Schalling, 1980), abnormal 24-hr Cortisol secretory patterns (Linkowski, Mendlewicz, Leclercq, Brasseur, Hubain, Goldstein, Copinschi, & van Cauter, 1985), and non-suppression of serum Cortisol following dexamethasone administration (Carroll, Martin, & Davies, 1968;Holsboer & Harden, 1996). The excessive adrenal Cortisol secretion in depressed patients probably reflects abnormal limbic-hypothalamic activation, which results in increased production and secretion of corticotrpin-releasing hormone (CRH) (Gold, Chrousos, Kellner, Post, Roy, Auerginos, Schulte, Oldfield, & Loriaux, 1984;Holsboer & Harden, 1996;Yehuda & Nemeroff, 1994).…”

Biological Correlations of Suicide and Aggressivity in Major Depressions (with Melancholia): 5-Hydroxyindoleacetic Acid and Cortisol in Cerebral Spinal Fluid, Dexamethasone Suppression Test and Therapeutic Response to 5-Hydroxytryptophan

“…There are several publi cations which concur in that, in depressed patients with suicidal tendencies, there is a predominance of nonsup pressors in the test of the suppression of cortisol secretion with dexamethasone (DST) [Carroll et al, 1981;Banki et al, 1981Banki et al, , 1984Coryell and Schlosser, 1981;Reus, 1982;Targum et al, 1983], According to Carroll et al [1981], DST identifies a suicidal population group different from that identified by low 5-HIAA in CSF, a point which is necessary to review because, for instance, Traskman et al [1980] have looked at the concentrations of cortisol in CSF, finding them high in depressed patients, in which furthermore there was a low 5-HIAA.…”

Diurnal Rhythms of Plasma Cortisol, Beta-Endorphin and Prolactin, and Cerebrospinal Fluid Amine Metabolite Levels before Suicide

“…Unfortunately in this case, the CSF results were not available until after the patient's death. Traskman et al [1980] found no relationship between actual suicide and either MHPG or HVA, although Agren [ 1980] reported a negative correlation between CSF MHPG and suicidal tendency. The high levels of the catecholamine metabo lites in the patient reported here are consistent with his lack of psychomotor retardation, and this could have contributed to his suicide.…”

“…However this finding was not repli cated [Levy and Hansen, 1969]. Kreiger [ 1974] suggested that there was an association between high plasma corti sol and suicide, but Traskman et al [1980] found that CSF cortisol was equally elevated above control values in suicidal and nonsuicidal depressed patients. In nondepressed suicidal patients CSF cortisol was not signifi cantly higher than in healthy controls.…”