Stokes P E, Maas J W, Davis J M, Koslow S H, Casper R C, Stoll P M
Am J Psychiatry. 1987 Jul;144(7):868-72. doi: 10.1176/ajp.144.7.868.
The activity of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenocortical (HPA) axis is often high in depressive illness. The authors studied 132 depressed patients and 80 healthy control subjects. They report a significant direct association between HPA axis activity and adrenomedullary epinephrine secretion in depressed patients. They also found that depressed patients with high HPA activity tend to have lower CSF levels of 5-hydroxyindoleacetic acid, a serotonin metabolite, and modestly lower levels of 3-methoxy-4-hydroxyphenylglycol, a metabolite of epinephrine and norepinephrine, than patients with normal HPA activity. These findings provide potentially important leads for understanding interactions of biogenic amine systems with HPA axis function.
下丘脑-垂体-肾上腺皮质（HPA）轴的活性在抑郁症中通常较高。作者对132名抑郁症患者和80名健康对照者进行了研究。他们报告称，抑郁症患者的HPA轴活性与肾上腺髓质肾上腺素分泌之间存在显著的直接关联。他们还发现，与HPA活性正常的患者相比，HPA活性高的抑郁症患者脑脊液中5-羟吲哚乙酸（一种血清素代谢物）的水平往往较低，肾上腺素和去甲肾上腺素的代谢物3-甲氧基-4-羟基苯乙二醇的水平也略有降低。这些发现为理解生物胺系统与HPA轴功能的相互作用提供了潜在的重要线索。
