The dexamethasone suppression test in a general hospital psychiatric setting.

The use of the dexamethasone suppression test in a general hospital setting is discussed with a review of some of the literature pertaining to the test. The test was performed on a series of 47 patients where there was a high index of suspicion that depression was present. Of the patients with a final diagnosis of depression, 77% had a nonsuppressive DST. There were no false positives. Bipolar depressed patients were more likely to be nonsuppressors than unipolar patients.