[Changes in dexamethasone test indices and reduction in the rate of serotonin absorption by thrombocytes in chronic alcoholics].

Seventy-one chronic alcoholics with affective disorders were studied for the dexamethason test (DT) and for the rate of platelet serotonin absorption (RPSA) prior to and following the treatment. A considerable part of the patients displayed pathological changes in DT which correlated with the degree of affective symptomatology. The DT may serve as one of the methods for diagnosing affective disturbances in alcoholism. The RPSA was equally depressed in all the patients studied (by about 30% as against the control group) irrespective of the severity of affective symptomatology. The increase in the activity of central serotoninergic processes expressed in a RPSA decrease seems to reflect an underlying basic biochemical pathology of alcoholism rather than disorders in the affective sphere.