Maes M, Calabrese J, Lee M, Meltzer H Y
Department of Psychiatry, University Hospitals of Cleveland, Ohio 44106, USA.
Psychoneuroendocrinology. 1994;19(1):79-84. doi: 10.1016/0306-4530(94)90061-2.
The aim of this study was to characterize the relationships between age and endogenous cortisol secretion in healthy controls and in major depressed patients between 18 and 58 years of age. Toward this end, the authors measured morning basal plasma cortisol secretion every 30 min from 0900 h until 1100 h and computed the integrated morning cortisol secretion in 80 normal controls and 118 major depressed patients. A significant negative correlation between age and plasma morning cortisol was found in normal volunteers but not in major depressives. The observed decrease in cortisol secretion with age in normal controls older than 35 years does not occur in major depressives. The middle age (+/- 35 years) appears to be an important turning point in hypothalamo-pituitary-adrenal (HPA)-axis function of normal persons vs. major depressives.
本研究的目的是描述18至58岁健康对照者和重度抑郁症患者年龄与内源性皮质醇分泌之间的关系。为此，作者从上午9点到11点每隔30分钟测量一次早晨基础血浆皮质醇分泌，并计算了80名正常对照者和118名重度抑郁症患者的早晨皮质醇分泌总量。在正常志愿者中发现年龄与早晨血浆皮质醇之间存在显著负相关，而在重度抑郁症患者中未发现这种相关性。在35岁以上的正常对照者中观察到的皮质醇分泌随年龄的下降在重度抑郁症患者中并未出现。中年（±35岁）似乎是正常人与重度抑郁症患者下丘脑-垂体-肾上腺（HPA）轴功能的一个重要转折点。
