Posted by SLS on September 4, 2004, at 12:38:48
In reply to To Scott (SLS) Cortisol question, posted by denise528 on September 4, 2004, at 12:23:17
Hi Denise.
How are you?
> I've asked my doctor about having a dexamethasone suppression test (he didn't know what one was) but I faxed him through some details.
The DST was more popular 20 years ago in psychiatry than it is today. I think it is good information to have. It might help in making treatment decisions in the future.
The DST doesn't measure the amount of cortisol circulating in your blood stream. It is an indicator of how well the "thermostat" for cortisol management is operating. Of course, the function of this regulatory mechanism along the HPA (hypothalamo-pituitary-adrenal) axis helps to determine cortisol secretion. Hypercortisolemia can be subsyndromal in that it doesn't necessarily produce outward symptoms.
> Also I mentioned in an a previous thread, I rang the professor in Newcastle who performed a study on memifitide on Psychotic depression and he said that whilst it had long term affects on the psychosis it only had short term affects on the depression so not sure what to think about this.
Did you mean nemifitide or mifepristone?
> Do you suffer any symptoms of psychosis?
Only during drug-induced mania. It is not part of the natural course of my illness and not a part of my depression.
:-)
- Scott
poster:SLS
thread:386371
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20040904/msgs/386375.html