Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
Controlled Clinical Trial
. 2008 Sep;18(9):692-9.
doi: 10.1016/j.euroneuro.2008.05.005. Epub 2008 Jun 30.

Serotonergic responses in depressed patients with or without a history of alcohol use disorders and healthy controls

Leo Sher  1 , Barbara H Stanley, Thomas B Cooper, Kevin M Malone, J John Mann, Maria A Oquendo
Affiliations
Controlled Clinical Trial

Serotonergic responses in depressed patients with or without a history of alcohol use disorders and healthy controls

Leo Sher et al. Eur Neuropsychopharmacol. 2008 Sep.

Abstract

Dysfunction of serotonergic neurotransmission has been implicated in the etiopathogenesis of major depression (MDD) and alcohol use disorders (AUD). To compare serotonin function in MDD with co-occurring AUD (MDD/AUD), MDD without co-occurring AUD (MDD only) and healthy controls (HC) we sought to study differences in prolactin responses to fenfluramine administration in patients with MDD/AUD, patients with MDD only and HC. In all, 169 subjects (62 MDD/AUD, 75 MDD only, and 32 HC) were entered into the study. Controlling for gender, prolactin responses were lower in the MDD/AUD group compared to the MDD only or the HC group. Controlling for gender and aggression, prolactin responses in the MDD/AUD group remained significantly lower compared to the HC group but the difference between the MDD/AUD and the MDD only groups disappeared. The difference in prolactin responses between MDD/AUD and MDD only could be attributed to higher aggression scores in the MDD/AUD group compared to the MDD group.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

Conflict of interest

All authors declare that they have no conflicts of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Effects of fenfluramine administration on prolactin levels in MDD with co-occurring AUD (MDD/AUD), MDD without co-occurring AUD (MDD only) and healthy controls (HC).
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Barratt ES. Factor analysis of some psychometric measures of impulsiveness and anxiety. Psychol. Rep. 1965;16:547–554. - PubMed
    1. Beck AT, Ward CH, Mendelson M, Mock J, Erbaugh J. An inventory for measuring depression. Arch. Gen. Psychiatry. 1961;4:561–571. - PubMed
    1. Brooner RK, King VL, Kidorf M, Schmidt CW, Jr., Bigelow GE. Psychiatric and substance use comorbidity among treatment-seeking opioid abusers. Arch. Gen. Psychiatry. 1997;54:71–80. - PubMed
    1. Brown GL, Goodwin FK. Human aggression and suicide. Suicide Life Threat. Behav. 1986;16:223–243. - PubMed
    1. Chermack ST, Taylor SP. Alcohol and human physical aggression: pharmacological versus expectancy effects. J. Stud. Alcohol. 1995;56:449–456. - PubMed

Publication types

MeSH terms