Abstract

ABSTRACT: The dexamethasone suppression test (DST) was given to 86 patients with unipolar depression at the time of admission to the hospital. Thirty-three patients (38%) had abnormal DST responses. There was no difference in treatment response or outcome between patients with normal or abnormal DST responses on admission. Of the 33 patients who had abnormal DST responses on admission, 25 (76%) showed normal responses by the time of discharge. Five of the eight patients (63%) with “persistent” nonsuppression despite symptomatic improvement and discharge had relapse within six months, while only four of 25 patients (16%) whose DST response became normal (P<.05) and ten of 53 patients (19%) who had normal DSTs at the time of admission (P<.05) had relapse. These findings suggest that persistence of abnormal DST responses may provide a useful prognostic marker of risk for early relapse in depressive disorder.