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Depression, Hormones and Immunity

  • Chapter
Enkephalins and Endorphins

Abstract

The last decade or two have witnessed a sharp and steady increase in research and interest in the affective disorders. Clinically, major depressive illness has been delineated from other psychiatric disorders with depressed mood and clinical subtypes of depression have been proposed to reflect the heterogeneity among subgroups of depression. In addition to descriptive and clinical criteria, subtypes of depression have also been differentiated by biological markers such as sleep electroencephalography (EEG) records (1), urinary 3-methoxy-4-hydroxy phenylglycol (MHPG) excretion (2), cerebrospinal fluid 5-hydroxyindol acetic acid (HIAA) concentrations (3) and the dexamethasone suppression test (DST) (4). Particularly relevant to the theme of this book are studies in neuroendocrine and immune regulation in depression. In this chapter we will first summarize major advances in the study of hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis activity in the depressive disorders, then review some of the preliminary work in the immunology of depression.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Departments of Psychiatry, University of Iowa College of Medicine, Iowa City, Iowa, 52242, USA

    Ziad Kronfol

  2. Internal Medicine, University of Iowa College of Medicine, Iowa City, Iowa, 52242, USA

    Janet Schlechte

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  1. Ziad Kronfol
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  2. Janet Schlechte
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Oral Roberts University, Tulsa, Oklahoma, USA

    Nicholas P. Plotnikoff

  2. University of Houston, Houston, Texas, USA

    Robert E. Faith

  3. West Virginia University, Morgantown, West Virginia, USA

    Anthony J. Murgo

  4. University of South Florida, St. Petersburg, Florida, USA

    Robert A. Good M.D, Ph.D.

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© 1986 Springer Science+Business Media New York

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Kronfol, Z., Schlechte, J. (1986). Depression, Hormones and Immunity. In: Plotnikoff, N.P., Faith, R.E., Murgo, A.J., Good, R.A. (eds) Enkephalins and Endorphins. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4899-0557-4_7

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4899-0557-4_7

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Boston, MA

  • Print ISBN: 978-1-4899-0559-8

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-4899-0557-4

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