Clinical and Biochemical Heterogeneity of Depressive Disorders
Abstract
Indirect evidence, mostly pharmacologic, has suggested a role for brain neurotransmitter amines such as norepinephrine in the production of depression or mania. Clinical investigations have supported this concept but also indicate that depression is probably a biochemically heterogeneous group of illnesses. There may be a clinically, biochemically, and pharmacologically definable subtype of depression in which there is a disorder of norepinephrine metabolism or disposition in brain. I review here the experimental data from which this hypothesis is derived.
Article and Author Information
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▸From the Department of Psychiatry, Yale University School of Medicine; New Haven, Connecticut.
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▸Requests for reprints should be addressed to J.W. Maas, M.D.; Department of Psychiatry, Yale University School of Medicine, 333 Cedar St.; New Haven, CT 06510.
- © 1978 American College of Physicians
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