CHOLINERGIC NEUROTRANSMISSION SEEMS NOT TO BE INVOLVED IN DEPRESSION BUT POSSIBLY IN PERSONALITY

Concordant with the adrenergic-cholinergic imbalance hypothesis of aff ective psychosis, there is a cholinergic supersenitivity in depression . Thus, the anticholinergic properties of some antidepressants might c ontribute to their efficacy. However, in the present double-blind stud ies (n = 20) with mianserin and viloxazine, respectively, which lack a nticholinergic properties, adjunctive treatment with the anticholinerg ic biperiden versus placebo did not enhance the antidepressive efficac y. Therefore, we hypothesized that cholinergic supersensitivity might be linked to some possibly predisposing dimension of personality. Inde ed, in healthy male volunteers (n = 11) the behavioral and cardiovascu lar sensitivity to physostigmine correlated significantly with ''irrit ability'' and ''emotional lability'' as well as with habitually passiv e strategies in stress coping. The rise in plasma cortisol and norepin ephrine correlated with ''retardation''; that of epinephrine with acti ve coping. Thus, the cholinergic supersensitivity in affective psychos es might be linked to a personality dimension like stress sensitivity rather than to the diagnostic category itself.