GROWTH-HORMONE RESPONSE TO APOMORPHINE IN PANIC DISORDER - COMPARISONWITH MAJOR DEPRESSION AND NORMAL CONTROLS

Several lines of evidence suggest that dopamine might be involved in a nxiety states. In the present study we assessed the growth hormone (GH ) response to 0.5 mg apomorphine (a dopaminergic agonist) in 10 male d rug-free inpatients meeting Research Diagnostic Criteria for panic dis order who were compared with 10 male major depressive inpatients and 1 0 male normal controls, The three groups differed significantly in the GH peak response (mean +/- SD): 27.8 +/- 12.5 ng/ml in panics, 5.4 +/ - 4.0 ng/ml in major depressives, and 25.8 +/- 11.3 ng/ml in normal co ntrols (F(2,27) = 15.3; P = 0.00003). Although there were significant differences between panics and major depressives (P = 0.00004), and be tween major depressives and controls (P = 0.00004), panics did not sig nificantly differ from controls. These results do not support the hypo thesis of an overlap between panic and affective disorders, and sugges t that the hypothalamo-GH-somatomedin axis could be intact in panic di sorder.