THE MUNICH VULNERABILITY STUDY ON AFFECTIVE-DISORDERS - OVERVIEW OF THE RESULTS AT INDEX-INVESTIGATION

The neurobiological alterations commonly found in affective disorders (e.g., alterations in the nocturnal sleep profile, dysfunction of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenocortical system) gradually recover with i mprovement of the depressive syndrome. Their persistence during full c linical remission, however, is associated with an increased risk for r elapse and, thus may represent trait markers for affective disorders. In order to test this hypothesis, we designed a prospective study in w hich healthy first-degree relatives (high-risk probands; HRPs; n=54) o f patients with an affective disorder are investigated by means of pol ysomnography, the combined dexamethasone and corticotropine-releasing hormone (DEX-CRH) test and a variety of psychometric scales. In the pr esent part of the study (index assessment), these HRPs, as a group, sh owed depressionlike alterations in both the sleep pattern and the DEX- CRH-test outcome; furthermore, their psyche metric profile was charact erized by elevated scores on the scales assessing ''rigidity'' and ''a utonomic lability''. On a single-case level, 35% of the HRPs were iden tified as conspicuous (depressionlike) in at least two of the th ree a reas investigated. A decision of whether or not this ''conspicuousness '' indeed represents a trait marker for affective disorders can be rea ched when the followup part of the study has identified those HRPs wit h their respective premorbide status who have developed an affective d isorder in the meantime.