Altered salivary dehydroepiandrosterone levels in major depression in adults

Background: The authors sought to examine whether levels of dehydroepiandro sterone are abnormal in depression. Methods: Three groups of subjects aged 20-64 were studied: 44 major depress ives, 35 subjects with partially or completely remitted depression, matched as far as possible for age and drug treatment, and 41 normal control subje cts. Dehydroepiandrosterone and cortisol in saliva were determined from spe cimens taken at 8:00 AM and 8:00 PM on 4 days. Results: The mean age of the three groups did not differ Dehydroepiandroste rone was lowered at 8:00 AM and 8;00 PM compared with control subjects. Val ues for the remitted group were intermediate. Dehydroepiandrosterone levels at 8:00 AM correlated negatively with severity of depression and were not related to drug treatment or smoking, but decreased with age (as expected). Corrisol was elevated in depression in the evening. The molar cortisol/deh ydroepiandrosterone ratio also differentiated those with depression from th e control group. Conclusions: Lowered dehydroepiandrosterone levels are an additional state abnormality in adult depression. Adrenal steroid changes are thus not limit ed to cortisol. Because dehydroepiandrosterone may antagonize some effects of cortisol and may have mood improving properties, these findings may have significant implications for the pathophysiology of depression. (C) 2000 S ociety of Biological Psychiatry.