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Is there a biological difference between trauma-related depression and PTSD? DST says NO
Psychoneuroendocrinology, 08/08/2012
Savic D et al. – The hypothesis was confirmed: in respect to dexamethasone suppression test (DST), the examined trauma–related psychopathologies showed the same pattern: hypersuppression, due to multiple traumatic experiences.
Methods- This study was a part of a broader project in which simultaneous psychological and biological investigations were carried out in hospital conditions on 399 male participants: 57 with PTSD, 28 with depression, 76 with PTSD+depression, and 238 healthy controls.
- Cortisol was measured in blood samples taken at 0900h before and after administering 0.5mg of dexamethasone (at 2300h).
- Group means±standard deviation of cortisol suppression were: 79.4±18.5 in the PTSD group, 80.8±11.6 in the depression group, 77.5±24.6 in the group with PTSD+depression, and 66.8±34.6 in healthy controls.
- The first three groups suppressed significantly more than the fourth.
- When the number of traumas was introduced as a covariate, the differences disappeared.
