Acute tryptophan (trp) depletion, which purportedly decreases brain serotonin, lowers mood in normal males with a multigenerational family history of major affective disorder (FH+), but not in male controls. In the present study, the hypothesis that a mood lowering response to acute trp depletion may reflect a susceptibility to depression was investigated further. As both a family history of major affective disorder (MAD) and female sex are considered to be risk factors for depression, the effects of trp depletion on mood were investigated in control and FH+ women. The temporal stability of mood change to trp depletion, when rechallenged at least one month later, was also assessed in order to appraise its utility as a putative susceptibility marker. Subjects ingested a trp deficient amino acid mixture on two separate occasions and a balanced control mixture containing trp on another occasion. Compared to the balanced condition, control women exhibited a significant lowering of mood following the trp depletion, whereas in a previous study control men did not. The sex difference in the mood response to trp depletion among controls is consistent with the fact that women are at greater risk for depression than men. Unlike controls, FH+ women showed no lowering of mood, which suggests that serotonin may not be as important in the etiology of depression in these women. The mood response to trp depletion exhibited poor temporal stability, which does not support its use as a susceptibility marker of depression in normal subjects. Its utility as a putative phenotypic marker for MAD awaits further study in FH+ subjects who respond to trp depletion. (Abstract shortened by UMI.)
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:LACETR/oai:collectionscanada.gc.ca:QMM.23270 |
| Date | January 1995 |
| Creators | Ellenbogen, Mark Alexander |
| Contributors | Young, S. N. (advisor) |
| Publisher | McGill University |
| Source Sets | Library and Archives Canada ETDs Repository / Centre d'archives des thèses électroniques de Bibliothèque et Archives Canada |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Coverage | Master of Science (Department of Psychiatry.) |
| Rights | All items in eScholarship@McGill are protected by copyright with all rights reserved unless otherwise indicated. |
| Relation | alephsysno: 001468175, proquestno: MM08010, Theses scanned by UMI/ProQuest. |
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