Dexamethasone Suppression Test as a Predictor of Response to Electroconvulsive Therapy. II. Six-Month Follow-Up

In an earlier study, the dexamethasone suppression test, obtained 3-6 days after hospital admission, did not reliably predict the proportion of clinical remissions or the degree of improvement experienced by severely-depressed inpatients undergoing a course of ECT. In this regard, about 75% of initial suppressors and nonsuppressors showed remission, and those nonsuppressors who subsequently normalized did not show a better clinical response than persistent nonsuppressors. In keeping with the findings of Coryell and Zimmerman (1983) we also found that persistent nonsuppressors had a better clinical outcome 6 months after discharge than did initial nonsuppressors who normalized by discharge.