Dexamethasone Suppression Tests in the Context of a Double-Blind Trial of Electroconvulsive Therapy and Simulated ECT

Dexamethasone suppression tests (DST) were performed before and after trial treatment in the Leicestershire trial of electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) in practice. Twenty-six depressed patients were studied before treatment, and in 18, tests were repeated immediately after the completion of trial treatments. No consistent pattern of relationship was observed between DST results and response to real or simulated ECT, although the pretreatment relationship between DST results and clinical picture was in accord with the expectations of the literature.