Serum thyrotropin responses to thyrotropin-releasing hormone in alcohol-dependent patients with and without...

Forty-one patients with DSM-III alcohol dependence syndrome were studied, as were 30 patients with major depression and 20 healthy controls. Nineteen of the alcohol-dependent patients had depressive symptoms. All subjects underwent a TRH/TSH stimulation test. Fifty percent of the alcohol-dependent patients without depression had a blunted response, while 52% of patients with depression were similarly blunted. The overall rate of blunting in the non-alcoholic major depressives was 26%. Blunting in the alcoholics was not associated with a personal or family history of affective disorder. Furthermore the blunted response in recently detoxified alcoholics was of no prognostic significance.