Physostigmine induction of depressive symptomatology in normal human subjects

Nine normal volunteers, screened for the absence of a personal or family history of affective disorders and free of concurrent marijuana usage, received intravenous infusions of high dose physostigmine or saline in a randomized, double-blind, counterbalanced paradigm. Self-rating and observer ratings both demonstrated a statistically significant, physostigmine associated increase in depressive-type symptoms in the group as a whole, particularly pronounced in certain individuals. These results are the first report of physostigmine associated depressive symptomatology in normal subjects. While our findings are discrepant with two previous studies, our use of multiple self-ratings, and some differences in physostigmine dosage and infusion times might have contributed to this difference. These findings suggest that high dose physostigmine may represent a pharmacological model of depression in normal subjects, or alternatively may be diagnostic of vulnerability to affective disorder in certain subjects free of a previous history of affective disturbances.