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Biomedical subjects

A P Ridges

Publications and source records attributed to A P Ridges.

14 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed1980

Amine metabolism, thyroid function and response to clomipramine and maprotiline medication in depression.

The various clinical types of depression may correspond to biochemically distinct forms of the condition. If these could be characterized, antidepressant treatment might be tailored to correction of the underlying biochemical change(s) in individual patients. In particular, the selective actions of clomipramine and maprotiline on the serotonergic and noradrenergic systems respectively might be exploited therapeutically. Studies of the clinical response to these two antidepressants included tests of urinary 5-hydroxy-indoleacetic acid (5-HIAA) excretion and of serum thyroxine levels. While thyroid stimulation tests may prove of value for investigating depressed patients, urinary 5-HIAA levels are inconvenient, subject to extraneous influences and hard to interpret in terms of brain chemistry. (An alternative is proposed in the next paper.)

Adolescent↗
PubMed1980

Urinary amine metabolites in depression: a combined biochemical and general practice study: II. Biochemical aspects.

Peripheral measures of amine metabolites may be related to response to treatment with antidepressants. Urinary studies of MHPG levels have indicated a different response to treatment between patients with low levels who responded well to imipramine and those who responded well to amitriptyline. Such findings lead to the consideration of the newer antidepressants such as clomipramine and maprotiline, with their more selective actions on the individual amine systems, as the medication of choice for specific groups of patients. It was hypothesized that patients having a low excretion of MHPG might have deranged noradrenaline metabolism, and therefore respond best to maprotiline and conversely a low excretion of 5 HIAA might indicate a derangement of serotonin metabolism and therefore a good response to clomipramine. A clinical study, however, showed that changes in amine levels, interesting though they were with respect to the response to medication, were not consistent with the known preferences of maprotiline and clomipramine for single amine systems. There was no evidence of the existence of clearly defined groups within the population studied having a derangement of a single amine system.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1980

Urinary amine metabolites in depression: a combined biochemical and general practice study: I. Clinical aspects.

A study was undertaken in general practice to investigate how the recovery of depressed patients, treated with either clomipramine or maprotiline, might be related to the excretion of amine metabolites in the urine. This paper discusses the methodology of the study and describes the clinical results obtained. The levels of amine metabolites are reported in a subsequent paper. Results obtained in twenty patients are presented, ten of whom received clomipramine and ten maprotiline.

Adolescent↗