Situational depression and the dexamethasone suppression test.
Neither baseline integrated 24 hr cortisol concentrations nor cortisol escape from dexamethasone suppression were able to distinguish a group of endogenously depressed patients who experienced precipitating events prior to their depression (situational) from a group of endogenously depressed patients with no discernible precipitating events (non-situational). Symptom severity, features of psychosis, and family history also were similar between the two groups. These results highlight the inadequacy of using the presence or absence of precipitating events for subtyping endogenous depression.
Adjustment Disorders↗