不同性别抑郁症的临床对照研究

探索抑郁症不同性别间的差异。方法对我院１９９５年１－１２月出院的抑郁症病历进行了临床对照研究。结果男女抑郁症病人具有相同的发病年龄，多数起病有一定诱因，病前性格均以内向主；女性结婚率较高，男性的阳性家族史多于女性；在症状上女性以自杀企图，躯体不适多见，而男性以自杀行动，自责自罪多见。结论抑郁症在不同性别间确存在某些差异。     

首次发作老年抑郁症患者临床症状的性别差异

目的比较不同性别住院老年抑郁症首次发作患者的临床特征的差异。方法收集老年抑郁症首次发作患者的临床资料和评定汉密尔顿抑郁量表（HAMD，17），进行性别间的比较分析。结果男性患者在迟滞、疑病、自知力缺乏和阻滞等症状突出，而女性患者以激越、全身症状、躯体焦虑和睡眠障碍等为主。结论男性和女性首次发作老年抑郁症患者在症状特点方面存在一定的差异。     

不同性别首次发作抑郁症的临床特征对比

目的：探讨不同性别首次发作抑郁症临床特征的异同。方法：采用一般情况问卷、抑郁白评量表(SDS)和汉密顿抑郁量表(HAMD)对不同性别首发抑郁症患者进行测查。结果：女性首发抑郁症患者发病年龄显著低于男性，HAMD的躯体化／焦虑、睡眠因子显著高于男性，而认识障碍、迟缓和绝望因子评分显著较男性为低。另外，女性抑郁症患者的共病显著高于男性。结论：不同性别首次发作抑郁症的临床特征存在一定的差异。     

情感性精神病的性别差异

目的 作者对1981～1991年连续住院的370例(男212,女158)情感性精神病例进行临床对比分析,发现男性阳性家族史比率低于女性,首次以躁狂发病者男多于女,首次抑郁相发病者女多于男;男性患者双相型比女性多,而女性患者单相超过男性。在双相患者中,男性首发年龄显著高于女性,且男性双相的首次住院年龄大于女性。男性病例的病程、住院次数和发作次数均高于女性,男性精神病性症状发生率明显高于女性,而女性自杀率高于男性。这些结果提示情感疾病在临床上存在明显的性别差异。作者对产生这种差异的机制进行了讨论。     

精神分裂症发病年龄在婚姻,性别上的差异

本文对３７２例连续入院的精神分裂症病人发病年龄在婚姻、性别上的差异进行了回顾性调查。结果表明，分裂症的发病年龄在性别上无明显差异，已婚者分裂症的发病年龄在性别上也无显著差异，只是倾向于男性发病年龄稍早于女性（１岁左右）。男、女已婚者发病年龄明显晚于未婚者。女性未婚者发病年龄明显早于男性，女性在发病时已婚者明显多于男性。分裂症的阳性家族史对两性发病年龄的影响无显著差异。笔者认为，病前生活事件（失恋）     

季节性发作抑郁症临床特征的对照研究

目的：探讨季节性发作规律抑胡症的临床特征，方法：通过详细收集临床资料，并用汉密尔顿抑郁量表（HAMD）评定，对23例季节性发作规律抑郁症与非季节性发作规律抑郁症的发病情况，症状特点和疗效进行比较，结果：季节性发作规律抑郁症组的睡眠过度，进食亢进等发生频率显著高于非季节性发作规律抑郁症（P＜0．05），其发病年龄较早，女性多见，精神病性症状及自杀观念少，抑郁症状严重程度较轻（P＜0．05），疗效无显著差异。结论：季节性发作规律抑郁症的临床相有一定的特点。对丰富抑郁症的认识具有重要意义。     

5-羟色胺2C受体基因多态性与抑郁症的关联

目的：探讨5-羟色胺2C（5-HT2C）受体基因-759C/T多态性与抑郁症发病机制之间的关系。方法：50例抑郁症患者作为研究组，30名正常者作为对照组，应用聚合酶链式反应（PCR）扩增技术及限制性片段长度多态性（RFLP）分别测定所有受试者的5-HT2C受体基因的基因型和等位基因，由于5-HT2C基因位于X性染色体，故对女性个体行基因鉴定，对男性患者只行半合子型鉴定。结果：与对照组相比，抑郁症组男性半合子型T、C分布频率分别为31.8%和68.2%，对照组为41.7%和58.3%，两组比较差异无显著性（χ^2=2.11，P〉0.05）。抑郁症组女性基因型TT、CC分布频率分别为46.4%和53.6%，对照组为16.7%和83.3%，无T、C杂合子基因型出现，两组比较差异有显著性（χ^2=20.4，P〈0.001）。抑郁症组T、C等位基因分布频率分别为42.3%和57.7%，对照组为22.9%和77.1%，两组比较差异有显著性（χ^2=8.72，P〈0.01）。结论：5-HT2C受体基因启动子区-759C/T单核苷酸置换多态性与女性伴自杀行为抑郁症的发病机制可能存在相关性，而男性患者的发病可能与此无关。     

家族性与散发性精神分裂症的病原学研究

目的：研究家族性与散发性精神分裂症相关因素。方法：采用病历记载和家属核实的方法。对501例精神分裂症患者的家族史（限于一级亲属）、性别、发病年龄进行对比分析研究。结果：FH 较FH-组发病年龄早，FH-女性组较FH 女性组及FH ，FH-男性组发病年龄晚，均有统计学意义，而FH 男性组与女性组发病年龄无差异。结论：家族性与散发性精神分裂症在发病年龄上的性别现象为：有阳性家族史者发病年龄早，家族史阴性男性较女性发病年龄早。     

精神分裂症的性别差异

目的:探讨精神分裂症患者的性别差异。方法:收集240例不同性别精神分裂症患者的首次发病年龄、病程、阳性家族史、临床症状、病前人格和诊断分型等资料,并进行分析比较。结果:首次发病年龄、病程和阳性家族史无性别差异,读心症、钟情妄想、其他妄想、思维逻辑性障碍和怪异行为等阳性症状在男性患者组和女性患者组中的分布差异有显著性,其他阳性症状及阴性症状在两组中的分布差异无显著性。结论:精神分裂症患者的阳性症状存在性别差异,女性精神分裂症患者的临床症状多表现为阳性症状。     

伴发冠心病的抑郁症患者临床特征分析

目的：探讨伴发冠心病的抑郁症患者的临床特征。方法：收集伴或不伴冠心病的抑郁症患者资料各50例进行比较。结果：伴有冠心病的抑郁症患者的平均病程、平均发病次数和平均住院日均显著高于不伴有冠心病患者；前者的临床症状亦显著较重，疗效显著较差。结论：伴有冠心病的抑郁症患者临床症状更重，治疗难度大。     

Types of depression more frequent in bipolar than in unipolar affective illness: results of the Polish DEP-BI study

BACKGROUND: The aim of the study was to assess the relative frequency of various kinds of depression in patients with bipolar and unipolar affective illness. The study was performed in the framework of the DEP-BI project aimed at assessing the prevalence of bipolar disorders among depressive outpatients treated by psychiatrists in Poland. METHODS: Eight-hundred and eighty patients (237 male, 643 female) participated in the study. The patients were classified into the following diagnostic categories: bipolar affective illness type I, type II, bipolar spectrum disorder and unipolar affective illness. The various kinds of depression in each group were assessed by means of a semistructured questionnaire added to the diagnostic interview. RESULTS: In the group of bipolar patients, a significantly higher frequency of psychotic depression in male compared to female patients was observed. Male bipolar patients compared with unipolar depressed ones had significantly more episodes of psychotic depression (odds ratio, OR, 4.29) and atypical depression (hypersomnia and hyperphagia; OR 2.82), and those with bipolar spectrum had more episodes of treatment-resistant depression (OR 2.56). Female bipolar patients compared with unipolar depressed ones had significantly more frequently an early onset of depression (before 25 years; OR 2.95) and postpartum depression (OR 2.48). On the other hand, the percentage of agitation, irritability, distractibility, thought racing and panic attacks during depression was not different in patients with bipolar and unipolar affective illness either in males or females. CONCLUSIONS: Some kinds of depression occur with a higher frequency in patients with bipolar compared to unipolar affective illness. The occurrence of a given type of depression may constitute an aid for the diagnosis of bipolar illness. The results of this study did not confirm the concept of bipolar mixed depression based on the presence of anxiety symptoms occurring during the depressive episode. The limitation of our study may be the lack of formal criteria or a structured interview to assess the symptoms occurring during depressive episodes.     

Relationship of birth cohort and early age at onset of illness in a bipolar disorder case registry

OBJECTIVE: Utilizing data from a previously characterized registry of subjects with bipolar illness, the authors examined age at onset of the first illness episode in cohorts of subjects born from 1900 through 1939 and from 1940 through 1959. METHOD: Demographic and clinical characteristics at the first full episode of bipolar disorder of subjects in a diagnostically validated voluntary bipolar disorder registry (N=1,218) were reviewed and subjected to statistical analyses. RESULTS: The median age at onset of the first episode of bipolar illness was lower by 4.5 years in subjects born during or after 1940 (median age=19 years), compared with subjects born before 1940 (median age=23.5 years). The proportion of subjects with bipolar disorder presenting with a prepubertal onset was significantly higher in the later birth-year cohort than in the earlier birth-year cohort. More than 50% of male and female subjects in both cohorts had a depressive episode as the first episode of bipolar illness. Subjects in each cohort who had a parent with major depression, bipolar disorder, or schizophrenia experienced their first episode nearly 4 to 5 years earlier than the other subjects in the cohort. CONCLUSIONS: Prospective epidemiological studies conducted with bipolar disorder subjects are needed to either affirm or refute these data on age at illness onset. If the results are affirmed, the early recognition of prepubertal bipolar disorder will be important, so that the condition can be treated with appropriate medications and medications that could potentially worsen the illness course can be avoided. Similarly, early recognition of bipolar illness is important, especially in women, to minimize use of antidepressant monotherapy for patients with bipolar illness. Among young people presenting with major depression as the first illness episode, a parental history of major depression, bipolar disorder, or psychosis may be a useful pointer to future bipolar disorder. Early recognition and appropriate treatment of bipolar illness may prevent the development of chronicity and serious functional impairment.     

精神分裂症伴发抑郁症状及其临床特征

目的 了解急性期住院精神分裂症患者伴发抑郁症状的发生率、临床特征及其相关因素。方法 对符合CCMD-3诊断标准的精神分裂症患者75例，分别于入院3天内评定PA．NSS、HAMD、TESS量表。结果 急性期抑郁发生率为30．7％，抑郁组与非抑郁组性别、婚姻、文化、年龄无显著性差异，抑郁组平均住院次数、偏执型精神分裂症所占比例多于非抑郁组。治疗前汉密顿抑郁量表总分与阴性量表、思维障碍症状群、反应缺乏症状群负相关，与一般精神病理量表、抑郁症状群正相关。结论 精神分裂症抑郁症状急性期较常见、较严重，偏执型精神分裂症更易出现抑郁症状。     

The dexamethasone/corticotropin-releasing hormone test in depression in bipolar and unipolar affective illness.

The combined dexamethasone/corticotropin-releasing hormone (DEX/CRH) test was performed in forty patients with depression (12 male, 28 female), aged 20-68 years, in the course of affective illness (16 bipolar, 24 unipolar) both during acute depressive episode and in remission. The results were compared with those of 20 healthy control subjects (10 male, 10 female), aged 22-52 years. During acute depressive episode, cortisol concentration at 16 h after dexamethasone, 1.5 mg, and cortisol release after subsequent infusion of CRH, 100 microg, were significantly elevated in bipolar patients compared with unipolar ones and with control subjects. Patients with multiple episodes of unipolar depression exhibited greater cortisol levels after CRH than control subjects. In remission, significantly higher cortisol concentrations measured at 30 min(-1) h after CRH infusion were found in bipolar than in unipolar patients. Male bipolar patients had significantly higher cortisol level than bipolar females before and at 1.5 h after CRH. First episode unipolar patients during remission had lower levels of cortisol than control subjects before and at 1.5 h after CRH. Correlation between the magnitude of cortisol response and age was found within unipolar depressed patients but not in bipolar ones. On the other hand, correlation of test results with intensity of depression measured by Hamilton scale as well as with insomnia and anxiety subscales was more robust in bipolar subjects than in unipolar ones. It is concluded that the dysregulation of hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis activity, detected by DEX/CRH test is significantly more marked in patients with depression in the course of bipolar affective illness than in unipolar depression. Within unipolar depression, this dysregulation may increase with the time course of the illness.     

The effects of age and sex on depression ratings in children and adolescents

The self-reports of depressive symptomatology of the 89 children and the parental reports of 62 parents whose children had such symptoms from a sample of 220 children, aged 6 to 23 years, in a family-genetic study of children at high and low risk of depression were examined for the effects of the age and sex of the child. The age of the child at interview proved to have a significant effect upon the dating of the onset of dysphoric episodes and the dating of the worst ever episode of dysphoria. The older girls reported about two more depressive symptoms on average than the younger girls. This finding was obscured unless account was taken of the age at which the subjects were interviewed. However, these effects did not apply to a group of melancholia-related symptoms. There were no consistent effects of age at interview or age at episode on the symptom reports of the boys or in the reports from the parents about both their male and female children.     

Presenting characteristics of depressed outpatients as a function of recurrence: preliminary findings from the STAR*D clinical trial

OBJECTIVES: Recurrent depression predicts risk for subsequent episodes, but it is unclear how it relates to demographic features, course of illness, and clinical presentation. METHODS: We report on the baseline data for the first 1500 patients enrolled in the Sequenced Treatment Alternatives to Relieve Depression (STAR*D) study (www.star-d.org). Patients were required to have a DSM-IV diagnosis of nonpsychotic major depression and to score > or = 14 on the 17-item Hamilton rating scale for depression. Status with respect to recurrent depression and other aspects of illness course and demographic features were ascertained at intake, along with measures of depression and concurrent general medical illness. RESULTS: Patients with recurrent depression were older, had an earlier age of onset, and were more likely to have a positive family history of depression than first episode patients. However, recurrent patients were less likely to be chronic and reported shorter current episodes than first episode patients, something that was largely confined to females. Recurrent patients were more likely than first episode patients to report non-essential aspects of mood, cognition, and somatic symptoms, although largely as a consequence of greater overall depressive symptom severity. CONCLUSIONS: As compared to single episode depressions, recurrent depression was associated with greater symptom severity and illness characteristics suggestive of greater underlying risk, but not other demographic characteristics than age. Risk for recurrence appeared to be distinct from chronic depression. A subset of chronic first episode patients may lack the capacity to remit and may therefore be distinct from those with recurrent episodes.     

Hippocampal changes in patients with a first episode of major depression

OBJECTIVE: Previous work suggests that patients with unipolar depression may have structural as well as functional abnormalities in limbic-thalamic-cortical networks, which are hypothesized to modulate human mood states. A core area in these networks is the hippocampus. In the present study, differences in volumes of hippocampal gray and white matter between patients with a first episode of major depression and healthy comparison subjects were examined. METHOD: Thirty patients with a first episode of major depression and 30 healthy comparison subjects who were matched for age, gender, handedness, and education were examined with high-resolution magnetic resonance imaging. RESULTS: Male patients with a first episode of major depression had significantly smaller hippocampal total and gray matter volumes than healthy male comparison subjects. Both male and female patients showed significant alterations of left-right asymmetry and significant reductions of left and right hippocampal white matter fibers in relation to healthy comparison subjects. Hippocampal measurements were not significantly correlated with clinical variables, such as age at onset of illness, illness duration, or severity of depression. CONCLUSIONS: These results are consistent with findings of structural abnormalities of the hippocampal formation in patients with major depression that were more pronounced in male patients. The authors' findings support the hypothesis that the hippocampus and its connections within limbic-cortical networks may play a crucial role in the pathogenesis of major depression.     

Actions taken to cope with depression in patients seeking specialist care

OBJECTIVE: To assess the rates and perceived effectiveness of actions used to cope with depression and the factors influencing these in an outpatient sample seeking help for depression. METHOD: One hundred and seventy-six patients (74 male, 102 female) aged 16-82 years (M = 42, SD = 14.4 years) with a major depressive episode (DSM-IV criteria) were assessed using a number of measures that covered sociodemographics, history of psychiatric illness, actions taken to alleviate depression and their perceived effectiveness. Logistic regression analyses assessed age, gender and illness characteristics associated with the use and perceived effectiveness of strategies adopted to manage depression. RESULTS: Medical interventions were used and perceived to be effective in alleviating depressive symptoms by most of the sample, as were self-help and complementary therapies. Sociodemographic and illness-related characteristics had a significant influence, with younger age and having experienced an episode of anxiety disorder found to be the strongest predictors for the use of coping strategies. Being female was the strongest predictor for their effectiveness. CONCLUSION: A range of actions for depression, including medical and complementary interventions, were used and found to be helpful in a sample that had sought professional help for depression. Gender, age, depression and anxiety factors were all found to predict the use and perceived effectiveness of these strategies.     

Phenomenology and outcome of subjects with early- and adult-onset psychotic mania

OBJECTIVE: This study examined clinical differences between subjects with early-onset and adult-onset psychotic mania. METHOD: Subjects were from an epidemiologically derived, hospitalized sample who met criteria for definite bipolar disorder after 24 months of follow-up and whose index episode had been manic. Information collected regarding demographic characteristics, psychotic and depressive symptoms, childhood behavior problems and school functioning, substance/alcohol use disorders, and episode recurrence for two subgroups were compared: those whose illness first emerged before age 21 (early onset) (N=23) and those whose first episode occurred after age 30 (adult onset) (N=30). RESULTS: A larger proportion of the early-onset subjects were male, had childhood behavior disorders, had substance abuse comorbidity, exhibited paranoia, and experienced complete episode remission less frequently during 24-month follow-up than the adult-onset subjects. CONCLUSIONS: These data add to the body of evidence that has suggested that many subjects with early-onset psychotic mania have a more severe and developmentally complicated subtype of bipolar disorder.