@article{0b50fe8ae1844287a403a66888c78da6,
title = "CSF GABA in depressed patients and normal controls",
abstract = "The inhibitory neurotransmitter gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA) has been implicated in the pathophysiology of depression. Therefore, we examined cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) levels of GABA in depressed patients (N = 25) and normal controls (N = 20). There was no significant difference between the groups. However, among the depressed patients the subgroup of unipolar melancholic patients (N = 13) had significantly lower CSF levels of GABA than the rest of the depressed patients (N = 12). There was no significant difference for CSF levels of GABA between depressed patients who were (N = 14) or were not (N = 11) Cortisol non-suppressors. It was of interest that among the controls there was a significant negative correlation between CSF levels of GABA and CSF levels of norepinephrine.",
author = "Alec Roy and Judith Dejong and Thomas Ferraro",
note = "Funding Information: Recent studies have shown that a large fall in noradrenaline (NA) concentration in the locus coeruleus (LC) region is critically involved in mediating stress-induced behavioral depression (Weiss and Simson, 1986). Earlier studies by our group have shown, with methods designed for the localization of catecholamines by electron microscopy (EM), that a large number of huge dense core vesicles or globules is present in human locus coeruleus perikarya and dendrites. This is in contrast to findings in lower animals where very few small dense core vesicles are usually present in the perikarya of these neurons. We view this NA accumulation in man as representing a back-up storage compartment servicing the local neuronal environment, and, necessary probably for meeting the increased demands to cope with unpredictable stresses inherent in man{\textquoteright}s own ecological (social) environment. In the present study we repeated our investigation for NA localization in the EM including in our clinical material postmortem tissue from depressed subjects. We found that in the LC of the patients the dense core globules were as numerous as those of controls, but their EM density, reflecting NA concentration, was greatly reduced, indicating depletion of local neurotransmitter for “autoinhibitory“ activity. (Supported by Ministry of Research and Technology, GR)",
year = "1991",
doi = "10.1017/S0033291700022248",
language = "English (US)",
volume = "21",
pages = "613--618",
journal = "Psychological Medicine",
issn = "0033-2917",
publisher = "Cambridge University Press",
number = "3",
}