Acute antidepressant effects of intravenous hydrocortisone and CRH in depressed patients: a double-blind, placebo-controlled study.

What Was Tested

The paper reports a study of Hydrocortisone and Corticotropin-Releasing Hormone, published as a randomized controlled trial.

The primary objective of this investigation was to examine the acute antidepressant effects of intravenous hydrocortisone and ovine corticotropin releasing hormone (CRH) infusions in patients with major depression.

Who Took Part

The age groups tagged for this paper are adults and middle-aged adults, men only.

How the Study Was Run

The researchers set it up as a randomized, double-blind and placebo-controlled study.

Because people in this Hydrocortisone study were split into groups at random, differences between the groups are less likely to reflect who happened to join each one.

As a double-blind Hydrocortisone study, the assignments were hidden from both participants and investigators until the end.

The comparison arm used a placebo, so changes seen with Hydrocortisone could be set against what happens without it.

Standard depression rating scales were completed on day 1 before the study medications were administered and again the following day (day 2).

What Was Measured

The subject headings attached to it are Corticotropin-Releasing Hormone, Depressive Disorder, Hydrocortisone and Psychiatric Status Rating Scales.

What This Means in Plain Language

The paper is a randomized, double-blind and placebo-controlled study of Hydrocortisone and Corticotropin-Releasing Hormone.

Results are reported in around 3 sentences of the abstract; we leave them to the paper itself rather than summarise them.

The publication is from 2000 (The American journal of psychiatry), a journal based in United States.

More context: all human trials.