Hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis effects on plasma homovanillic acid in man.

What Was Tested

This randomized controlled trial looks at Adrenocorticotropic Hormone and Corticotropin-Releasing Hormone.

Effects of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis on central dopaminergic systems have been proposed to underlie the development of psychotic symptoms in depression.

This study examined HPA axis hormone effects on plasma levels of homovanillic acid (HVA), the dopamine metabolite, in healthy volunteers, using a placebo-controlled, double-blind, random-assignment, crossover design.

Who Took Part

By PubMed's age tags, the people studied were adults and middle-aged adults, both men and women.

Ten healthy subjects underwent a standard protocol on four occasions and each time received ovine corticotropin-releasing hormone, synthetic adrenocorticotropic hormone (ACTH), cortisol, or placebo.

How the Study Was Run

The design is described as randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled and crossover.

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

Blinding on both sides kept the participants and researchers unaware of who received Adrenocorticotropic Hormone.

A placebo (an inactive look-alike) gave the Adrenocorticotropic Hormone group a baseline to be compared against.

Each person switched between Adrenocorticotropic Hormone and the comparison at some point, usually with a gap in between.

Plasma HVA was measured at 9 AM and 4 PM on Day 1, immediately prior to administration of the test substance at 7 PM, then at 30-60-min intervals until 11 PM.

Plasma HVA levels were subsequently obtained at 9 AM and 4 PM on Days 2 and 3.

What Was Measured

This study examined HPA axis hormone effects on plasma levels of homovanillic acid (HVA), the dopamine metabolite, in healthy volunteers, using a placebo-controlled, double-blind, random-assignment, crossover design.

On the basis of preliminary studies, the researchers hypothesized that HPA axis hormones would produce delayed effects on plasma HVA levels measured in the afternoon.

Topics PubMed links to this paper include Adrenal Cortex Hormones, Adrenocorticotropic Hormone, Corticotropin-Releasing Hormone, Depressive Disorder, Homovanillic Acid, Hydrocortisone and Hypothalamic Hormones.

Author keywords: Non-programmatic.

What This Means in Plain Language

The paper is a randomized, double-blind and placebo-controlled study of Adrenocorticotropic Hormone 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 1999 (Biological psychiatry), a journal based in United States.

More context: the related ACTH (Corticotropin) library page, all human trials.