The dexamethasone suppression test in the clinical setting.

The authors administered the dexamethasone suppression test (DST) to 47 inpatients on a clinical, nonresearch psychiatric unit who had been diagnosed according to DSM-III. Of the 30 patients with major depression, 23 (77%) exhibited nonsuppression (serum cortisol concentrations greater than 5 micrograms/dl); only 1 of the 17 patients with other diagnoses and depressive symptoms exhibited nonsuppression. There was no difference in the rate of nonsuppression between the patients with subgroups of major depression, but those with major depression and psychosis had significantly higher postdexamethasone cortisol levels than those with major depression with and without melancholia and those with diagnoses other than major depression.