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Altered platelet monoamine oxidase activity in affective disorders

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 July 2009

John Mann*
Affiliation:
Department of Psychiatry, University of Melbourne, Australia
*
1Address for correspondence: Dr John Mann, Neuropsychopharmacology Research Unit, Department of Psychiatry, New York University Medical Center, 550 First Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10016, USA.

Synopsis

Platelet MAO activity was found to be elevated in primary depressive illness, and the severity to correlate positively with MAO activity. The reactive depression subgroup's mean platelet MAO activity was not significantly different from that of the controls. The endogenous group's unipolar and bipolar subgroups had significantly different platelet MAO activity, respectively high and low. The differences in MAO activity between unipolar and bipolar patients appeared to persist in the well state, but not after lithium carbonate therapy. These differences in MAO activity were apparent with the substrate tyramine but not with benzylamine. Altered MAO activity in patients with affective disorders may be determined through genetic mechanisms.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1979

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