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  • Title: Acute tryptophan depletion in healthy young women with a family history of major affective disorder.
    Author: Ellenbogen MA, Young SN, Dean P, Palmour RM, Benkelfat C.
    Journal: Psychol Med; 1999 Jan; 29(1):35-46. PubMed ID: 10077292.
    Abstract:
    BACKGROUND: Acute tryptophan depletion (ATD), a means of reducing brain serotonin synthesis, lowers mood in normal males with a multi-generational family history of major affective disorder (MAD) and in normal women devoid of any family history of psychiatric illness. As both a family history of MAD and female sex are factors predisposing to depression, the hypothesis that a mood lowering response to ATD may reflect a susceptibility to depression was further investigated in young women with an extensive, multi-generational family history of MAD. In addition, the temporal stability of mood change following repeated trials of ATD was also assessed in this study. METHODS: To deplete tryptophan, a tryptophan deficient amino acid mixture was ingested on two separate occasions. The control treatment, administered on a third occasion, was a nutritionally balanced amino acid mixture containing tryptophan. RESULTS: A marked lowering of plasma tryptophan (85-90 %) was achieved by both depletions. In comparison to the balanced condition, family history positive (FH +) women showed no lowering of mood to either the first or second ATD (N = 13) and N = 12, respectively). Mood change between the two ATD trials (N = 13) exhibited poor temporal stability. CONCLUSIONS: These results may indicate that serotonin responsiveness is not an important characteristic of vulnerability to depression in these women. Alternately, these negative results may be due to the exclusion of a large number of FH + women who had already experienced an episode of depression, resulting in the selection of a biased FH + sample who are resistant to the mood lowering effects of ATD.
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