The role of mineralocorticoid receptor function in treatment-resistant depression

Controlled Clinical Trial J Psychopharmacol 2013 Dec;27(12):1169-79. doi: 10.1177/0269881113499205. Epub 2013 Jul 31.

Mario F Juruena 1, Carmine M Pariante, Andrew S Papadopoulos, Lucia Poon, Stafford Lightman, Anthony J Cleare DOI: 10.1177/0269881113499205

Our data confirmed that treatment-resistant depression is associated with hypercortisolism and these patients no longer show an hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal response to the administration of a mineralocorticoid receptor antagonist, suggesting that there is a mineralocorticoid receptor malfunctioning, such as a down regulation, however, pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics in these subjects could also have had an effect on the lack of mineralocorticoid receptor response.