F. Duval

RANDOM NUMBER GENERATION BY NORMAL, ALCOHOLIC AND SCHIZOPHRENIC SUBJECTS

Controls (N = 45), schizophrenics (N = 20) and alcoholics (N = 23) were asked to choose at random a number between 1 and 10, 100 times. The correlation matrices of five different randomization indices were used to study within group variation; these matrices were similar for the normal and alcoholic groups, but very different for the schizophrenic group. The differences between the three groups were studied by canonical analysis and, in terms of the canonical variables, the mean performance of the normal group is clearly discriminated from that of the alcoholic and schizophrenic subjects.

Influence of thyroid hormones on morning and evening TSH response to TRH in major depression

The serum levels of thyroid hormones and thyrotropin (TSH) were evaluated before and after 8 PM and 11 PM thyrotropin-releasing hormone (TRH) challenges, on the same day, in 41 drug-free DSM-III-R euthyroid major depressed inpatients and 16 hospitalized controls. Depressed patients exhibited elevated circulating concentrations of thyroid hormones, which were associated with and may have contributed to the blunted TSH response to TRH. This was confirmed by: (a) higher basal levels (albeit not always statistically significant) of free triiodothyronine (FT3B) and free thyroxine (FT4B) at 8 AM and 11 PM in the depressed patient population compared with the controls; (b) lower basal levels of TSH in the depressed subjects (even though this was only statistically significant at the 11 PM sampling) compared with the controls; (c) blunted TSH response to TRH (delta TSH) in the depressed group (although this was only statistically significant at 11 PM) and blunted delta delta TSH values (differences between 11 PM-delta TSH and 8 AM-delta TSH).