LETTERS
Serotonin
Function
in Depression:
Effects
of Seasonality?
SIR: Lawrence H. Price, M.D., and colleagues ( 1 ) are to be commended for their study of responses to intravenous L-tryptophan (L-Trp) in such a large group of patients (N=126) and comparison subjects (N=58), but several questions are raised by their work. Contrary to previous reports in depressed patients, they reported that the mean peak i prolactin response following intravenous L-Trp was significantly elevated in melancholic patients (N=68, mean=4.2 ng/ml, SD=2.0) compared to control subjects (mean=3.1 ng/ml, SD=2.0, p
Serotonin
Function
in Depression:
Effects
of Seasonality?
SIR: Lawrence H. Price, M.D., and colleagues ( 1 ) are to be commended for their study of responses to intravenous L-tryptophan (L-Trp) in such a large group of patients (N=126) and comparison subjects (N=58), but several questions are raised by their work. Contrary to previous reports in depressed patients, they reported that the mean peak i prolactin response following intravenous L-Trp was significantly elevated in melancholic patients (N=68, mean=4.2 ng/ml, SD=2.0) compared to control subjects (mean=3.1 ng/ml, SD=2.0, p
