Mohammed T. Abou-Saleh

54 PRINCIPLES AND PRACTICE OF GERIATRIC PSYCHIATRYTSH response to TRH is also frequently blunted in depression butonce again there is considerable overlap with other psychoses andthere is an increased tendency to a blunted response in healthysenescent individuals 5l . Reports that blunted TRH responses aremore pronounced in elderly depressives have not been entirelyconfirmed 52 . Growth hormone response to clonidine, an a2agonist, is blunted in depression, Alzheimer’s disease and ageing.Recent data suggest that this blunting is again more pronouncedin elderly mentally ill subjects than in the normal elderly 53 .CONCLUSIONOverall, although it is only in recent years that neuroendocrinefunction in the elderly has been studied in depth, it has beenestablished that significant alterations in function occur withageing in humans. Some of those changes may approximateendocrine abnormalities observed in younger individuals withmental illness, most notably depression. 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