[Mechanism of the development of drug resistance in protracted depressive conditions (morphometric study of the hypothalamus)].

A polynomial approximation of the relationship between the age and the nucleus volume of the hypothalamic neurosecretory cells was made. This parameter increased approximately 150 times from the neonatal period to 4 years of age and subsequently it remained practically unchanged. In manic-depressive psychosis (depressive phase), it was 1.4 times and in involutional depression 2 times lower than in healthy adults. This fact indicates the secretion lowering which supports desynchronism. A conclusion is drawn that the low efficiency of the therapy of lingering depressions could be accounted for by the insufficiently intense and oriented influence on their pathogenetic substrate--the neurosecretory cells of the supraoptic and paraventricular nuclei of the hypothalamus.