Myxedematous madness without myxedema. Selective defect of TSH release on TRF loading in a young woman with a history of severe depressive illness cured with thryoid hormone replacement therapy.

A young woman, whose psychiatric history covered 16 years, has been treated several times as in-patient for psychotic depression, which were finally cured with thyroid replacement therapy. Recent reports of the connection between depression and disturbances in the hypothalamic-pituitary-thyroid axis are discussed. The authors question the suggestion that selective pituitary insufficiency and a defect in TSH release on TRF loading are rare phenomena.