The DST in children and adolescents with major depressive disorder

The authors analyzed dexamethasone suppression test (DST) results from 13 prospective studies on the use of the DST in children and adolescents with psychiatric disorders. Sensitivity of the DST was significantly higher among the children than among the adolescents with major depressive disorder (69.6% and 47.1%, respectively), and specificity was significantly lower (69.7% and 80.2%). Significantly more adolescents with major depressive disorder than with other psychiatric diagnoses, especially conduct disorder, were nonsuppressors. The authors discuss possible explanations for the high DST sensitivity among the children and point out the potential usefulness of the DST in differentiating major depressive disorder from conduct disorder.