Pattern discrimination of endocrine markers of depressive disorders

A computer method of pattern discrimination, the so-called monotest, involving the leave-one-out technique for the estimation of the probability of misclassification, was used in the search for classifiers of personality. The study looked for chronoendocrine relations characteristic of a depression-prone personality (DPP) in 12 plasma hormones sampled around the clock for four seasons for a small number of clinically and psychologically healthy women, 29-36 years of age. Since the best classifiers differ among seasons, results illustrate the need to consider the intermodulation of rhythms at several frequencies, whenever endocrine variables are used for the evaluation of depressive disorders