Cortisol levels in unmedicated patients with unipolar and bipolar major depression using hair and saliva specimens

Background Differentiating between unipolar and bipolar depression can be clinically challenging, especially at first presentation. Patterns of cortisol secretion could aid diagnostic discrimination in affective disorders although there has been little comparative research to date. In this study, we investigated acute (saliva) and chronic (hair) cortisol levels concurrently in unmedicated unipolar and bipolar disorders by using conventional...