Guerrieri GM, Ben Dor R, Li X, et al. - Researchers conducted the study for examining hypothalamic pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis function in perimenopausal women with and without depression utilizing the combined dexamethasone-CRH (Dex/CRH) test. Dex/CRH tests were conducted on 20 women with perimenopausal depressions (PMD) and 20 women who were also perimenopausal but did not have current or previous depression (control women). Despite reports of increased stress responsiveness in PMD, the authors noted no abnormalities of HPA axis activity associated with PMD compared with women without depression. Such findings indicate that PMD is not uniformly linked to HPA dysregulation and may reflect underlying pathophysiologic processes that are distinct from women with non-reproductive-related depressions.