 About fifty percent of depressed patients have shown to be associated with an increased plasma cortisol concentration and HPA-axis activity expressed in non-suppression of plasma cortisol in association with the dexamethasone DX-test suppression test. Some studies have shown that the presence or absence of normalization of the HPA-axis activity and the DX-test during antidepressant treatment may be a predictor of recurrence. Other studies have shown that the physiological increase in the concentration of saliva cortisol during the first half an hour after awakening in the morning is accentuated in depressed patients and constitute a more simple expression of the HPA-.axis activity and predictor of outcome than the the dx-test. 