Against the background of stress impacting on the activity of the HPA axis, we have investigated alterations of adrenocorticotropic hormone (ACTH) and cortisol secretion in the combined dexamethasone/corticotrophin-releasing hormone (Dex/CRH) test as well as memory and attention performance in a sample of 248 patients with unipolar depression and 172 healthy control subjects genotyped for rs1545843.