Progress in neuro-psychopharmacology最新文献

1. In the light of the relationship between administration schedule and compliance, comparison data between divided dose regimen and one-time daily dosage of antidepressant drugs are reviewed in terms of therapeutic and pharmacokinetic equivalence.

2. Divided (b.i.d.) and single (morning) doses of nomifensine (100–200 mg/die) were studied in patients affected with neurotic depression. Clinical results show that the two regimens do not differentiate as for antidepressant eff$\text{i}$cacy and safety.

3. Nomifensine findings are compared to those obtained with amitriptyline (50–150 mg) given in three different schedules (three daily doses, single dose at morning, single dose at night).

1. One hundred depressive patients were tested for the presence of several auto-antibodies.

2. Rheumatoid factor — tested with three different techniques-, antinuclear antibodies, and two other auto-antibodies (antimitochondrial and anti-basemembrane antibodies) could not be found in a higher frequency than in normals, whereas the occurrence of the thyroglobulin auto-antibodies was just above the upper limit of normals.

3. Factors eventually influencing the results and directions for further work are discussed on the basis of previous studies.

1. First, the authors present a brief outline of the concepts of anxiety, fear and phobia and their physiological concomitants.

2. Experimental findings are then presented showing that the emotional state of anxiety is generally linked to physiological activation as measured in spontaneous fluctuations and habituation rate of the orienting response of the galvanic skin response (GSR).

3. Other findings show that on the contrary, depression is linked to inhibition or disactivation of these systems, and also of contingent negative variations (CNV).

4. In unselected samples of anxious-depressed patients, the above relationships do not become obvious when psychopathology is self-rated, which suggests that anxiety and depression are better distinguished by the examining physician than by the patients themselves.

1. The efficacy of clomipramine hydrochloride in severe obsessive compulsive neurosis (OCN) was compared with that of amitriptyline in a four week randomized double-blind trial.

2. Clomipramine but not amitriptyline produced statistically significant improvement in the obsessive symptoms, depression and anxiety.

3. The lack of significant effect of amitriptyline on anxiety and depression may be due to its inability to improve the primary obsessive symptoms.

4. No serious adverse effects were encountered in either drug group.

1. The desynchronization of circadian and circannual rhythms may play an important role in primary affective disorders.

2. Interesting biochemical as well as anatomical parallels have been found between primary affective disorders and hibernation.

3. Hibernation is a periodic circannual event which is determined mainly by internal and hereditary factors, and influenced also by environmental stimuli. We employed hibernation as an animal model of periodic events and studied the effect of psychotropic drugs on hibernation in the golden hamster.

4. In this paradigm imipramine clearly interfered with the hibernating process and caused significant prolongation of the prehibernation period. The results of lithium trial could not be interpreted because of methodological problems.

1. The use of tricyclic antidepressant agents in the elderly is limited by their anticholinergic and cardiovascular action. Newer compounds, such as mianserin, maprotiline and trazadone may provide advantages in this respect.

2. In the control of agitation and/or psychosis antipsychotic and β-blockers have been successfully employed.

3. Cerebral vasodilators, metabolic enhancers, and neuropeptides have been studied but their place in the treatment of psychogeriatric patients has not been clearly established.

4. Dihydroergotoxine has been extensively documented as providing significant benefit to patients with senile dementia of the Alzheimer type.

5. The cholinergic system may serve important functions in memory, although findings about the therapeutic effect of cholinergic agents are consistent.

1. This clinical report describes four psychotic patients with neuroleptic-induced tardive (orofacial) dyskinesia and extrapyramidal side effects who were successfully treated with propranolol 30 – 60 mg per day.

2. Relief of orofacial symptoms and tremor was marked and rapid (one to ten days). In one case propranolol was stopped and orofacial symptoms emerged.

3. No side effects were observed.

4. The literature on propranolol in tardive dyskinesia and tremor disorders is reviewed. Central and peripheral mechanisms are considered, and several specific experiments are proposed to clarify the site of action. It is suggested that clinical investigation with propranolol in tardive dyskinesia and extrapyramidal side effects might enhance our understanding of the possible adrenergic modulation of the dopaminergic/cholinergic balance in the striatum.

1. Various paradigms which are considered to produce and measure fear, anxiety, frustration and aggression in non-human animals are briefly reviewed.

2. The efficacy of antianxiety drugs in these paradigms is discussed. It is clear that the tasks investigators have devised to measure emotion may be measuring several effects of antianxiety drugs.

3. An information processing model is proposed therefore, to bring about a clearer understanding of the effects of antianxiety agents on human and non-human animals.

4. Among the five stages of information processing considered, the stimulus selection, response selection and response inhibition stages are considered important to understanding antianxiety drug effects.

1. Pharmacological agents with a potential to induce dementia are reviewed with special reference to anxiolytic sedatives, anticonvulsants, antineoplastic drugs and various metals.

2. The possible role of cholinergic mechanisms, tetrahydrofolate deficiency and aluminum in the development of dementia is briefly discussed.

1. Among the many objective symptoms or concomitants of anxiety electroencephalographic signs are of particular interest, as they are liable to detect “abnormalities” in the functioning of the brain and thus are likely to help our understanding of the pathogenesis of this disorder.

2. A low output in the α-band, a poor α-organization, impaired “driving” within the α-frequencies by stroboscopic stimulation and a reduced amplitude of the contingent negative variation seem to constitute the most typical electroencephalographic symptoms.

3. These various signs clearly indicate a disbalance in the activity and reactivity in those neuronal systems that control the level of general and discrete vigilance.