Progress in neuro-psychopharmacology最新文献

1. A single injection of fluphenazine decanoate (FD) antagonized effects of acute d-amphetamine (2.5 mg/kg) for a variable period of time (4 to 28 days), depending upon the dosage of the neuroleptic used (2.5 or 5.0 mg/kg) and the behavioural parameter(s) monitored.

2. Locomotion and rearing were antagonized for a longer duration than was sniffing. Normal locomotor response to amphetamine was attained 12 and 28 days following the administration of 2.5 and 5.0 mg/kg FD, respectively. However, the 2.5 mg/kg FD group displayed significantly more locomotor activity on days 20 and 24 post-treatment. A similar supersensitive response was not demonstrable with the higher dose of FD (5.0 mg/kg), or with the other behavioural measures.

3. The prompt and pronounced elevation of serum prolactin in response to the neuroleptic returned to within the normal range by days 4 and 14, following administration of 2.5 and 5.0 mg/kg FD, respectively.

4. These results indicate that the behavioural paradigm is more sensitive in monitoring the effects of FD and could serve as a useful model in investigating the dose- and time-related effects of other long-acting neuroleptics.

1. Data from 356 anxious outpatients treated with either chlordiazepoxide or placebo in 4 week double-blind drug trials were analyzed in an attempt to determine predictors of treatment response using extreme groups and discriminant function analysis.

2. Chlordiazepoxide response was found to be greater in younger female patients with lower levels of initial depression and a more favorable prognosis.

3. Placebo response was found to be greater in younger, black, previously untreated or favorably drug treated patients and patients with lower initial somatization and depression.

4. Discriminators between drug and placebo response included age, previous drug treatment, race, and initial level of somatic symptomatology.

1. A number of studies have been undertaken demonstrating that psychiatric factors are of importance in coronary heart disease (CHD). Accordingly a double-blind comparison was made between two groups of patients who had suffered their first myocardial infarction, one group being treated with clorazepate and the other with placebo, for three months.

2. The patients made daily records of anginal attacks and other factors, and throughout the trial, the mean anginal attack rate and mean glyceryl trinitrate (GTN) requirement rates were less in those patients treated with clorazepate than in those treated with placebo. In the case of the GTN requirements, for the whole trial, the reduction was statistically significant in favour of clorazepate (p < 0.01).

3. On a number of other measures also, advantages were recorded for the patients treated with active medication. A new rating scale has been devised to assess psychiatric symptomatology in patients suffering from organic conditions which might otherwise cause symptoms which could be confused with the somatic items on established scales.

1. Diazepam's capacity to influence learning and memory processes in man was evaluated using five tasks involving free and cued recall and mental imagery.

2. State-dependent learning was assessed by manipulating the drug condition (diazepam or placebo) during the learning and recall sessions.

3. Results indicated that 0.3 mg/kg diazepam administered orally significantly impaired subjects' ability to learn new material using a variety of procedures.

4. Retrieval of material once learned was not severely impaired by the drug.

5. Some evidence for state dependency was found, but additional studies are required.

1. Endorphins, substances isolated from the brain and the pituitary gland, were found to have opiate-like activity via opiate receptors in the brain. Special types of brain endorphins are the enkephalins, pentapeptides which have leucin or methionine as a terminal amino acid. Methionine-enkephalin was recognised as an amino acid sequence from a larger peptide hormone of the anterior pituitary gland, beta-lipotropin.

2. FK 33-824, a synthetically-modified methionine-enkephalin, was the subject of our study. FK 33-824 induced a short-term improvement in the symptoms of 5 of 7 psychotic patients.

3. An EEG investigation of this compound in 20 normal volunteers (compared with placebo in 8 of them) indicated typical changes in electrical activity in the conventional description and spectral-analytic evaluation, viz. an increase in alpha and beta activity with a simultaneous decrease in slow waves. The changes after FK 33-824 differ from placebo changes and from the well known changes seen after opioid alkaloids.

1. Pharmacological inhibition of phenylethanolamine-N-methyltransferase (PNMT), the synthesizing enzyme for adrenaline, resulted in enhanced behavioral activation by 3,4,-dihydroxyphenylalanine (L-DOPA) in mice.

2. This suggests that an adrenergic system normally inhibits drug induced activation and

3. Points to an interaction between adrenaline and other catecholamines.

1. Preliminary data show that lithium carbonate administered in patients with endogenous depression significantly inhibits serum cholinesterase.

2. The interaction of lithium with cholinergic system could be envisaged as a possible mechanism of lithium therapeutic action in affective disorders.

1. The paper reports two small-scale experiments administering 5 mg diazepam to normal subjects using a state-dependent learning paradigm.

2. No evidence of state-dependency was found, but an improvement on the second day's recall test as a function of drug administration on Day 1 was found. It was tempting to connect that better recall with improved sleep quality in the intervening night.