Folia psychiatrica et neurologica japonica最新文献

Calcium-hopantenate (HOPA), a derivative of GABA, was administered to 9 psychiatric patients with neuroleptics-induced tardive dyskinesia. In a clinical study, involuntary movements have improved significantly after a 4-8-week medication. Although there was no correlation between the cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) levels of HOPA, GABA, HVA or clinical response, the CSF HOPA levels significantly correlated with changes in the CSF GABA levels. These results suggest that HOPA alleviates the symptoms of tardive dyskinesia being mediated by the central GABAergic mechanisms.

The cytoarchitecture of the lateral hypothalamic area (LHA) in rats was studied with cresyl violet-stained coronal celloidin sections and with sections of the brain impregnated by a Golgi method. Unimodality was established in the frequency distribution histogram of both the somatic cross-sectional area of the LHA neurons and somatic shape (elongation and circularity). The predominant somatic orientation was in the dorsomedial-ventrolateral direction: bimodality of the frequency distribution of somatic orientation was denied. These findings suggest that the LHA neurons examined in the present study are not subdivisible on the basis of the somatic area, shape or orientation. Although the neurons were classified into eight types based upon the dendritic pattern, those in the LHA largely consisted of only three of them; Type III (dendrites extending in two directions along the long axis of soma), Type IV (three directions) and Type VIII (four directions) jointly accounted for 97.1 percent of the total neurons examined. This finding suggests that the parameter of dendritic pattern serves an important purpose in the typing of the rat LHA neurons. The orientation of intrinsic dendrites and intrinsic axons in the LHA has also been described.

Sensory and autonomic polyneuropathy is a rare disease characterized by a sensory nerve disorder and postganglionic autonomic dysfunction. The etiology of this disease is unknown. We described a 51-year-old woman who had a chronic sensory dominant polyneuropathy and dysautonomia associated with hypergammaglobulinemia. In the previous reports of sensory and autonomic polyneuropathy, not much attention was given to coexisting hypergammaglobulinemia. By reviewing the literatures, hypergammaglobulinemia was frequently present in these case reports. This fact leads us to consider that an immunological mechanism may be playing a role in the pathogenesis of this disorder.

Over the past 20 years from 1961, we have been conducting research on the relation between the mental and physical state of old people and the depopulation process in the mountain areas of Japan. People over 65 years old have been studied annually, with the use of Hasegawa's method and Amako's scale of grading age and Zung's depression scale mentally. For their physical checkup, ECG and blood pressure, etc. were taken. In the early stages of our study, a significant difference was observed between the people in the depopulated areas and those living in the plains. However, we have been unable to find significant differences of the occurrence of senile dementia between these two areas since 1977, nor of the physical state of the elderly since 1981. We did observe more people with a higher level of Zung's depression scale in the depopulated areas in 1984. Since Japan's economic growth slowed down by the two oil shocks has never revitalized the depopulated areas, the old people are still left alone in the mountain areas. However, they now regularly receive good meal services by local welfare committees. Supermarkets have also appeared in some villages, so that the aged have easier access to nutritious food such as meats, fruits and milk. Still, we find bedridden elderly patients more often in these depopulated areas, as well as a statistically greater incidence of suicides (r = -0.42, p less than 0.01). It is our fervent desire that more psychological support should be given to the aged in the depopulated areas, such as visits to their homes by public nurses, or more frequent phone-calls by volunteers.

Temporal lobe epilepsy was studied by the 11C-glucose method of positron emission tomography. The temporal lobe at the level 25 mm above the orbitomeatal line showed the amygdala, hippocampus and hippocampal gyrus medially, and the T1, T2 and T3 neocortices laterally. The focus locations in these structures were divided into mesial, lateral and combined groups on the PECT images. This classification showed a close correlation between the clinical symptoms and the anatomical focus sites.

On the basis of our recent finding that all narcoleptic patients were HLA-DR2 positive, peripheral blood lymphocyte subsets were examined in 30 HLA-DR2 positive narcoleptic patients by using monoclonal antibodies and a flow cytometry. The percentages of OKIa1+ cells and OKM1+ cells increased significantly, while no quantitative changes were observed in the T cell subsets examined in the present study. No major immunological abnormalities which altered the T cell subpopulations quantitatively were apparent in narcolepsy.

The present study indicates that in kindled rats there are no differences in the total number or affinity of the binding sites in the temporal cortex and a slight increase in the total number of binding sites in the cortex when compared with controls. These results, in view of our other observations, suggest that in the kindled rat brain there may be an increased release of SRIF but no down-regulation of SRIF receptors in the temporal cortex and cortex. There appears to be a significant decrease in the number of SRIF receptors in kindled hippocampus. The mechanism by which this occurs remains unclear.

The potencies of various neuroleptic drugs (zotepine, chlorpromazine-HCl, haloperidol and spiperone) on serotonin1 (5HT1) receptors were examined in discrete rat brain regions using the radio receptor assay. The potencies of the neuroleptic drugs on 5HT1 receptors were clearly differentiated in the discrete brain regions: zotepine was the most potent in the frontal cortex, striatum and brain stem; spiperone was the most potent in the hippocampus. Furthermore, zotepine and chlorpromazine-HCl produced no great differences among the various regional 5HT1 receptors, while butyrophenones, haloperidol and spiperone showed remarkable differences. These findings demonstrate that the neuroleptic drugs can be differentiated according to their different affinities for regionally discrete 5HT1 receptors in the brain. This suggests that 5HT1 receptors may be able to be classified into two subtypes: the zotepine and chlorpromazine-HCl group having a high affinity for one subtype and butyrophenones a high affinity for the other.