The Journal of asthma research最新文献

In my clinic, Solganal-B-Oleosum was administered to the patients with bronchial asthma from 1955 up to 1973, covering a period of 19 years, and statistical observation has been done. Several clinical results are presented. 1) In 1,056 cases, markedly improved 40.8%, improved 32.8%; clinically effective ratio: total 73.6%. Others: a few somewhat improved and unimproved cases, then inconsiderable aggravated cases. 2) The longer the period from the age of onset to the beginning of treatment, the lower the efficiency; the shorter the period, the higher the efficiency. 3) The group of light severity revealed high efficiency; and according to the grade of severity the efficiency decreased. 4) Sex, age, age of onset, disposition of asthma, etc., resulted in no clear relation to the effectiveness. 5) Side effect revealed 2.3% skin eruption, and then a few cases of proteinuria, stomatitis, gingivitis, etc. There was no case of severe, critical disorder. 6) In other cases, long-term effectiveness after finishing the Solganal treatment was pursued. A trial of additional injection for several years after finishing the treatment was also studied. Serum gold concentrations in the course and after finishing the main course etc., were measured.

In two previous communications we demonstrated that triiodothyronine (T3) improved cases of chronic bronchial asthma (CBA). In this communication we administered T3 in a dose of 40 microgram/day for a period of sixty days to twelve cases of CBA aged less than 38 years who had had the condition for more than 5 years and were not on steroids or chromoglycate. All were outpatients. Respiratory functions including vital capacity and timed expiratory volume were tested before and after the period of drug administration. Patients were also advised to record the number of attacks and amount of bronchodilators used. All patients had their % T3 uptake and thyroxine (T4) serum level examined before the experiment. Ten normal persons of matching ages and sexes had their blood examined for % T3 uptake and levels as control. The results have shown that the patients had normal % T3 uptake and T4 levels in blood. Their vital capacity increased by an average of 4.27%, their first-second expiratory volume by 17.58% (P less than 0.0025), their second-second expiratory volume by 13.74% (P less than 0.0025%), and their maximal ventilatory volume by 12.95% (P less than 0.0025). Five cases had an increase of over 20% and 5 cases had practically no increase or a mild reduction. Subjective improvement and reduction in amount of bronchodilators used correlated well with the improvement in ventilation. It is argued that T3 acts through having the capacity to increase cAMP, a main messenger in bronchodilation that is known to be deficient in asthmatics.

Serotonin, when injected intracranially and intraabdominally into goldfish produces the surfacing reaction typical of hallucinogenic compounds active in man. It is suggested that serotonin disorders in the brain in man might be connected with the schizophrenias.

The cultural spectra of homosexuality are briefly traced in Western and Eastern cultures. Special emphasis is placed on homosexuality in the male, which was a capital offense in the British Navy from 1700 to the early part of the nineteenth century when psychological and medical factors came to be considered of importance. In the American colonies the attitude toward male homosexuality and lesbianism is stated in a clear record of the views of Thomas Jefferson, who proposed in 1779 that "whoever shall be guilty of rape, polygamy or sodomy shall be punished if a man by castration, if a women by cutting through the cartilage of her nose a hole one-half inch in diameter at the least." The growing importance of Freudian theory led to research into child development and the stresses of entering the Oedipal period. Thanks to the insight of female psychoanalysts, Freud's original views were modified to patterns of boys and girls, and the relationship of these differences to the complex systems which may have produced homosexuality in may instances in both sexes. A thesis by Diane M. Greene entitled "Women Loving Women" is reviewed with special reference to the way women adapt to being in the world as lesbians. Prompted by what Bieber and Bieber wrote concerning the use of homosexual themes in males in solving problems related to achievement, e.g., creative success, salary increases, parenting, and drawing on psychoanalytic data, it is considered likely that women exercise similar mechanisms in solving analogous problems. It follows then that a few days delivery, a women could begin to doubt that she could handle this success-the need to mother. This could lead her to doubt her femininity, utilizing the same (hidden) homosexual mechanisms of problem solving in the male. An awareness of this process may assist the physician in management and therapy. Woods' paradigm for the male: I am a failure leads to I am castrated leads to I am not a man leads to I am like a women leads to I am homosexual. For the female, Mayberger and Abramson propose: I am a mother leads to I am successful leads to I cannot handle success because I lack the need to mother my infant lead to I am not a real women, I am like a man leads to I am homosexual.

While the standard physiological and even certain psychological characteristics of asthmatic patients are well known, the current diagnostic and therapeutic approach to asthma remains inadequate, as it neglects certain interrelated somatopsychic factors vital to an optimal diagnostic-therapeutic programme. These include the role of skeletal muscle tension and posture, the role of the 'voluntary' respiratory musculature, especially the diaphragm, as well as anxiety, emotional suppression and excessive self-consciousness, all of which may be precipitants rather than the outcome of the onset of asthma. On the basis of these neglected factors and others, implications for an optimally effective therapy are discussed. The physical medicine or physiotherapeutic, as well as other recent therapeutic approaches, are reviewed and evaluated. It is concluded that all of these therapies are too "specific," and that a more holistic approach is necessary (which is provided in 'Asthma: The Yoga Perspective,' Part II-"Yoga Therapy in the Treatment of Asthma").