摘要:

The authors studied the modifications in contingent negative variation (CNV) in a group of rupophobic subjects. A slide-projected phobogenic or a neutral stimulus was administered 5 s prior to the warning stimulus (S1). A marked reduction in CNV amplitude and the appearance of post-imperative negative variation were observed when the phobogenic stimulus was applied. No significant variations were noted after administration of a neutral stimulus. The results are discussed on the basis of psychological and neurophysiological findings concerning the relationship between attention, arousal and CNV.

ISSN:0302-282X    

DOI:10.1159/000117940

出版商:S. Karger AG    

年代:1983

数据来源: Karger

摘要:

Evoked responses testing including pattern visual evoked potentials (VEPs) and brain stem auditory evoked potentials (BAEPs) were performed in 57 subjects suffering from subjective posttraumatic syndrome (SPTS). 36 of them had loss of consciousness after head injury. Abnormalities were found in 12 subjects out of 57 (21 %). In addition, the pathological findings by percentage were: 25 % in subjects who had loss of consciousness after head injury (9 cases out of 36) and 14% in subjects without loss of consciousness (3 cases out of 21). Evoked response alterations were more frequent in subjects with frontal and/or occipital trauma; BAEP abnormalities were found to be more frequent than VEPs. Our findings suggest that evoked responses testing could be a useful noninvasive technique to evidence an organic dysfunction of CNS in some subjects with SPTS.

ISSN:0302-282X    

DOI:10.1159/000117941

出版商:S. Karger AG    

年代:1983

数据来源: Karger

摘要:

There is close agreement in the literature concerning the effect of specific and directly acting dopaminergic (DA) agonists and antagonists on acute barbiturate-induced responses; with DA agonists inhibiting and DA agonists potentiating these responses. On the other hand, there are presently no studies (and hence no evidence) regarding the effects of direct and specific alterations of DA receptor arousal on chronic barbiturate-induced tolerance or withdrawal. Concerning the effect of acute barbiturate administration on central dopaminergic responses; while some studies report no effect, there is some evidence that barbiturates block DA reuptake after their acute administration. This is consistent with and may explain findings that these drugs also decrease striatal DA turnover acutely, decrease DA concentration in synaptosomes, and decrease postsynaptic DA receptor arousal. In noting the potentia-tion of acute barbiturate-induced responses elicited by DA antagonists, it is interesting to observe that barbiturates and DA antagonists both apparently decrease receptor sensitivity and inhibit DA reuptake presynaptically. Moreover, the supersensitivity to DA agonists induced by chronic DA antagonist administration can be potentiated by barbiturates. Thus, barbiturates appear to block the arousal of postsynaptic DA receptors, though probably not those coupled to adenylate cyclase and, unlike neuroleptics, indirectly. It is likely that the inhibitory effect on DA receptor arousal exerted by barbiturates accounts for at least some of the central effects produced by these drugs.

ISSN:0302-282X    

DOI:10.1159/000117942

出版商:S. Karger AG    

年代:1983

数据来源: Karger

摘要:

The present investigation assessed 45 anxious neurotic adult patients treated double-blindly in three randomized drug groups: bromazepam, diazepam and placebo. Non-signal, simple and complex signal stimuli were presented to monitor electrodermal activity changes at baseline, 4 h, 1 week and 14 days of treatment. The results indicate that patients with generalized anxiety disorder treated with bromazepam developed decreased skin conductance during the presentation of visual, auditory, and tactile stimuli presentations. Such skin conductance changes were not significant for patients on diazepam and placebo. Future clinical and research implications of these perceptual and psychophysiological results are discussed in conjunction with the usage of a functional-realistic-instrumental paradigm rather than studying anxiety on an attentional-arousal continuum.

ISSN:0302-282X    

DOI:10.1159/000117943

出版商:S. Karger AG    

年代:1983

数据来源: Karger

摘要:

This study examines whether variability in the efflux of lithium from erythrocytes may be a marker for manic-depressive disorder in related individuals. The subjects of the study were 73 individuals from 12 families in which there was more than one bipolar manic-depressive member. Using an in vitro procedure, we subjected erythrocytes to four conditions which are believed to inhibit lithium efflux. Only phloretin, an inihibitor of Na+-Li+ countertransport, produced significant inhibition. Variability in this inhibition was not related to the presence or absence of manic-depressive disorder, although it was related to family membership. The implications of these findings are discussed.

ISSN:0302-282X    

DOI:10.1159/000117944

出版商:S. Karger AG    

年代:1983

数据来源: Karger

摘要:

Personality traits were assessed in a series of 148 patients classified according to Winokur into depression pure disease (DPD), depression spectrum disease (DSD) and sporadic depression (SD) with the addition of a fourth group: family history positive-others (FH+.O) comprised of patients with psychiatric disorders among first-degree relatives other than those taken into account by Winokur. Personality was assessed by means of a Swedish inventory, the KSP, comprised of 15 subscales assumed to measure relatively stable traits. DSD patients appeared to be most deviant from the other groups in most variables. Statistically significant differences were obtained for the variable socialization, which measures the internalization of social rules on which the DSD patients scored lowest, and variables of aggression on which the DSD patients scored higher than all the others.

ISSN:0302-282X    

DOI:10.1159/000117945

出版商:S. Karger AG    

年代:1983

数据来源: Karger

摘要:

162 depressed patients, consecutively admitted to the Department of Psychiatry, Umeå University, were rated by means of the comprehensive psychopathological rating scale (CPRS) within a few days after their admission, and before any antidepressive treatment had been implemented. The same patients were later subdivided into groups according to the presence or absence of psychiatric illness among their first-degree relatives. Four groups were thus formed: depression pure disease (DPD), i.e., comprised of patients with only secondary cases of depression; depression spectrum disease (DSD), comprised of patients with secondary cases of both depression and alcoholism and antisocial personality among their first-degree relatives; positive family history-others (FH+.O), included those patients with first-degree relatives affected by other psychiatric disorders than those required for inclusion among the DSD; and finally, sporadic depression (SD), comprised of those patients who had no family loading at all. The results showed that the severity of illness was similar in all four groups. Only a few symptomatological differences emerged, and these related consistently to a higher frequency of symptoms of retardation (inability to feel, lassitude, and concentration difficulties) in the DSD group as compared to the SD group. No significant symptomatological differences occurred between patients in the DPD and DSD groups. It is concluded that a classification of unipolar patients based on family data does not predict the occurrence of various symptomatological patterns

ISSN:0302-282X    

DOI:10.1159/000117946

出版商:S. Karger AG    

年代:1983

数据来源: Karger

摘要:

Prolactin (PRL) and growth hormone (GH) response to L-Dopa have been studied in 51 affectively ill women (26 unipolar and 25 bipolar) before and after amitriptyline treatment and in 14 normal female controls. There was no difference in GH response to L-dopa in all groups studied except for bipolar postmenopausal women, who showed a blunted GH response to L-Dopa compared to bipolar premenopausal women. After amitriptyline treatment, no difference in GH response was found in all groups studied. Basal PRL levels were significantly lower in unipolar premenopausal and bipolar premenopausal patients in comparison to their controls. PRL response to L-Dopa was significantly less inhibited in postmenopausal controls than in premenopausal controls and in bipolar premenopausal patients compared to premenopausal controls. These data provide further evidence of hypothalamo-pituitary dysfunction in subgroups of affective disorders and emphasize the importance of considering the menopausal status in neuroendocrine studies of psychiatric disorders.

ISSN:0302-282X    

DOI:10.1159/000117947

出版商:S. Karger AG    

年代:1983

数据来源: Karger

摘要:

ECGs and left ventricular systolic time intervals were studied in 26 patients suffering from major depressive disorder treated with clomipramine. ECGs did not show, with one exception, drug-induced changes. The ratio of pre-ejection period to left ventricular ejection time, both corrected for heart rate (PEPc/LVETc), presented no significant changes, as compared with initial findings, in the group of patients considered as a whole. 27 % of patients, however, showed individual percent changes greater than 8 %, both increases and decreases having been observed. Cardiac findings were in no way related to clomipramine plasma levels.

ISSN:0302-282X    

DOI:10.1159/000117948

出版商:S. Karger AG    

年代:1983

数据来源: Karger

摘要:

In a double-blind study the clinical symptomatology and quantitatively analyzed EEG of 42 hospitalized chronic alcoholics (ICD 303) undergoing alcohol withdrawal were investigated before, during and after 3 weeks’ treatment with 2 pharmacokinetically different benzodiazepines: the short-acting lopirazepam (a new pyridodiazepine) and the long-acting prazepam. At the end of weeks 1 and 3 the titrated optimal daily doses were 24 and 23 mg lopirazepam and 35 and 32 prazepam, respectively, thus confirming our earlier pharmaco-EEG predictions that on a mg to mg basis the former drug is slightly more CNS potent than the latter. Thereafter, the patient population was divided into 6 subgroups: 2 groups continuing on active medication, 2 groups receiving placebo, and 2 groups with no pharmacotherapy for 1 week. Clinical assessments included the CGI, the Hamilton Anxiety Score, the Zung Self-Rating Scale for Anxiety and Depression, the Zerssen Befindlichkeitsskala and the questionnaire for somatic findings and side effect and were carried out on days 0, 7, 21 and 28 as was a radioreceptor assay for benzodiazepines in plasma. Quantitative EEG investigations were carried out on days 0, 21 and 28 and included recordings before and 2 h after one single dose of 10 mg. Statistical analysis demonstrated a marked and highly significant decrease in psycho-pathology as well as good drug tolerance at the end of the first week of therapy and thereafter a slight continuation in improvement until the end of the 3rd week. There were, however, no statistically significant differences between the 2 active compounds, nor were there any statistically significant differences between the 6 subgroups in the 4th week. On the other hand, blood level investigations demonstrated that even after a 3-week treatment period, blood levels dropped down to a morning minimum 12 h after the last evening medication of the short-acting lopirazepam, while plasma levels of the long-acting prazepam remained high. This was also reflected in the spectral analyzed EEG, which showed, after one single dosage of both drugs, a typical anxiolytic profile which was more pronounced after lopirazepam than prazepam, while after the chronic administration (12 h after the evening medication) only prazepam showed an anxiolytic profile. The lopirazepam-treated patients exhibited on the one hand a lack of benzodiazepine-specific alterations, but showed on the other hand EEG changes possibly reflecting clinical improvement. The relevance of the findings will be discusse

ISSN:0302-282X    

DOI:10.1159/000117949

出版商:S. Karger AG    

年代:1983

数据来源: Karger