The neurobiological modifications that women experience during the puerperium, together with the consequent psychosocial changes, lead to variations in cognitive functions. In order to describe the cognitive variations that occur during postpartum and the determining factors, a narrative review was conducted by means of a bibliographic search in PubMed and Google Scholar. A steady increase in the number of published works was located (PubMed = 186; Google Scholar = 26,730).
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Outpatient parenteral antibiotic treatment (OPAT) has proven efficacious for treating infective endocarditis (IE). However, the 2001 Infectious Diseases Society of America (IDSA) criteria for OPAT in IE are very restrictive. We aimed to compare the outcomes of OPAT with those of hospital-based antibiotic treatment (HBAT).
View Article and Find Full Text PDFMyocarditis occurs more frequently during clozapine (CLZ) administration than during treatment with other antipsychotic drugs (APs). In this observational study, we transversally screened outpatients for myocarditis by comparing a CLZ group of 132 subjects, with a non-CLZ group taking other APs (n = 371) only, and in 21 CLZ-treated patients and 18 subjects treated with other APs who had been followed for more than one year. The protocol included a) assessment of symptoms such as dyspnea, tachycardia, chest discomfort, fever, cough, and edema, b) blood pressure and heart auscultation; c) a standard electrocardiogram after a 5-minute rest, d) white cell count, and qualitative determination of troponin I, creatine-kinase-MB and myoglobin, and e) a cardiologist evaluation of subjects with suspected myocarditis.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: The antipsychotic drug (APD) clozapine (CLZ) is under-prescribed because of concerns about its safety. We evaluated in separate protocols the frequency of cardiomyopathy and hyponatraemia, which are adverse drug effects, where few comparative studies are available.
Methods: Cross-sectional studies in subjects treated for at least 3 consecutive months with the same drug were conducted.
Tardive Dyskinesia (TD) is a movement disorder associated with the clinical administration of antipsychotics. It is believed that TD is due, among other factors, to an increase in the oxidative damage produced by free radicals. Antioxidants, like vitamin E, have been used in the treatment of TD but there is no evidence of their effectiveness.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFDepression has been associated to inflammatory and oxidative events. Previous report has shown renal oxidative stress in patients with depression. In order to analyze if depressive status is related to renal oxidative and inflammatory events, Sprague Dawley rats were submitted to forced swimming test (FST) and the renal oxidative metabolism, monocyte-macrophage infiltration and Angiotensin II (Ang II) expression were determined.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Few studies on the association between atypical antipsychotic drug (AAP) administration and metabolic dysfunction have concurrently evaluated the general population (GP), other psychotropic drug treatments and drug-free psychiatric patients.
Methods: We assessed the frequency of the metabolic syndrome (MS) according to the National Cholesterol Education Program criteria (NCEP) and its constituting variables in a GP sample (n=271) and in patients receiving, for at least three consecutive months, antiepileptic drugs (n=93), olanzapine (n=162), clozapine (n=105), typical antipsychotics (n=117), other AAP (n=58), other psychotropic drugs (n=185), and drug-free individuals (n=636). Subjects were clinically classified as schizophrenia, bipolar or other axis I disorders (DSM-IV-RT), and as first-degree relatives of each diagnostic group.
Objectives: Previous reports have shown that the depressive status in humans and experimental animals is associated with decreased immune response. Since monocyte chemotaxis and expression of CD11a are pivotal mechanisms in immune response, impairment of these events could explain the diminished immune response in depression.
Methods: To test this, rats were submitted to the forced swimming test (FST) for 3 and 15 days.
Autonomic and peripheral neuropathies are well-described complications in diabetes. Diabetes mellitus is also associated to central nervous system damage. This little-known complication is characterized by impairment of brain functions and electrophysiological changes associated with neurochemical and structural abnormalities.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFDepression is frequently observed among patients with diabetes and depressive status has been associated to activation of inflammatory processes, suggesting a role of depression in the inflammatory events observed in diabetes. To test that proposal, it was studied the effect of depression induced by forced swimming test (FST) on the evolution of early diabetic nephropathy. Diabetes was induced by streptozotocin injection.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Clozapine is the most effective agent in treatment-resistant schizophrenia. However, it is frequently associated with excessive body weight (BW) gain, type 2 diabetes mellitus and hyperlipidemia. The antidiabetic metformin (MET) has proved effective to assist in BW control during olanzapine administration.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Leptin dysregulation has been implicated in the body weight gain and metabolic dysfunction observed with the second generation antipsychotic drugs (SGAD) olanzapine and clozapine.
Methods: This study quantified the frequency of subjects with abnormal correlation between leptin and the body mass index controlling for gender (defined as being out of the upper or lower 95% confidence interval in the regression line when combining each group with the drug-free subjects) after prolonged treatment with olanzapine (n=126), clozapine (n=62), first generation antiypsychotics (n=91), other SGAD (n=22), other psychotropic drugs (n=65) and drug-free subjects (n=229).
Results: None of the analysis was significant (p>0.
Background: Clinical studies suggest that the second generation antipsychotics (APs) clozapine and olanzapine and to a lesser extent the typical antipsychotics may be associated with a procoagulant and proinflammatory state that promotes venous thromboembolism. We evaluated here several blood factors associated with coagulation and inflammation in AP-treated schizophrenia patients and their first-degree relatives.
Methods: Procoagulant factors (fibrinogen and plasminogen activator inhibitor [PAI-1]), the anticoagulant factor antithrombin III [AT-III], and inflammation-related factors (C-reactive protein [CRP] and leptin) were assessed in patients chronically treated with clozapine (n=29), olanzapine (n=29), typical APs (n=30) and first degree relatives of clozapine (n=23) and olanzapine subjects (n=11).
Background: Excessive body weight gain (BWG) is a clinically relevant side effect of olanzapine administration. The primary objective of this study was to assess whether metformin prevents or reverses BWG in patients with schizophrenia or bipolar disorder under olanzapine administration. Secondarily we evaluated diverse metabolic variables.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFSituations of stress are capable of inducing depression and oxidative stress in the brain. Previous reports have shown that angiotensin II (Ang II) induces the production of superoxide anion (O(2)(-)), and impairment of endothelial function in cerebral microvessels in vivo. Substances that reduce angiotensin functions may be important in the treatment of depression.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Children with hemophilia can experience problems with their mental health status and social functioning.
Aim: To assess the mental health status of hemophilic children.
Material And Methods: Thirty four hemophilic children aged 5 to 13 years were studied.
The mental health of hemophilic individuals and their families play an important role on the integral treatment of the disease. The knowledge of the beliefs and attitudes perceived by the patients toward their disease will make possible a positive influence in their clinical improvement, their response to the treatment, as well as their quality of life. On the basis of the Azjen and Fishbein's Theory of Reasoned Action, a questionnaire was applied to 43 adult hemophilics to determine the salient beliefs about their disease.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFA cholinergic dysfunction has been involved in the neurobiological mechanisms of stress and depression. In the present study, we determined the autoradiographic distribution of muscarinic cholinergic receptors in the brain of rats subjected to the forced swimming test for 15 days. Motor activity was automatically analyzed daily before swimming.
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