Working memory training in patients with chronic schizophrenia: a pilot study.

Background. There is evidence that patients with schizophrenia suffer from decline in working memory performance with consequences for psychosocial outcome. Objective.

Effect of short- and long-term treatment with valproate on carnitine homeostasis in humans.

Aims: The aim of this study was to identify the mechanisms of hypocarnitinemia in patients treated with valproate.

Methods: Plasma concentrations and urinary excretion of carnitine, acetylcarnitine, propionylcarnitine, valproylcarnitine, and butyrobetaine were determined in a patient starting valproate treatment and in 10 patients on long-term valproate treatment. Transport of carnitine and valproylcarnitine by the proximal tubular carnitine transporter OCTN2 was assessed in vitro.

Typical and atypical antipsychotics--the misleading dichotomy. Results from the Working Group 'Drugs in Psychiatry' (AGATE).

Objectives: (1) To investigate the risk of extrapyramidal motor side effects (EPS) associated with the prescription of different antipsychotics under naturalistic treatment conditions; (2) to test the rationale of the terms 'typical' and 'atypical' based on EPS rates.

Design: Cross-sectional study in the federal state of Bavaria.

Setting: 20 psychiatric hospitals in Bavaria.

Memantine: a therapeutic approach in treating Alzheimer's and vascular dementia.

Memantine has been clinically used in the treatment of organic disorders in Germany for over ten years and has now been approved in Europe and also in the US for moderate to severe Alzheimer's disease. The rationale for this indication is strongly related to the physiological and pathological role of glutamate in neurotransmission. Glutamate is an agonist of NMDA, kainate and AMPA (ionotropic) receptors, where its influence on NMDA receptors plays an important role with regard to neuronal plasticity effecting memory and learning.