A Naturalistic Study of the Effectiveness of Pharmacogenetic Testing to Guide Treatment in Psychiatric Patients With Mood and Anxiety Disorders.

Objective: To examine the effectiveness of genetic testing in a real-world setting and to assess its impact on clinician treatment decisions.

Method: This was a naturalistic, unblinded, prospective analysis of psychiatric patients and clinicians who utilized a commercially available genetic test (between April and October of 2013), which incorporates 10 genes related to pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics of psychiatric medications. Each patient's genetic results were provided to participating clinicians, who completed a baseline survey including patient medications, history, and severity of illness.

The potential utility of pharmacogenetic testing in psychiatry.

Over the last decade, pharmacogenetics has become increasingly significant to clinical practice. Psychiatric patients, in particular, may benefit from pharmacogenetic testing as many of the psychotropic medications prescribed in practice lead to varied response rates and a wide range of side effects. The use of pharmacogenetic testing can help tailor psychotropic treatment and inform personalized treatment plans with the highest likelihood of success.

Pharmacogenetic-guided psychiatric intervention associated with increased adherence and cost savings.

Objectives: Pharmacogenetic testing as a means of guiding treatment decisions is beginning to see wider clinical use in psychiatry. The utility of this genetic information as it pertains to clinical decision making, treatment effectiveness, cost savings, and patient perception has not been fully characterized.

Study Design: In this retrospective study, we examined health claims data in order to assess medication adherence rates and healthcare costs for psychiatric patients.

Pharmacologic antagonism of the oral aversive taste-directed response to capsaicin in a mouse brief access taste aversion assay.

Chemosensory signaling by the tongue is a primary determinant of ingestive behavior and is mediated by specific interactions between tastant molecules and G protein-coupled and ion channel receptors. The functional relationship between tastant and receptor should be amenable to pharmacologic methods and manipulation. We have performed a pharmacologic characterization of the taste-directed licking of mice presented with solutions of capsaicin and other transient receptor potential vanilloid-1 (TRPV1) agonists using a brief access taste aversion assay.

Quantitative assessment of TRPM5-dependent oral aversiveness of pharmaceuticals using a mouse brief-access taste aversion assay.

Many orally administered pharmaceuticals are regarded by humans as aversive, most often described as 'bitter'. Taste aversiveness often leads to patient noncompliance and reduced treatment effectiveness. 'Bitter' taste is mediated by T2R G-protein coupled receptors through a peripheral signaling pathway critically dependent upon function of the TRPM5 ion channel.

Stress-induced increases in avoidance responding: an animal model of post-traumatic stress disorder behavior?

One prominent symptom of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is avoidance of stimuli reminiscent of the traumatic event. We attempted to study this aspect of PTSD in two experiments. Groups of rats received forty 3-s tailshocks, or served as home cage controls (HCC).

Long-term effect of cued fear conditioning on REM sleep microarchitecture in rats.

Study Objectives: To study long-term effects of conditioned fear on REM sleep (REMS) parameters in albino rats.

Design: We have investigated disturbances in sleep architecture, including muscle twitch density as REMS phasic activity, and freezing behavior in wakefulness, upon reexposure to a conditioned stimulus (CS) on Day 1 and Day 14 postconditioning.

Subjects: Male Sprague-Dawley rats prepared for polysomnographic recordings.

Stress-induced changes in sleep in rodents: models and mechanisms.

Psychological stressors have a prominent effect on sleep in general, and rapid eye movement (REM) sleep in particular. Disruptions in sleep are a prominent feature, and potentially even the hallmark, of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) (Ross, R.J.

Centrally administered tumor necrosis factor-alpha facilitates the avoidance performance of Sprague-Dawley rats.

In addition to their immunological functions, recent research has indicated that the pro-inflammatory cytokines can influence learning and memory processes. We have previously shown that a peripheral injection of TNFalpha facilitates the acquisition of a leverpress avoidance task 24 h post-injection. Because the improved acquisition is presumably mediated by central changes, the current experiment involved directly injecting TNFalpha into the third ventricle 24 h prior to training.

Corticotropin-releasing factor microinjection into the central nucleus of the amygdala alters REM sleep.

Psychological stressors have a prominent effect on rapid eye movement sleep (REMS) in humans and animals. We hypothesized that the stress-related neurochemical corticotropin-releasing factor (CRF), acting in the amygdala, could initiate neural events that lead to REMS alterations. Therefore, we made bilateral microinjections of three different doses of CRF into the central nucleus of the amygdala (CeA) in five rats.

Predator odor exposure facilitates acquisition of a leverpress avoidance response in rats.

We have previously reported that prior exposure to inescapable tailshock stress increased avoidance responding 24 hours later. We argued previously that this might model the avoidance behavior characteristic of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). The current experiment was conducted to determine whether a more ethologically relevant stressor would produce similar effects on avoidance responding.

Leverpress escape/avoidance training increases neurotrophin levels in rat brain.

In addition to their well-known role in neural development, the neurotrophins BDNF and NGF help mediate the plasticity that occurs in the brain to promote learning. Exposure to learning procedures often leads to increases in neurotrophins, while exposure to stress often results in decreases. It is unclear how the neurotrophins would respond to an aversive learning task.

Ethanol consumption improves avoidance learning in rats: role of deprivation interval.

Voluntary oral self-administration of ethanol in rats has been used to model ethanol consumption and abuse in human beings, with contradictory results. The purpose of the current study was to assess the effect of voluntary ethanol consumption on acquisition of a lever press escape/avoidance task in rats. Male Wistar rats were exposed to ethanol in a limited-access procedure, and either 1 day or 10 days after their last ethanol exposure, animals received a 4-h lever press escape/avoidance session.

REM sleep: a sensitive index of fear conditioning in rats.

To examine the influence of conditioned fear stimuli on sleep-wake states, we recorded sleep in Sprague-Dawley rats after exposure to tones previously paired with footshock. After habituation to a recording chamber and the recording procedure, a baseline sleep recording was obtained the next day. One day later, experimental animals were exposed to shock training designed to induce conditioned fear (FC), consisting of five tone-footshock pairings.

Effect of petting a dog on immune system function.

The present study assessed the effect of petting a dog on secretory immunoglobulin A (IgA) levels. 55 college students were randomly assigned to either an experimental group or one of two control groups. Group 1 (n= 19) petted a live dog; Group 2 (n = 17) petted a stuffed dog, while Group 3 (n = 19) simply sat comfortably on a couch.

A rodent model of sleep disturbances in posttraumatic stress disorder: the role of context after fear conditioning.

Background: A prominent sleep disturbance, likely including a disruption of rapid eye movement sleep (REMS) continuity, characterizes posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). We set out to develop a fear conditioning paradigm in rats that displays alterations in sleep architecture analogous to those in PTSD.

Methods: Baseline polysomnographic recordings of rats were performed in a neutral context to which the rats had been habituated for several days.

Proinflammatory cytokines differentially affect leverpress avoidance acquisition in rats.

Recent evidence indicates that the pro-inflammatory cytokines (PICs) can affect learning and memory processes. To examine the effect of the PICs on leverpress escape/avoidance conditioning, we injected male Sprague-Dawley rats with IL-1beta, IL-6 (both 3.0 microg/kg, i.

Sexual frequency and salivary immunoglobulin A (IgA).

112 college students reported the frequency of their sexual encounters and were divided into four categories: none, infrequent (less than once a week), frequent (one to two times per week), and very frequent (three or more times per week). Participants also described their overall sexual satisfaction. Saliva samples were collected and assayed for salivary immunoglobulin A (IgA).

Serum cholesterol levels and stressor controllability in rats.

Whether an organism can control a stressful event is often an important variable determining the impact of the event on physiology and behavior. Numerous behavioral and physiological variables are more adversely affected by uncontrollable stress. The present experiment with rat subjects compared the effect of controllable stress (escape conditioning) or uncontrollable stress (yoked control group) vs.

Low doses of interleukin-1beta improve the leverpress avoidance performance of Sprague-Dawley rats.

Recent research has indicated that the pro-inflammatory cytokines, particularly interleukin-1beta (IL-1beta), can affect learning and memory. We injected male Sprague-Dawley rats with IL-1beta (1.0, 3.

Leverpress escape/avoidance conditioning in rats: safety signal length and avoidance performance.

Leverpress escape/avoidance is an excellent model for assessing coping in rats. Acquisition of the leverpress response is determined by the interstimulus (signal-shock) interval, as well as the type and duration of the aversive event. One factor that has received less research attention is the safety or feedback signal.

Stress interacts with peripheral cholinesterase inhibitors to cause central nervous system effects.

Pyridostigmine bromide (PB), a peripheral cholinesterase inhibitor, has been shown to have central cholinesterase inhibition properties under certain conditions (such as when ingested with other chemical compounds or following a high level of stress). Here we tested if stressing rats, using an intermittent 1 hr tailshock protocol, affected the degree of brain acetylcholinesterase (AChE) inhibition caused by a subsequent single injection of PB (2.0 mg/kg) or neostigmine bromide (NB, 0.

Effects of stress on nonassociative learning processes in male and female rats.

In this study we assessed habituation and sensitization of the acoustic startle response (ASR) to discern whether intense, inescapable stress affects nonassociative learning differently in male and female rats. Rats were inescapably stressed 2 hours per day over 3 consecutive days. ASR magnitudes were measured at several times post-stress (1, 4, 8, and 15 days after cessation).