Diaries and memories following an ICU stay: a 2-month follow-up study.

Background: Many patients lack a clear recollection from their stay in the intensive care unit (ICU). Diaries have been introduced as a tool to complete memories and reduce the risk of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

Aims: To describe and compare patients' memories and PTSD in relation to having received and read or not received a diary and patients' experiences of having received and read their diary, without having discussed the contents with ICU staff.

Sustained citalopram treatment in experimental hepatic encephalopathy: effects on entrainment to the light-dark cycle and melatonin.

Patients with chronic hepatic encephalopathy often display altered diurnal rhythm as well as other affective disturbances which motivate treatment with antidepressants. We investigated the effects of sustained treatment with citalopram (10 mg/kg daily, 10 days) on 24-hr behavioural open-field activities in portacaval-shunted (PCS) rats and sham-operated control rats. In addition, the daytime and nighttime serum melatonin levels, as well as the serum concentrations of the enantiomers of citalopram and its metabolites, were analyzed.

Quantitative studies of liver atrophy after portacaval shunt in the rat.

Background: It is well known that portacaval shunting ultimately leads to a decrease in liver volume and hepatic function, but the mechanism is uncertain. The aim of the present study was to evaluate the effect of portacaval shunting (PCS) upon the morphological changes that occur in the liver in rats after port caval anastomosis.

Materials And Methods: Sixty-six male rats underwent either PCS (n = 35) or sham operations (n = 31).

Open-field behavioural alterations in liver-impaired and sham-operated rats after acute exposure to the antidepressant venlafaxine.

Patients with chronic liver impairment often display symptoms of affective psychiatric nature where the choice for antidepressant treatment is rational. Since caution is recommended when these drugs are used in such patients, a dose reduction is usually performed. We have previously reported that a dose reduction to liver-impaired portacaval shunted rats has resulted in similar brain concentrations of venlafaxine as compared to sham-operated control rats that received a two times higher dose.

Effects of chronic citalopram treatment on central and peripheral spontaneous open-field behaviours in rats.

The spontaneous open-field behavioural effects of 10 days of chronic treatment with two clinical doses (10 and 20 mg/kg daily) and one high/toxic dose (100 mg/kg daily) of the selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor citalopram (delivered subcutaneously by implanted osmotic pumps) were examined in rats. Central and peripheral arena locomotor and rearing activities were recorded simultaneously, and the data were assessed during the first hour as well as during the following 24 hr (the latter for effects on the diurnal rhythm). Rats treated with 100 mg/kg daily exhibited lower peripheral locomotor and rearing activities than the other groups during the first test hour.