Impaired perceptual processing and conceptual cognition in patients with anxiety disorders: a pilot study with the binocular depth inversion paradigm.

The binocular depth inversion test (BDIT) measures a common illusion of visual perception whereby implausible objects are seen as normal, e.g., a hollow face is perceived as a normal, convex face.

Mood and affect during detoxification of opiate addicts: a comparison of buprenorphine versus methadone.

Twenty-six in-patients with Diagnostic and Statistical Manual version IV (DSM-IV) criteria for opioid dependence were selected at random to receive either a combination of an 11-day low-dose buprenorphine and a 14-day carbamazepine regimen (n = 14) or a combination of an 11-day methadone and a 14-day carbamazepine regimen (n = 12) in a double-blind, randomized 14-day in-patient detoxification treatment. Patients with buprenorphine and carbamazepine showed a significantly better psychological state after the first and second weeks of treatment. Above all, the buprenorphine-treated patients demonstrated a less marked tiredness, sensitiveness and depressive state as well as a more prominent elevated mood during the detoxification process.

Abnormality in the self-monitoring mechanism in patients with fibromyalgia and somatoform pain disorder.

Background: Auditory hallucinations and passivity experiences are associated with an abnormality in the self-monitoring mechanism that normally allows us to distinguish self-produced from externally produced sensations. It is unclear if chronic central pain disorders such as fibromyalgia and somatoform pain disorders also involve a defect of the self-monitoring mechanism.

Methods: Responses to tactile stimulation were assessed in four groups of subjects (N = 40): patients with fibromyalgia, patients with somatoform pain disorder, patients with schizophrenia with auditory hallucinations and/or passivity experiences, and normal control subjects.

Psychotic disorders and gonadal function: evidence supporting the oestrogen hypothesis.

Objective: The aim of this study was to further evaluate the oestrogen hypothesis of schizophrenia, which postulates low oestradiol levels to be a risk factor for these disorders. A possible influence of neuroleptic-induced hyperprolactinaemia was to be addressed.

Method: Sex hormones were measured and cycle phase assessed in 50 acutely psychotic women on admission and for four consecutive weeks as well as in three control groups.

Effects of acute alcohol withdrawal on memory performance in alcohol-dependent patients: a pilot study.

Studies on the neuropsychological performance in detoxified alcoholic patients often begin by acknowledging that there is a cognitive impairment to be found. Only little attention has been paid to date to the question as to how acute alcohol withdrawal might affect cognitive functions. Twenty-nine alcohol-dependent inpatients, nine in moderate alcohol withdrawal, treated with carbamazepine (group 1), 10 in mild alcohol withdrawal without pharmacological treatment (group 2), 10 in mild alcohol withdrawal with carbamazepine treatment (group 3) and 31 healthy subjects as controls (group 4) underwent repeated investigations using memory tests.