Distribution of quetiapine between serum and whole blood in therapeutic drug-monitoring specimens.

Quetiapine use is on the rise, leading to a corresponding increase in acute intoxications, some of which have fatal outcomes. When assessing whole-blood quetiapine concentrations during forensic autopsies, interpretations are primarily based on toxicity data from studies of serum concentrations. To our knowledge, there are only two previous studies that have attempted to establish the ratio between whole blood and serum quetiapine concentrations with limited populations and high variability of results.

Cerebrospinal fluid cytokines in geriatric patients with depressive disorders: A retrospective case-control study.

Central nervous system inflammation might play a role in patients with depressive disorders. This hypothesis is supported by studies reporting increased cerebrospinal fluid levels of the inflammatory markers interleukin (IL)-6, IL-8 and tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNF-α) in patients with ongoing depression. In this case-control study, we aimed to examine whether these findings also applied to depressed patients in a .

Differences between counties in the prescribing of clozapine.

Background: Norwegian national guidelines recommend that clozapine be offered to patients with schizophrenia after two failed attempts with other antipsychotic drugs. One of the main objectives for the introduction of clinical pathways in mental health care is to provide an equal service to patients irrespective of where in the country they live. We wished to investigate the prescribing level of clozapine in various Norwegian counties.

Epitope specificity of anti-synapsin autoantibodies: Differential targeting of synapsin I domains.

Objective: To identify the specific domains of the presynaptic protein synapsin targeted by recently described autoantibodies to synapsin.

Methods: Sera of 20 and CSF of two patients with different psychiatric and neurological disorders previously tested positive for immunoglobulin (Ig)G antibodies to full-length synapsin were screened for IgG against synapsin I domains using HEK293 cells transfected with constructs encoding different domains of rat synapsin Ia. Additionally, IgG subclasses were determined using full-length synapsin Ia.

Synapsin-antibodies in psychiatric and neurological disorders: Prevalence and clinical findings.

Objective: To study the prevalence of autoantibodies to synapsin in patients with psychiatric and neurological disorders and to describe clinical findings in synapsin antibody positive patients.

Methods: Sera of 375 patients with different psychiatric and neurological disorders and sera of 97 healthy controls were screened (dilution 1:320) for anti-synapsin IgG using HEK293 cells transfected with rat synapsin Ia. Positive sera were further analyzed by immunoblots with brain tissue from wild type and synapsin knock out mice and with HEK293 cells transfected with human synapsin Ia and Ib.

[How is self-rated health associated with mortality?].

Background: Self-rated health is frequently used as a health outcome variable in population studies. The aim of this study was to investigate the association between self-rated health and mortality in a Norwegian population.

Material And Methods: We used data from the first "Nord-Trøndelag Health Study" in 1984-1986 (HUNT 1), where 76,793 persons aged 20 years and older participated (90.