Information technologies and patient safety.

Advances in health information technology provide significant opportunities for improvements in surgical patient safety. The adoption and use of electronic health records can enhance communication along the surgical spectrum of care. Bar coding and radiofrequency identification technology are strategies to prevent retained surgical sponges and for tracking the operating room supply chain.

Combined norepinephrine/serotonergic reuptake inhibition: effects on maternal behavior, aggression, and oxytocin in the rat.

Background: Few systematic studies exist on the effects of chronic reuptake of monoamine neurotransmitter systems during pregnancy on the regulation of maternal behavior (MB), although many drugs act primarily through one or more of these systems. Previous studies examining fluoxetine and amfonelic acid treatment during gestation on subsequent MB in rodents indicated significant alterations in postpartum maternal care, aggression, and oxytocin levels. In this study, we extended our studies to include chronic gestational treatment with desipramine or amitriptyline to examine differential effects of reuptake inhibition of norepinephrine and combined noradrenergic and serotonergic systems on MB, aggression, and oxytocin system changes.

Effects of chronic and intermittent cocaine treatment on dominance, aggression, and oxytocin levels in post-lactational rats.

Rationale: Little is known about mechanisms underlying female rodent aggression during the late postpartum period with no pups present. Studies of aggression, dominance, and oxytocin (OT) response in cocaine-treated females are sparse.

Objectives: This study was designed to examine dominance (drinking success) and aggression in a limited-access drinking model of water competition.

Cocaine treatment and prenatal environment interact to disrupt intergenerational maternal behavior in rats.

The link between impaired maternal behavior (MB) and cocaine treatment could result from drug-induced decreases in maternal reactivity to offspring, prenatal drug exposure (PDE) in offspring that could alter their ability to elicit MB, or the interaction of both, which could subsequently impair MB of the 1st-generation dams. Following chronic or intermittent cocaine or saline treatment during gestation, rat dams rearing natural or cross-fostered litters were compared along with untreated dams for MB. Untreated 1st-generation females with differentially treated rearing dams and PDE were tested for MB with their natural litters.

Effects of NMDA glutamate receptor antagonist drugs on the volitional consumption of ethanol by a genetic drinking rat.

The ability of drugs that reduce NMDA receptor activity on the volitional consumption of ethanol in the genetic drinking rat, mHEP line, was investigated. After the consumption of ethanol solutions and water by each male or female mHEP rat had stabilized on its preferred concentration, different doses of LY 274614, a competitive NMDA antagonist, MK 801, a non-competitive NMDA antagonist, (+)-HA-966 or ACPC (1-aminocyclopropane-1-carboxylic acid), antagonists of the glycine site were administered daily for three days. The dose of 3.