[Metabolic changes in the rat liver during emotional stress].

Emotional stress of rats is accompanied by essential alterations in glycolysis and tricarboxylic acid cycle in the liver. These alterations were observed over a few days after the termination of stressor action. Perhaps it is one of the trigger mechanisms responsible for pathological changes in the organism.

[Biochemical characteristics of various adaptation mechanisms in acute alcoholic intoxication].

Phase character of metabolic shifts (ethanol, acetaldehyde, catecholamines content, alcohol dehydrogenase and aldehyde dehydrogenase activity) has been revealed in the experiments on white non-inbred rats after a single administration of a sub-narcotic dose of ethanol. Some adaptation-adjustment mechanisms have been established which promote the decrease of the toxic effect of alcohol (induction of activity of alcohol-metabolising enzymes and condensation of acetaldehyde with catecholamines).

[The role of acetaldehyde in the pathogenetic mechanisms of the development of chronic alcoholism].

Experiments on white rats were carried out to confirm an important role of acetaldehyde in pathogeny of alcoholism. It is evidenced by results of experiments when animals were given acetaldehyde and medichronal (a drug which combines acetaldehyde) and by data obtained in the course of studies of changes in the content of endogenic ethanol and acetaldehyde, activity of alcohol dehydrogenase and aldehyde dehydrogenase, concentration of biogenic amines (catecholamines and serotonin) in the blood and brain structures.

[Norepinephrine content in various brain structures and activity of alcohol dehydrogenase and aldehyde dehydrogenase in blood serum of rats with varying predisposition to ethanol consumption].

Noradrenaline content in hypothalamus, midbrain and new cortex as well as the activity of alcohol- and aldehyde dehydrogenase in the blood serum of rats with different alcohol motivation were studied. It is shown that rats, which prefer ethanol, are characterized by the lower content of noradrenaline in hypothalamus, midbrain and new cortex as compared to animals which prefer water. It is found out that alcohol motivation in rats correlates with high activity of blood serum aldehyde dehydrogenase.

[Aldehyde dehydrogenase activity of blood serum exposed to different concentrations of acetaldehyde].

Aldehyde-dehydrogenase activity of blood serum of practically healthy people, patients with chronic alcoholism (stage II) and in the experiment with intact animals (white rats) were studied in comparative aspect. Optimal conditions have been chosen to reveal aldehyde-dehydrogenase activity. It has been shown that aldehyde dehydrogenase of blood serum in healthy people manifests activity at very low (0.

[Features of metabolic disorders in the liver during morphine poisoning of various duration].

Administration of morphine into rats at a dose of 30 mg/kg within 6 days led to a decrease in total rate of tRNA aminoacylation in liver tissue. Content of lactate, pyruvate, malate and alpha-ketoglutarate was decreased within 6 days-long course of morphine administration, while content of lactate was only altered after 5 weeks of the intoxication. Adaptation reactions appear to be increased with time in long-term intoxication with morphine.

[Effect of various biologically active substances and hormonal preparations on the pathogenetic mechanisms of manic-depressive psychoses].

Combined investigation in patients with maniac-depressive psychosis revealed the close relation of depression to the direction in which changes of central and peripheral links of bodily neurohumoral system occur. With even some of the homeostatic functions normalized as a result of an adaptogenic effect of hormonal and biologically active drugs (triiodothyronine, thyrotropin, insulin, Sodium succinate, pituitrin (vasopressin), somatotropin, retabolil), the depressive affect weakened or disappeared. Combined therapy of depression is recommended comprising antidepressants and some hormonal drugs promoting the adaptation processes of the body.

[Role of peripheral viscero-autonomic and humoral shifts in the mechanisms of negative emotional states].

The results obtained in a study of 36 depressive patients and in experiments on 134 rats have shown that viscerovegetative and humoral changes developing in the body under the effect of negative emotional states influence significantly, through the feedback mechanism, the function of the central nervous system, as well as the duration and nature of the affect.

[Features of cerebral-somatic and metabolic shifts in older patients with depressive states].

The age-related features of the sympatheticoadrenal homeostatic system identified in healthy subjects affect the pathogenesis and the clinical picture of depressions in old age. Sympatheticotonia , the stimulation of catecholamine synthesis, particularly of noradrenaline synthesis, contribute to the development of anxiety and agitation states in manic-depressive patients. Patients with involutional depression are characterized by the heterogeneous pattern of the functional changes in the body.

[Pathogenetic mechanisms of depressive states].

Data on the changes in the EEGs, the tone of the vegetative system and peripheral vessels, the metabolism of biogenic amines (catecholamines and serotonin), and adrenal function in patients with depressions of both endogenous and exogenous genesis were analyzed. Considerable changes in the somatic status of patients with manic-depressive psychosis during its remission and, particularly, during its preparoxysmal period were shown to be associated with the activity of the vagoinsular and sympatheticoadrenal homeostatic mechanisms through a positive feed-back system between them and the phasic vegetative shifts in viscero-endocrine changes. A recurrent psychotic attack develops in association with the sympathicotonic syndrome in various clinical forms; however, later on, it is marked by a homogeneous character of the cerebral and somatic changes in the patients.

[Role of the age factor in the pathogenesis of manic-depressive psychosis].

It was established that young patients in the depressive phase of manic-depressive psychosis (MDP) display the homogeneity of functional changes at various levels of the body auto-regulation system. In advanced age (45-65 years), due to uneven involutional changes, the body exhibits an increase in the activity of the central and, particularly peripheral links of the sympathetico-adrenal homeostatic system, which explains a considerable elevation in the number of patients with pronounced anxious symptomatology and hypersympathicotonia at the periphery. High affective tension with agitation phenomena in patients with the disease onset in advanced age is maintained by fairly high blood levels of catecholamines (particularly noradrenaline) due to the stimulation of their synthesis.

[Mechanisms of the central action of lithium].

Experiments in 486 white rats given different doses of lithium chloride into different brain structures and the abdominal cavity were examined for changes in bioelectrical brain activity, noradrenaline, adrenaline, serotonin blood content; the activity of total acetylcholinesterase. It was established that the most sensitive to lithium action is the structure of the limbic system and hypothalamus. In the mechanism of the central action of lithium of significant importance is the range of sensitivity to it of each brain structure.

[Pathophysiologic mechanisms of depressive states of endogenous or exogenous origin].

A total of 117 patients with depression of a various genesis were studied. The patients with endogenous (circular) depression displayed a correlation between the EEG, vascular and vegetative tonus, catecholamine excretion (especially noradrenaline) and peculiarities of the clinical picture. In patients with somatogenic depression a correlation between the studied indices of a functional state of an organism is not present.