Self-monitoring of blood pressure and the role of community pharmacists in Kuwait.

Objective: To determine the types of devices for self-monitoring of blood pressure available to consumers in Kuwait and the pharmacists' knowledge and level of information provided to consumers when purchasing such devices.

Materials And Methods: It was possible to contact 196 of the 230 eligible pharmacies from five governorates in Kuwait. Ten of these were used to pretest the questionnaire and six declined to participate.

Role of protein kinase C in substance P-induced synaptic depression in the nucleus accumbens in vitro.

Objectives: This study set out to determine the roles of protein kinase A (PKA) and protein kinase C (PKC) signalling cascades in substance P- (SP-) mediated synaptic depression in the nucleus accumbens.

Materials And Methods: We used whole-cell patch recording in rat forebrain slices to study the effects of excitatory and inhibitory modulators of PKA and PKC to determine their effects on SP-induced synaptic depression.

Results: We showed that cAMP and PKC, but not PKA, are involved in SP-induced synaptic depression.

Cholecystokinin-2 receptors couple to cAMP-protein kinase A to depress excitatory synaptic currents in rat nucleus accumbens in vitro.

We recently reported that the activation of cholecystokinin-2 receptors depress evoked excitatory postsynaptic currents (EPSCs) in nucleus accumbens (NAc) indirectly through gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA) acting on gamma-aminobutyric acid-B (GABA(B)) receptors. Here, we determined the second messenger system that couples cholecystokinin-2 receptors to the observed synaptic depression. Using in vitro forebrain slices of rats and whole-cell patch recording, we tested the hypothesis that cholecystokinin-2 receptors are coupled to cAMP and protein kinase A signaling pathway.

Practice and opinion towards disposal of unused medication in Kuwait.

Objectives: The aim of this study was to measure the attitude and practice of Kuwaiti patients in Kuwait with regard to safe disposal of unwanted medicines.

Subjects And Methods: Three-hundred patients or their family members waiting for prescriptions at public general hospitals in Kuwait completed a questionnaire soliciting their practice with regard to medication use and disposal, and their opinion of the best way to dispose of unwanted medicines.

Results: Almost half of the respondents (45.

Cholecystokinin inhibits evoked inhibitory postsynaptic currents in the rat nucleus accumbens indirectly through gamma-aminobutyric acid and gamma-aminobutyric acid type B receptors.

We recently reported that cholecystokinin (CCK) excited nucleus accumbens (NAc) cells and depressed excitatory synaptic transmission indirectly through gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA), acting on presynaptic GABAB receptors (Kombian et al. [2004] J. Physiol.