Clozapine: acquittal of the usual suspect.

This report concerns the case of a 29-year-old male patient suffering from severe psychotic illness who had been satisfactorily treated with clozapine for 4 months. Clozapine had also been successfully administered during a psychotic episode 5 years previously. Though symptoms of psychosis were successfully controlled following the most recent psychotic episode, a medical consultation assessed that exacerbation of pancreatitis warranted discontinuation of the current antipsychotic treatment regime.

Prolactin, subjective well-being and sexual dysfunction: an open label observational study comparing quetiapine with risperidone.

Introduction: Sexual dysfunction is a frequent side effect of antipsychotic treatment. Increased prolactin levels are believed to be responsible for this sexual impairment despite contradictory results.

Aim: The primary objective of the present study was to examine the relationship between sexual dysfunction, subjective well-being and prolactin levels in patients with schizophrenia treated either with risperidone or quetiapine.

Sexuality in male psychiatric inpatients. a descriptive comparison of psychiatric patients, patients with epilepsy and healthy volunteers.

Introduction: The majority of psychiatric patients suffer from sexual dysfunction. Although sexual impairment is a major cause for non-compliance in psychiatric patients, it remains underdiagnosed by the attending physician. Therefore, the aim of the following study was to examine sexual behaviour and sexual dysfunction in a large sample of psychiatric patients.

Sexual dysfunction in psychiatric inpatients the role of antipsychotic medication.

Introduction: Sexual dysfunction is a common side effect of antipsychotic medication. Although increased prolactin levels caused by antipsychotic agents are believed to play a major role with regard to sexual side effects, the underlying mechanism of antipsychotic agent-induced sexual dysfunction remains poorly understood.

Methods: In a multicentric study 587 psychiatric inpatients were assessed by means of a self-rating sexual questionnaire.

Neuropsychological performance in partly remitted unipolar depressive patients: focus on executive functioning.

Background: Only few studies have investigated executive impairment in the euthymic phase of unipolar affective disorders, yielding diverging results. The role of impulsivity/orbitofrontal associated executive functioning in remitted depression has not yet been examined.

Methods: Partly remitted male out-patients (n = 15) with non-psychotic major depression (MDD) were compared with healthy males (n = 15) on several neuropsychological tests.

Sexual impairment in psychiatric inpatients: focus on depression.

Introduction: Although sexual side effects are a common reason for noncompliance with medication, information on impairment of sexuality in psychiatric inpatients is scarce.

Methods: In the present multi-center study, data on several aspects of sexual functioning were collected in psychiatric inpatients using a previously validated questionnaire.

Results: A high overall prevalence of sexual dysfunction was reported by participants and was highest in depressed subjects.

Elevated impulsivity and impaired decision-making cognition in heavy users of MDMA ("Ecstasy").

Rationale: In animal studies, the common club drug 3,4-methylendioxymethamphetamine (MDMA, "Ecstasy") consistently caused a prolonged loss of presynaptic serotonergic neurons, and evidence suggests that MDMA consumption may also affect the human serotonergic system. Serotonin (5-HT) has been implicated in the regulation of impulsivity and such executive functions as decision-making cognition. In fact, MDMA users have shown elevated impulsivity in two studies, but little is known about decision making in drug-free MDMA consumers.

Sensorimotor gating and habituation of the startle response in schizophrenic patients randomly treated with amisulpride or olanzapine.

Background: Schizophrenic patients exhibit impairments in prepulse inhibition (PPI) and habituation of the acoustic startle response (ASR). Recent studies suggested that PPI deficits and habituation deficits are normalized after antipsychotic treatment. Despite clear evidence of gating and habituation mechanisms in animal models, it is still unknown which neurotransmitter systems are involved in schizophrenic patients.

Attenuation of the prepulse inhibition of the acoustic startle response within and between sessions.

Prepulse inhibition (PPI) and habituation of the acoustic startle response (ASR) are widely used biological markers in the study of psychiatric disorders and have been shown to be homologous across species. Previous studies in humans suggested that PPI is a stable and reliable measure between test sessions, but that PPI decreases within sessions. The purpose of this study was to explore the short- and long-term decrease in PPI as a potential confound in the measurement and interpretation of PPI.

Cognitive improvement in schizophrenic patients does not require a serotonergic mechanism: randomized controlled trial of olanzapine vs amisulpride.

Combined serotonin-2A (5-HT(2A)) and dopamine-2 (D2) receptor blockade has been proposed as a candidate mechanism by which second-generation antipsychotics (SGAs) improve both cognition and negative symptoms in schizophrenic patients, in contrast to antipsychotics of the first generation. The SGA amisulpride, however, only binds to D2/D3 receptors, which makes it an interesting tool to test this assumption. In a randomized controlled trial, 52 schizophrenic patients were allocated to treatment with either olanzapine (10-20 mg/day) or amisulpride (400-800 mg/day).

Allelic variants of the serotonin(2C) receptor and neuroendocrinological responses to the serotonin(2C) receptor agonist m-chlorophenylpiperazine in healthy male volunteers.

The neurotransmitter serotonin (5-HT) possesses several receptors and their subtypes, some of which are polymorphic, such as the 5-HT(2C) receptor. The latter has been implicated in the control of neuroendocrine function, and has been discussed in the pathophysiology and pharmacotherapy of psychiatric disorders such as obsessive-compulsive disorder, panic disorder and bipolar affective disorder. To investigate whether the 5-HT(2C) receptor polymorphism contributes to the variation of neuroendocrinological responses elicited by activation of the hypothalamic-pituitary axis, we performed an m-chlorophenylpiperazine (m-CPP) challenge and monitored m-CPP and ACTH, cortisol and prolactin plasma levels in 16 healthy male volunteers carrying the common 5-HT(2C)-cys-23 receptor gene and 16 healthy male volunteers carrying the less frequent 5-HT(2C)-ser-23 receptor gene.

Trace and surface analysis of ceramic layers of solid oxide fuel cells by mass spectrometry.

For the trace analysis of impurities in thick ceramic layers of a solid oxide fuel cell (SOFC) sensitive solid-state mass spectrometric methods, such as laser ablation inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (LA-ICP-MS) and radiofrequency glow discharge mass spectrometry (rf-GDMS) have been developed and used. In order to quantify the analytical results of LA-ICP-MS, the relative sensitivity coefficients of elements in a La(0.6)Sr(0.