Victims of traffic accidents: incidence and prevention of post-traumatic stress disorder.

The psychological consequences of traffic accidents have been rarely the subject of research. Responses of serious traffic accidents and the effects of an outreach program for victims were studied in a research project. Subjects selected from police registers participated in a preventive counseling program or in a monitoring group.

Effect of fenfluramine on mood: a double-blind placebo-controlled trial.

Depressed patients (n = 10), schizophrenics (n = 6), and normal control subjects was (n = 9) were administered fenfluramine hydrochloride (FF) (60 mg/os) or placebo in the context of a randomized, double-blind crossover trial. No effect of FF on mood or activation was detected over a 6-hr period. A previous report claiming acute antidepressant effects of FF in depressed subjects was not confirmed.

Enhanced serotonergic responsivity following electroconvulsive therapy in patients with major depression.

Prolactin release in response to fenfluramine hydrochloride (60 mg orally) and placebo was evaluated in 18 medication-free patients with RDC major depressive disorder, endogenous subtype, before and after a series of bilateral treatments with ECT. Before ECT, fenfluramine induced a twofold increase in plasma prolactin levels. This response was significantly enhanced after the ECT series, while baseline prolactin levels and response to the placebo challenge were not altered.

Regulation of 5-hydroxytryptamine1A receptor function in rat hippocampus by short- and long-term administration of 5-hydroxytryptamine1A agonist and antidepressants.

Single s.c. injections of the 5-hydroxytryptamine (5-HT)1A receptor agonists buspirone at 4 mg/kg, 8-hydroxy-2-(di-n-propylamino)tetralin at 1 or 4 mg/kg or ipsapirone at 10 mg/kg did not affect 5-HT inhibition of forskolin-stimulated adenylate cyclase activity in rat hippocampal membranes.

Effects of lithium and desimipramine on second messenger responses in rat hippocampus: relation to G protein effects.

The effects of chronic administration of lithium, short-term administration of lithium, chronic administration of DMI and a combination of short-term administration of lithium and chronic administration of DMI on second messenger responses were studied in the hippocampus of the rat. Lithium reduced the ability of carbachol to inhibit forskolin-stimulated activity of adenylate cyclase in hippocampal membranes but had no effect on carbachol-stimulated formation of inositol phosphate in hippocampal slices. Lithium, however, reduced the degree of stimulation of formation of inositol phosphate, induced by noradrenaline.

Performance of long-stay schizophrenics after drug withdrawal on matched immediate and delayed recall tasks.

Both anticholinergic and neuroleptic drugs were withdrawn from eight long-stay hospitalized chronic schizophrenics. These patients and normal controls were then tested on Calev, Venables & Monk's (1983) immediate and delayed matched recall tasks to evaluate their rate of forgetting of verbal well-encoded materials. The results showed rapid forgetting in schizophrenics.

Performance of long-stay schizophrenics on matched verbal and visuospatial recall tasks.

A verbal and a visuospatial recall task were compared for discriminating power, using the matched-tasks methodology. These tasks were administered to long-hospitalized schizophrenics. No evidence of a differential deficit, that is, better recall of either the verbal or the visuospatial materials, emerged in the patients.

Chloroamphetamine did not prevent the effects of chronic antidepressants on 5-hydroxytryptamine inhibition of forskolin-stimulated adenylate cyclase in rat hippocampus.

Administration of p-chloroamphetamine (PCA, 10 mg/kg i.p. on two occasions) to rats resulted in a severe depletion of [3H]paroxetine binding sites, a measure of presynaptic serotonergic terminals, in both cortex and hippocampus, but did not affect [3H]8-hydroxy-2-(di-n-propylamino)tetralin [( 3H]8-OH-DPAT) binding or 5-hydroxytryptamine (5-HT)-induced inhibition of forskolin-stimulated adenylate cyclase in hippocampal membranes.

Cortical second messengers after NBM damage: no change in responses to cholinergic agonists.

Damage to the nucleus basalis of Meynert (NBM) decreases acetylcholine (ACh) innervation of cortex. We explored transmission of cholinergic messages in cortex 2-3 weeks after such damage. The NBM damage was unilateral and the ipsilateral denervated cortex was compared to the contralateral nondenervated cortex.

Single and combined effects of desimipramine and lithium on serotonergic receptor number and second messenger function in rat brain.

The effects of chronic administration of desimipramine (DMI, 10 mg/kg i.p. daily for 4 or 5 weeks), short-term administration of lithium (Li, 0.

Cyclic AMP second messenger signal generation in EBV-transformed lymphoblastoid cells from schizophrenic patients.

Several aspects of cyclic AMP second messenger signal generation were examined in EBV-transformed cell lines from 12 schizophrenic patients and 12 age- and sex-matched controls. No evidence was obtained suggesting a heritable abnormality in cyclic AMP synthesis in schizophrenia. Basal, forskolin, A1/NaF- and GppNHp-stimulated cyclic AMP synthesis in membranes from transformed cell lines was identical for schizophrenic and control subjects.

Confrontation naming deficit in dementia of depression.

Unlike patients with irreversible dementia, elderly depressed patients with cognitive impairment are thought to have relatively preserved recognition, memory, and language abilities. To test this hypothesis, the authors compared memory and naming performance in elderly hospitalized patients with major depression alone, reversible dementia of depression, or irreversible dementia. All patient groups performed worse than nondemented, nondepressed control subjects on memory tasks.

Family expressed emotion: concepts, dilemmas and the Israeli perspective.

Family characteristics of high "expressed emotion" (EE) have been found to be predictive of relapse in schizophrenia and other psychiatric disorders. A causal relationship has been postulated between relapse and components of EE as assessed in the relatives with whom the patient has close social contact. Recently, conceptual and methodological aspects of the EE paradigm have become the focus of controversy.

Psychoanalytic reflections on a particular form of language distortion.

A female obsessive patient communicated with her sister via a distortion of the Hebrew language, in which she masculinized the feminine gender second person pronoun and certain nouns. This treatment of words is analyzed in terms ranging from the concrete to the metaphoric uses of language. Lacan's emphasis on the meaning of the word is explored and is seen as an amplification rather than a replacement of the object relations approach to language and metaphor.

Peripheral versus central manifestations in the toxic interaction of lithium and pilocarpine.

Administration of a cholinomimetic agent 24 hr after a single injection of lithium chloride results in a profoundly toxic interaction. The lethality of the interaction was completely blocked by prior administration of scopolamine, but was not reduced by the peripherally acting cholinergic antagonist methscopolamine. Examination of the relative time courses of central neurotoxic and peripheral cholinergic manifestations showed that the peripheral manifestations were transient and were not enhanced by lithium pretreatment.

Implications of Clinical Spectrum for Mechanisms of Action: ECT and Antidepressants Reconsidered.

The similarities and differences between electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) and antidepressant medications are reviewed with respect to their clinical indications. The implications of the overlap and divergence in their spectra of clinical efficacy are discussed in reference to mechanisms of action. The hypothesis is offered that ECT has multiple mechanisms of action, which differ depending on the clinical syndrome being treated.

Effect of imipramine treatment on the prolactin response to fenfluramine and placebo challenge in depressed patients.

As an index of central serotonergic function, plasma prolactin response to fenfluramine (60 mg orally) and placebo challenge was examined in 10 depressed patients before and after treatment with imipramine 200 mg/day for 3 weeks. Although baseline prolactin levels were not altered by imipramine, the prolactin response to fenfluramine was significantly (P = 0.01) increased compared to the response in the untreated state.

Neuroendocrine responses in chronic schizophrenia. Evidence for serotonergic dysfunction.

Neuroendocrine and mood responses to a 60 mg oral dose of the serotonin-releasing agent, fenfluramine, were assessed in ten neuroleptic-free, chronic schizophrenic patients and in age- and sex-matched normal control subjects. The prolactin (PRL) response to fenfluramine was significantly blunted in the schizophrenic subjects. Growth hormone and cortisol levels were not differentially affected by the challenge.

A controlled trial of phenelzine in posttraumatic stress disorder.

Thirteen patients meeting DSM-III criteria for posttraumatic stress disorder participated in a random-assignment, double-blind crossover trial comparing phenelzine (45-75 mg/day) and placebo. Ten patients completed at least 4 weeks of each treatment phase. Clinical response to phenelzine did not differ from placebo, and overall improvement by the end of the study could not be attributed to the active drug.

Effect of tyrosine on attention deficit disorder with hyperactivity.

A single-blind study was conducted to evaluate the effect of oral tyrosine on attention deficit disorder (ADD) with hyperactivity in seven outpatient children. Since most biological evidence of ADD supports a norepinephrine or dopamine deficiency, the authors hypothesized that tyrosine, which has been shown to increase catecholamine synthesis, would be beneficial in the treatment of ADD. None of the subjects, however, showed any significant improvement with tyrosine.

Cyclic AMP second-messenger signal amplification in depression.

Beta-adrenergic-mediated cyclic AMP accumulation was reduced in lymphocytes obtained from depressed patients from that observed in an age- and sex-matched group of control subjects. Among the depressed patients, those not responding to treatment showed significantly lower pretreatment responses to isoproterenol compared with patients who exhibited significant clinical improvement during antidepressant treatment. Late-night (terminal) insomnia was significantly associated with the blunted response to beta-adrenergic stimulation.

Medication Outcome in ECT-Resistant Depression.

The outcome of antidepressant treatment in 12 cases of electroconvulsive therapy (ECT)-resistant depression is presented. Eight patients had been refractory to a clinically adequate course of ECT (Hamilton Depression Scale improvement <20%) and four were partial responders (improvement 20-49%). All remitted completely on antidepressant medication within 2.

Adenosine binding sites in brain; relationship to endogenous levels of adenosine and to its physiological and regulatory roles.

Adenosine is an endogenous component of brain tissue and is present at micromolar concentrations, well above those required to saturate the adenylate cyclase-linked receptors recently demonstrated by binding studies. It is suggested that a major binding site for adenosine may be the enzyme S-adenosyl homocysteinase, and modulation of the equilibrium catalysed by this reaction may regulate the concentration of adenosine available for stimulation of cyclic AMP production and its other physiological roles.