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A Jolley

Publications and source records attributed to A Jolley.

12 recordsLinked to original sources

A one year prospective study of the effect of life events and medication in the aetiology of schizophrenic relapse.

BACKGROUND: We set out to determine whether and to what degree life events independent of illness increase the risk of relapse in schizophrenia following withdrawal from medication in the previous 6 months, either by triggering a relapse in the following 4 weeks or by acting cumulatively over time. METHOD: Seventy-one patients fulfilling DSM-III-R criteria for schizophrenia with chronic illness were followed for 48 weeks and assessed on the LEDS scale. Half were treated with regular neuroleptic medication and half had been recently withdrawn from medication. A subgroup was randomised double-blind to treatment or placebo. RESULTS: A proportional hazards regression model showed that life events made a significant cumulative contribution over time (P < 0.05) to the risks of relapse and that ceasing medication made an independent contribution. The risk of relapse increased in proportion to the number of life events but no interaction between medication status and events could be detected, i.e. life events were not more closely associated with relapse on medication than off medication. For those of the sample exposed to the mean rate of life events during the study period, it was estimated that 23% of the relapse risk could be attributed to life events, and for those with twice the mean rate of events, 41%. In contrast, patients who continued on regular medication had 80% less risk of relapse than those who had been withdrawn from medication either by choice or under double-blind controlled conditions. CONCLUSIONS: A contribution of life events to the risk of relapse in schizophrenia was confirmed by this study but the hypothesis that life events trigger relapse was not supported, nor was the hypothesis that life events are more relevant to relapse in patients on maintenance medication than in patients off medication.

Adult↗

Pharmacokinetics and distribution in tissue of FK-037, a new parenteral cephalosporin.

A single 1-g or 2-g intravenous dose of the cephalosporin FK-037 was given over 30 min in a cross-over-designed study, to each of six healthy male volunteers, and the concentrations of the drug were measured in plasma and cantharides-induced blister fluid over the subsequent 12 h. Urine was collected over 24 h. After a washout period of 6 weeks, during which the blisters healed, the study was repeated at the other dose level. Following the 1-g dose, the mean peak concentration in plasma was 83.8 micrograms/ml, and after the 2-g dose it was 142.6 micrograms/ml. The mean peak concentrations in the inflammatory fluid were 37.9 and 63.3 micrograms/ml, respectively. The mean elimination half-lives from plasma and inflammatory fluid were 2.0 and 2.5 h, respectively, after 1 g and 2.0 h and 3.7 h, respectively, after 2 g. The amounts of penetration into inflammatory fluid (as assessed by ratios of areas under the concentration-time curves) were 109.9 and 110.5% following doses of 1 and 2 g, respectively. The proportions of the administered drug recovered in the urine by 24 h were 87.6 and 85.7%, respectively. Our results indicate that FK-037 should prove to be efficacious in the treatment of a wide range of systemic infections.

Adult↗

Impairments on neuropsychologic tests of temporohippocampal and frontohippocampal functions and word fluency in remitting schizophrenia and affective disorders.

Experimental neuropsychologic tests were administered to acute patients with schizophrenia and affective psychosis and to normal controls. Patients had remitting illnesses. Tests included memory for recurring digit and block spans (left and right temporohippocampal), digit and block spans (lateralized parietal/frontal), spatial and nonspatial conditional associate learning (frontohippocampal), and oral word fluency to letter-designated categories (frontal) and semantic-designated categories (left-sided). In 81% of schizophrenic patients patterned deficits incompatible with generalized losses of function were disclosed. Patterns were heterogeneous and characterized by (1) the frequency and severity of left temporohippocampal impairment; (2) asymmetric frontohippocampal function such that severity of bilateral impairment was associated with poorer nonspatial learning and superior performance with better nonspatial learning; (3) syndrome relationships predicted by the hemisphere imbalance syndrome model pertaining to positive and negative symptoms and the catatonic syndrome; (4) a generalized deficit independent of temporohippocampal functions; and (5) no relationship between performance and computed tomographic signs or medication. Patients with affective disorders had patterned deficits characterized by bilateral impairments that disclosed a preponderance of deficits in spatial learning and memory; depressives demonstrated impairments in digit span.

Affective Disorders, Psychotic↗

Gestational stress: effects on open-field behaviour and heart rate reactivity in rat offspring.

Home-cage heart rate (HR) and open-field defecation, ambulation, rearing and HR, were recorded in the offspring of mothers who had been exposed to stress during gestation. Compared with controls, experimental animals showed no significant differences in ambulation and rearing, while defecation was significantly lower. The only significant finding on HR was an increase from home-cage level to open-field level in the experimental group. The results confirmed previous findings that illumination level is a useful independent variable in gestational stress studies, and suggested that different types of HR measure yield a similar picture of the HR/defecation relationship, which appears to be a negative function. These conclusions were discussed in the light of other findings in this area, and traditional assumptions about the emotionality construct were questioned.

Animals↗