Biomedical subjects
Publications and source records attributed to A Karavatos.
We present the case of a patient with Huntington's disease and psychosis, whose motor and psychiatric symptoms improved after administration of galantamine, an acetylcholinesterase inhibitor.
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A case of urinary retention emerging after fluoxetine (20 mg/day) addition to low risperidone doses (2 mg/day) is presented. Severe extrapyramidal side-effects (EPS) also occurred after fluoxetine-risperidone combination. Several possibilities, based on the pharmacodynamic and pharmacokinetic properties of risperidone and fluoxetine, which merit consideration in an attempt to explain our patient's side-effects, are discussed. Extrapyramidal side-effects can be due to an increase of the plasma concentration of risperidone and/or the intrinsic propensity of fluoxetine to produce EPS. Urinary retention may be the consequence of a central serotoninergic mechanism in, or without, combination central D2 blockade.
In this article a case of schizophrenic-like symptoms in a patient with thrombo-angiitis obliterans (TAO) is presented. His CT and MRI findings indicated a diffuse ischemia in the white matter, suggestive of TAO, not of focal lesions. The patient, except for age, did not have other risk factors for other cerebrovascular diseases. Psychotic symptoms may be the result of cerebral TAO, via deep and periventricular white matter lesions.
There are some indications that zolpidem is open to potential abuse. We present four cases of former drug or alcohol abusers with personality disorders, who all developed dependence on zolpidem in high dose.
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To study the functional organization of the cerebral hemispheres in patients with bipolar psychosis using a verbal dichotic listening test for pairs of digits 26 patients were tested twice, during the acute expression of manic phase and after recovery. The patient group during the manic phase did not support the expected right-ear advantage of normal subjects on verbal dichotic tests but showed a statistically significant left-ear advantage, which shifted after recovery toward the typical normal asymmetry. Comparing patients during the manic phase and after recovery showed that the left-ear advantage as well as the shift in right-ear advantage after recovery was due to the reduction of left-ear performance. From the over-all neuropsychological findings for these patients mania may be hypothesized to be characterized by overactivation of the right hemisphere. This phaenomenon seems associated with acuteness of the symptoms of the psychotic disorder.
The functional cerebral organization of young men who were defined as illiterate was studied by testing their dichotic listening for language stimuli. These functionally illiterate men showed greater right ear advantage for language stimuli than 50 educated subjects, a pattern already observed with completely illiterate persons of both sexes. This finding is consistent with the view that mastering written codes for language might be one of the most relevant parameters in hemispheric specialization when language is studied.
The functional cerebral organization of two groups of congenitally blind persons of different age and schooling was studied by testing their dichotic listening to pairs of digits. The younger congenitally blind group showed a comparable level of performance to their control counterparts; however, older subjects shifted their initial right ear advantage to an increased left ear performance as they progressed in the mastery of the Braille system. As this system is founded on spatial strategies, we can conclude that this shift is related to the activation of some right hemispheric linguistic mechanisms.
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