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Biomedical subjects

D J Goode

Publications and source records attributed to D J Goode.

16 recordsLinked to original sources

Effect of clozapine on human serum prolactin levels.

The authors determined serum prolactin levels in 13 patients receiving clozapine, an antipsychotic drug that does not produce extrapyramidal side effects. Morning serum prolactin levels, 11 hours after the last dose, were not elevated during chronic treatment with clozapine in any subject despite its therapeutic effects. Serum prolactin levels were moderately increased between 90 minutes and 4 hours after administration of very high doses of oral clozapine in 4 patients but were smaller than those produced by chlorpromazine in other subjects. The authors suggest that clozapine in other subjects. The authors suggest that clozapine may achieve its antipsychotic effect differently than do classical neuroleptics and that sustained prolactin increases are not essential for antipsychotic action.

Animals

The relationship between wrist-monitored motor activity and serum CPK activity in psychiatric in-patients.

Motor activity, monitored by a wrist motion transducer, was related to serum CPK activity the following morning in a group of psychiatric in-patients. In 4 of 10 patients, studied for periods exceeding one week, total 24-hour activity was significantly correlated with morning serum CPK activity. Motor activity during the night was unrelated to serum CPK activity. In a larger group of 30 patients, studied for one or two-day periods, inter-individual differences in activity level were not related to serum CPK activity, although both sex and race were significantly related to variance between subjects in that activity.

Creatine Kinase

Motoneuron excitability in psychiatric patients.

The excitability at the alpha-motoneuron pool was studied by measuring the spinal monosynaptic reflex responses of soleus muscle to paired stimuli in psychiatric patients and controls. Patients showed significant alterations in the recovery of excitability when compared with normal volunteers. Specifically, the value for the peak of "secondary facilitation" was reduced in 5 of 8 chronic schizophrenic patients, while the following trough in the recovery cycle was reduced in 9 of 18 acutely schizophrenic patients. Drug effects were studied in 10 patients. Phenothiazine antipsychotic medication tended to enhance recovery of excitability. Patients of all types showed alterations of excitability. The altered excitability may relfect one aspect of a widespread abnormality of CNS function or may be a specific response to a supraspinal defect in neurophysiological activity in psychotic patients.

Affective Disorders, Psychotic

Effect of limb restraints on serum creatine phosphokinase activity in normal volunteers.

Increased serum creatine phosphokinase (CPK) activity is sometimes found in acutely psychotic patients. In order to study factors affecting CPK activity, we investigated in normal subjects the effect on serum CPK activity of resistance to being restrained and to struggle against leather limb restraints (LLR) sometimes used for control of assaultive of self-destructive behavior of psychiatric patients. Blood samples were obtained 24 hr and immediately before restraint; and immediately, 6, 24, 48, and 72 hr after restraint. Serum CPK activity increases ranged from 3 to 16 times base line levels for all subjects. These increases exceeded the 95% upper limit of normal. Serum pyruvate kinase (PK) activity also increased significantly. In a second study, five male subjects were passively placed in LLR and then struggled against LLR for 1 hr. Serum CPK activity also increased significantly under these conditions, but less than after being forcibly restrained. Serum PK activity and lactic dehydrogenase activity also increased significantly, but serum aspartate aminotransferase (SGOT) activity did not. Since serum CPK activity is increased well above the normal limits in normal subjects after struggle against LLR, studies of serum CPK activity in psychotic patients must avoid the use of restraints as well as other types of trauma, which may produce serum CPK increases persisting as long as 72 hr.

Adult

Effects of isometric exercise on serum creatine phosphokinase activity.

The effect of isometric exercise on serum creatinine phosphokinase (CPK) activity in 14 psychotic patients in remission and ten normal controls was studied. The increases in serum CPK activity at 18 and 42 hours after exercise were no significantly different in patients and controls. The postexercise serum CPK activities in the patients were significantly less than the peak serum CPK levels when they were psychotic. There were no significant correlations between postexercise serum CPK activity and preexercise or peak serum CPK activity in the patient group. It is unlikely that increased isometric muscle tension is a major causative factor in the increased serum CPK levels frequently found in psychotic patients.

Acute Disease

The role of isometric muscle tension in the production of muscle toxicity by phencyclidine and restraint stress.

A restraint cage with a strain gauge attached to a movable roof to record the isometric force exerted by rats during restraint is described. The isometric activity score, an integral of the total upward force exerted during restraint, correlated significantly with plasma creatine phosphokinase (CPK) activity in rats following restraint. Phencyclidine 5 mg/kg administered intraperitoneally to rats 15 min prior to 1/2 hr restraint has been shown to produce muscle damage associated with large increases of plasma CPK activity. Dose-response curves for the effects of phencyclidine on isometric activity score and plasma CPK activity were essentially parallel, and isometric activity scores were linearly related to plasma CPK activity. Rats restrained and painfully stimualted on the tail developed both elevated isometric activity scores and elevations of plasma CPK activity. Slopes of the curves relating isometric activity to plasma CPK activity were identical for painfully stimulated and phencyclidine treated rats. Phencyclidine has been reported to produce large increases in locomotor activity. Thus, increased isometric muscle tension developed during phencyclidine plus restraint is related to the production of muscle damage and increased efflux of CPK in rats.

Animals

Dimethyl sulfoxide in central nervous system trauma.

Dimethyl sulfoxide has been tested in various experimental injuries of the central nervous system in relation to other therapies. It appears to be a useful drug in acute extradural mass-forming lesions, middle cerebral artery occlusion, respiratory anoxia, and spinal cord injuries, in rhesus and squirrel monkeys, dogs, and rats. The data from these studies suggest that in the experimental models used, DMSO is clearly superior to no treatment, and appears to be more generally effective than other comparable treatments. No satisfactory answer has yet been found to explain the beneficial effects of DMSO, but several hypothetical suggestions are offered; their validation hinges primarily on further confirmatory evidence. Further experiments with our present models and alternative research lines are discussed.

Animals

Pharmacologic treatment and evaluation of permanent experimental spinal cord trauma.

Permanent paralysis was induced in dogs by a 500 gram centimeter force injury on the spinal cord, and drug treatments were given 1 hour after injury and were continued for 3 days. Dogs were evaluated for 90 days. Isotonic saline or mannitol administration were ineffective in reversing the paralysis. In dogs receiving either dimethyl sulfoxide or dexamethasone, six of eight animals in the former and two of eight in the latter group regained partial or full recovery. The presence of somatosensory evoked responses taken before and at various intervals following trauma showed a good correlation in the prognostic recovery of each animal. It is concluded that dimethyl sulfoxide and dexamethasone can reverse a permanent experimental injury to the spinal cord when given within an hour after trauma.

Animals

Ethosuximide in the treatment of absence (peptit mal) seizures.

Thirty-seven patients with previously untreated absence seizures were treated with ethosuximide. Seizures were completely controlled in 7 patients (19 percent); 90 to 100 percent control was achieved in 18 patients (49 percent) and 50 to 100 percent control in 35 (95 percent). Plasma ethosuximide concentration increased with dose, but variability in the plasma concentration produced by a given ethosuximide dose made it impossible to predict a patient's plasma concentration from the dose. The therapeutic range of plasma ethosuximide concentration was 40 to 100 mug per milliliter. Patients with evidence of structural central nervous system abnormalities responded as well or better to the drug as patients without such evidence. Ethosuximide did not impair psychometric performance, but rather resulted in improved performance in 17 cases. The side effects of ethosuximide were minor, and rarely required withdrawal of the drug.

Adolescent