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Biomedical subjects

I Extein

Publications and source records attributed to I Extein.

17 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed1986

Psychiatric applications of thyroid tests.

Thyroid tests, especially the TRH test, can aid psychiatrists in the same way that laboratory tests are used in other medical specialties. Such tests augment clinical judgment and provide information about possible primary thyroid disturbances. The TRH test has the added value of prognostic significance when repeated after a course of treatment. Thyroid tests may also identify subgroups of depressed patients who can benefit from thyroid hormone replacement or who require T3 potentiation of tricyclics, as well as those patients with bipolar illness who are hypothyroid and may be at risk for rapid cycling.

Antidepressive Agents, Tricyclic↗
PubMed1985

Number of cortisol time-points and dexamethasone suppression test sensitivity for major depression.

Failure to suppress cortisol secretion after administration of dexamethasone has been reported to be a diagnostic marker for major depression and to have prognostic implications when repeated after antidepressant treatment. The pulsatile pattern of cortisol secretion suggested to us that increasing the number of post-dexamethasone cortisol determinations might significantly increase the sensitivity of the dexamethasone suppression test (DST) for major depression. With a conventional two-point DST (1600 h and midnight), 5% of 20 normal volunteers, 8% of 13 inpatients with non-major depressions, and 31% of 65 inpatients with primary major depression failed to suppress. With six post-dexamethasone points (0800 h, 1200 h, 1600 h, 2000 h, 2200 h, midnight), the respective percentages were 10, 15 and 44%. The additional points increased the sensitivity from 31 to 44%, mostly by identifying more major depressives with a "late escape" pattern. If a clinician is using the DST to establish a marker for major depression that can be repeated to monitor response to treatment and the likelihood of relapse, then perhaps the increased sensitivity of the six-point DST would be helpful, despite a modest decrease in specificity from 94 to 88%.

Adjustment Disorders↗
PubMed1979

Comparative pharmacokinetics of zimelidine and desipramine in man following acute and chronic administration.

Single dose and steady-state pharmacokinetics of zimelidine and desipramine were compared in eight depressed patients who were subjects in a double-blind crossover study. Within the same patient, there was no relationship between the pharmacokinetics of desipramine (pharmacokinetically similar to all other tricyclic antidepressants) and those of zimelidin, a bicyclic antidepressant. The weight-corrected dose of zimelidine gives a reasonable index of the concentration of its active metabolite norzimelidine, which predominates over zimelidine by a ratio of approximately 3 to 1. The variation in steady-state concentration of norzimelidine for a given dose of zimelidine in adults is about twofold and can be reduced by correcting for weight.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1979

Dopamine-mediated behavior produced by the enkephalin analogue FK 33-824.

Intraperitoneal injection of FK 33-824 produced apomorphine-like stereotyped behavior in rats. Antagonism of this stereotypy by naloxone and neuroleptics suggests that FK 33-824 can activate opiate and dopamine receptors in the brain. Because increased dopaminergic neuronal activity is thought to be involved in schizophrenia and dopamine-mediated stereotypy has been used as an animal model for this illness, these results are consistent with an involvement of endogenous opiate-like peptides in schizophrenia. This involvement provides a possible mechanism for the reported improvement in schizophrenic psychosis produced by naloxone.

Animals↗
PubMed1979

Changes in lymphocyte beta-adrenergic receptors in depression and mania.

The beta-adrenergic receptors were studied in vitro in lymphocytes obtained from patients with major affective disorders and controls. Specific L-[3H]-dihydroalprenolol binding was decreased in both depressed and manic patients compared to controls and euthymic patients. Isoproterenol-stimulated, but not prostaglandin El-stimulated, cyclic adenosine-3',5'-monophosphate production was decreased in manic and depressed patients. These results suggest decreased lymphocyte beta-receptor functioning in depression and mania. This decrease may be an index of changes in brain beta-receptors in mania and depression, or may simply reflect homeostatic regulation of peripheral beta-receptors in response to stress-induced increases in circulating catecholamines.

Adult↗
PubMed1979

State and trait in psychiatric practice.

The authors present a schema for conceptualizing psychiatric illness in terms of state and trait disorders. These disorders are relatively independent components, one or both of which can be present in one patient. They usually require treatment by different methods. State disorders, such as schizophrenic psychosis, mania, and depression, are time-limited and autonomous and respond better to pharmacological than psychosocial therapy. Trait disorders, such as neurotic and characterological disturbances, are long-lasting and respond better to psychosocial therapies. The authors discuss the implications of this schema for the integration of pharmacological and psychosocial treatments.

Humans↗
PubMed1976

14C-homovanillic acid in the cerebrospinal fluid of parkinsonian patients after intravenous 14C-L-dopa.

Six patients with Parkinson's disease and five controls were premedicated with probenecid and the peripheral decarboxylase inhibitor alpha-methyldopathydrazine (Carbidopa) before intravenous administration of 50 muc of 14C-L-dopa in tracer quantity. Seven-and-one-half hours later lumbar CSF was obtained. 14C-homovanillic acid (HVA), a major metabolite of brain dopamine, was isolated by thin-layer chromatography and measured. The statistically significant positive correlation between endogenous HVA and 14C-HVA in the entire patient group and the slightly lower values of endogenous HVA and 14C-HVA in the CSF of the parkinsonians support the assumption that the concentration of HVA in the CSF after probenecid treatment reflects brain dopamine turnover. Measurement of labeled HVA here seems to have little advantage over measurement of endogenous HVA alone.

Aged↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Cocaine update: from bench to bedside.

The aim of this paper is to review and explore the psychopharmacology of cocaine from two divergent points of view--the chronic user and the laboratory. Cocaine's behavioral effects will be correlated with neurophysiological, neurochemical events, and reports by users of consequences of chronic use. These studies and reports when pieced together offer considerable promise in the development of a natural history of compulsive cocaine use. Additional neurochemical and neurophysiological research investigations are needed to allow for the development of non-addicting treatments for detoxification (à la clonidine) and prophylaxis (à la naltrexone). In the absence of these data cocaine treatment programs have been developed borrowing heavily from self help, contingency contracting and inpatient programs for working addicts.

Affect↗