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Biomedical subjects

I R Bell

Publications and source records attributed to I R Bell.

At least 55 records · Page 3Linked to original sources
PubMed1992

Brief communication. Vitamin B1, B2, and B6 augmentation of tricyclic antidepressant treatment in geriatric depression with cognitive dysfunction.

This was a 4-week randomized placebo-controlled double-blind study to assess augmentation of open tricyclic antidepressant treatment with 10 mg each of vitamins B1, B2, and B6 in 14 geriatric inpatients with depression. The active vitamin group demonstrated significantly better B2 and B6 status on enzyme activity coefficients and trends toward greater improvement in scores on ratings of depression and congnitive function, as well as in serum nortriptyline levels compared with placebo-treated subjects (Ss). Without specific supplementation, B12 levels increased in Ss receiving B1/B2/B6 and decreased in placebo Ss. These findings offer preliminary support for further investigation of B complex vitamin augmentation in the treatment of geriatric depression.

Aged↗
PubMed1991

B complex vitamin patterns in geriatric and young adult inpatients with major depression.

This study compared the B complex vitamin status at time of admission of 20 geriatric and 16 young adult non-alcoholic inpatients with major depression. Twenty-eight percent of all subjects were deficient in B2 (riboflavin), B6 (pyridoxine), and/or B12 (cobalamin), but none in B1 (thiamine) or folate. The geriatric sample had significantly higher serum folate levels. Psychotic depressives had lower B12 than did non-psychotic depressives. Poorer blood vitamin status was not associated with higher scores on the Hamilton Depression Rating Scale or lower scores on the Mini-Mental State Examination in either age group. The data support the hypothesis that poorer status in certain B vitamins is present in major depression, but blood measures may not reflect central nervous system vitamin function or severity of affective syndromes as measured by the assays and scales in the present study.

Adult↗
PubMed1991

Depression and allergies: survey of a nonclinical population.

The possible association between depression and type I allergies (i.e. immunoglobulin E-mediated hay fever, asthma, eczema, hives) was examined in a nonclinical sample of 379 college students. Measures included self-reports of depression, tiredness, fearfulness, allergic disorders, and environmental allergens and irritants. Seventy-one percent of the subjects who had ever received a professional diagnosis of depression also indicated a history of allergy: those with greater self-rated current depression overall reported a significantly higher prevalence of asthma (p less than 0.05). Type I allergic (43%) and nonallergic subjects did not differ in self-rated frequency of depression, fatigue, or anxiety. However, type I subjects reported significantly worse mood after the flu than did nonallergic subjects (p less than 0.001). The data support the hypothesis that individuals prone to clinical depression have more allergies than nondepressives. Allergics may experience more postflu mood worsening but not current depression in comparison with nonallergics.

Adult↗
PubMed1990

Paraneoplastic limbic encephalitis: neuropsychiatric presentation.

Limbic encephalitis as a distinct clinicopathological entity is becoming increasingly familiar to neurologists. However, despite its classical clinical presentation of mental status changes and behavioral abnormalities, the disorder is not well known in the psychiatric literature and premortem diagnosis is rare. We recently participated in the care of a patient who spent two months on a psychiatric service and in whom a medical disorder was consistently suspected but not confirmed until autopsy revealed paraneoplastic limbic encephalitis and two primary systemic malignancies. A detailed neuropsychiatric description of this clinical entity is provided from presentation to autopsy with review of the literature.

Aged↗
PubMed1990

Vitamin B12 and folate status in acute geropsychiatric inpatients: affective and cognitive characteristics of a vitamin nondeficient population.

This chart review study examined the serum vitamin B12 and folate status of 102 geriatric patients newly admitted to a private psychiatric hospital. Only 3.7% were B12 deficient and 1.3% were folate deficient; 4% were anemic. Nevertheless, those with below-median values of both vitamins had significantly lower Mini-Mental State scores than patients higher in one or both vitamins. Patients with "organic psychosis" with a negative family history for psychiatric disorder had significantly lower B12 levels than those with a positive family history. In major depression, folate levels correlated negatively with age at onset of psychiatric illness and length of hospitalization. These data suggest that (1) biochemically interrelated vitamins such as B12 and folate may exert both a separate and a concomitant influence on affect and cognition; (2) poorer vitamin status may contribute to certain geropsychiatric disorders that begin at a later age and lack a familial predisposition.

Affective Disorders, Psychotic↗
PubMed1989

Immunological clearance of 75Se-labelled Trypanosoma brucei in goats.

An experiment was conducted to determine, under different conditions, the capacity of young adult East African goats to eliminate intravenously inoculated [75Se]selenomethionine-labelled Trypanosoma brucei from the bloodstream. Over 80% of labelled trypanosomes, preincubated for 1 h in inactivated normal goat serum, were detectable in the circulation 1 h after inoculation into normal goats. By contrast, after incubation in serum from goats which had been immunised against the homologous trypanosome clone, parasites were largely removed from the bloodstream within 5 min after inoculation. When the goats were necropsied 1 h after the inoculation of radiolabelled trypanosomes, 50% of the injected activity was found in the liver and lungs, the contribution of each organ being dependent to some extent on whether the inoculum was via a mesenteric or the jugular vein. The same result was obtained when labelled parasites were incubated in normal goat serum, and then inoculated into immunised goats; thus, rapid blood clearance occurred, and high activity was detected in the lungs and liver. The results confirm those of previous studies in laboratory mice in which the removal of trypanosomes from the circulation of an immune animal was achieved primarily by uptake of opsonised trypanosomes by elements of the mononuclear phagocytic system.

Animals↗
PubMed1986

Isometamidium chloride prophylaxis against Trypanosoma congolense challenge and the development of immune responses in Boran cattle.

Twenty-four Boran cattle were injected with isometamidium chloride (1 mg/kg bodyweight) to investigate the duration of drug-induced prophylaxis against infection by metacyclic forms of Trypanosoma congolense and to determine if specific antibody responses to the organism were mounted by animals under chemoprophylactic cover. Complete protection against either single challenge by five tsetse flies infected with T congolense, or repeated challenge at monthly intervals by five tsetse flies, lasted for five months. Six months after treatment, two-thirds of the cattle were resistant to challenge, irrespective of whether subjected to single or multiple challenge with trypanosome-infected tsetse flies, or titrated doses of in vitro-cultured metacyclic forms of T congolense (5 X 10(2) to 5 X 10(5) organisms), inoculated intradermally. No animal which resisted infection developed detectable skin reactions at the site of deposition of metacyclic trypanosomes or produced trypanosome-specific antibodies. It was concluded that drug residues effectively limited trypanosome multiplication at the site of deposition in the skin, thus preventing subsequent parasitaemia or priming of the host's immune response.

Animals↗
PubMed1984

Use of clonazepam in mania and schizoaffective disorders.

The authors report three cases in which clonazepam controlled the acute symptoms in one manic and two schizoaffective patients. Clonazepam treatment led to a decrease in agitation and logorrhea, without the side effects associated with neuroleptics.

Acute Disease↗
PubMed1978

Twenty-four-hour recording in REM-narcoleptics with special reference to nocturnal sleep disruption.

Twenty narcoleptic patients and ten age-matched normals were polygraphically monitored for 58 consecutive hours. All subjects were on regimented sleep (hours between 2230 and 0700). Group A (11 patients and 10 normals) had enforced wakefulness during the day whereas Group B (9 patients) were permitted to sleep (mean = 2 1/2 hr.). On day 2, all subjects were permitted to sleep for 15-min periods every 2 hr. In narcoloptics, sleep recordings demonstrated a reduction of sleep latency, an increase of stage 1, and a decrease in stages 3 and 4 compared to normals, but total REM time and percentage of REM sleep were similar. Groups A and B showed no difference in the incidence of nocturnal awakenings. REM cyclic periodicity was larger in narcoleptics who also demonstrated a REM-sleep fragmentation. This fragmentation became more pronounced as time passed, with several shifts from REM to wakefulness and stage 1. Narcoleptics present REM onset sleep period but also show an inability to remain in REM sleep.

Adult↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Possible time-dependent sensitization to xenobiotics: self-reported illness from chemical odors, foods, and opiate drugs in an older adult population.

The present paper summarizes key features of time-dependent sensitization (TDS) in neuropharmacology (progressive amplification of behavioral, neuronal, endocrine, and/or immune responses to repeated intermittent exposures to an environmental agent or cross-sensitizing agents) as a possible model for cacosmia (subjective sense of feeling ill from low levels of environmental chemical odors) in nonindustrial and industrial populations; and extends previous cacosmia research in nonpatient populations to an elderly sample. This study examined the symptom and psychological profiles of 263 older adults (aged 60-90 y, 71% women, 29% men); 57% reported that at least one chemical and 17% reported that at least four of five chemicals (pesticide, automobile exhaust, paint, new carpet, perfume) made them feel ill. Cacosmia ratings correlated weakly and negatively with age (r = -0.19, p = .001) over the whole sample. Cacosmia correlated significantly with self-reported illness from foods that may mobilize or generate opioid peptides (wheat, dairy, eggs) (r = 0.32, p < .0001) and with illness from opiate drugs (r = 0.23, p < .0001). When the sample was divided into four cells on the basis of above-versus below-median total chemical-induced illness score (CI) and total food-induced illness score (FI), the high CI and high FI, high CI only, and high FI only groups had more frequent indigestion, and the high CI group had more frequent difficulty concentrating than the groups below median for illness from both chemicals and foods (NOILL), even after covarying for age and anxiety. The most cacosmic subjects noted higher prevalence of physician-diagnosed allergies and irritable bowel than did noncacosmic subjects. In contrast with previous young adult cohort studies, the older illness groups did not differ with regard to sex distribution, depression, shyness, or repressive defensiveness. When considered with prior surveys of young adults, the present findings are consistent with the presence of previously established, time-dependent sensitization to multiple xenobiotic agents in susceptible individuals for whom psychological variables do not explain the symptom of cacosmia. If cacosmia is a symptom of TDS, then the neuropharmacology literature suggests the possibility of excitatory amino acid, hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis, dopaminergic, and/or opioid involvement. Prospective studies with objective measures testing the possible induction of TDS to specific chemicals are indicated.

Aged↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Self-reported illness from chemical odors in young adults without clinical syndromes or occupational exposures.

The present survey of young adult college students investigated the prevalence of self-reported illness from the smell of the five following common environmental chemicals (cacosmia): (1) pesticide, (2) automobile exhaust, (3) paint, (4) new carpet, and (5) perfume. Sixty-six percent of 643 students reported feeling ill from one or more of the five chemicals; 15% identified the smell of at least four chemicals as making them ill. Ratings of illness from pesticide correlated weakly but significantly with ratings for the largest number of individual symptoms (9 of 11); daytime tiredness and daytime grogginess both correlated at high levels of significance with illness ratings (on a 5-point scale) for four of the five chemicals. The most cacosmic group (CS) included significantly more women (79%) than the noncacosmic group (NS) (49%); women overall were more cacosmic than men (p < .001), even with the significant covariate of depression. Ratings of cacosmia correlated only weakly with scores for depression (r = 0.16), anxiety (r = 0.08), and trait shyness (r = 0.18) in the total sample. On stepwise multiple regression with cacosmia score as the dependent measure, shyness accounted for 5.8% of the variance, while depression, anxiety, sense of mastery, and repression did not enter the equation. Histories of physician-diagnosed hay fever, but not asthma, were more frequent in the CS (16%) than in the NS group (5%). Without the confounds of chronic illness or specific treatment programs, these data are similar to patterns described clinically for a subset of patients with multiple chemical sensitivities (MCS), including previous data on increased nasal resistance in MCS.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)

Adolescent↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Neuropsychiatric and somatic characteristics of young adults with and without self-reported chemical odor intolerance and chemical sensitivity.

The psychological, neuropsychiatric, and somatic characteristics of young adults who have different degrees of cacosmia (i.e., feeling "ill" from the odor of xenobiotic chemicals) and who have self-described "chemical sensitivity" were examined. A total of 800 college students completed the following: a self-rating scale for frequency of odor intolerance for 10 common substances, Simon Environmental Illness Symptom Survey, the SCL-90-R, Barsky Amplification Scale, Pearlin-Schooler Mastery Scale, Cheek-Buss and Kagan Shyness scales, Marlowe-Crowne Social Desirability Scale, and a health-symptom and physician-diagnosed checklist. Two pairs of groups were compared: (1) subjects in the top 16% (i.e., cacosmics) and bottom 15% (noncacosmics) of the sample with respect to odor intolerance scale scores; and (2) subjects from the entire sample who did (28%) or did not (72%) consider themselves to be "especially sensitive to certain chemicals.¿ Cacosmics and the chemically sensitive subjects scored significantly higher on measures of psychological distress and amplification of somatic symptoms, but there was little evidence of lifestyle change, as assessed by the Simon Survey. Compared with their respective comparison groups, cacosmic and chemically sensitive groups had significantly higher incidences of illnesses associated with chemicals, alcohol intake, opiate drug use, and caffeine use, even after controlling for the psychological measures and histories of atopic allergy. Subjects with and without neuropsychiatric symptoms were differentiated with respect to chemical odor intolerance, but subjects with and without atopic allergies and possible autoimmune diseases were differentiated with respect to chemical sensitivity. Females were more cacosmic than males. Cacosmia is defined by a population subset, with or without occupational xenobiotic exposures or disability, that has distress and symptom amplification and neuropsychiatric and somatic symptoms, none of which are explained fully by psychological measures. Prospective clinical studies are possible with such individuals. The data are also consistent with a time-dependent sensitization model for illness from low-level chemical exposures.

Adolescent↗