Biomedical subjects

J Fuger

Publications and source records attributed to J Fuger.

7 recordsLinked to original sources

PubMed1997

Risperidone in the treatment of schizophrenia: results of a study of patients from Germany, Austria, and Switzerland.

Results of a subanalysis of data from the multinational risperidone trial (RIS-INT-2) are reported. Patients with chronic schizophrenia were treated with risperidone at 1 mg/day (n = 25), 4 mg/day (n = 27), 8 mg/day (n = 29), 12 mg/day (n = 31), or 16 mg/day (n = 29), or 10 mg/day of haloperidol for 8 weeks. According to the Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale (PANSS) total and subscale scores, improvements were noted in each treatment group from baseline to treatment endpoint. On each scale the magnitude of improvement was greater in the risperidone patients than in the haloperidol patients. The onset of action of risperidone was faster than haloperidol. By treatment week 2, over half of the patients receiving > or = 4 mg/day of risperidone were clinically improved (> or = 20% reduction in total PANSS scores). This rate of improvement was not seen until week 6 in the haloperidol patients. Severity of extrapyramidal symptoms (scores on the Extrapyramidal Symptom Scale) was significantly lower in patients receiving 1 or 4 mg/day of risperidone than in patients receiving higher risperidone doses and in haloperidol patients. The optimal dose of risperidone, in terms of both efficacy and safety, was 4 mg/day. These results confirm the findings of the controlled trials of risperidone conducted in North America and the multinational trial.

Adult↗

PubMed1996

Low plasma thyroid indices of depressed patients are attenuated by antidepressant drugs and influence treatment outcome.

Decreased turnover of thyroid indices and blunting of TSH release after TRH administration has been associated with depressive disorder. A further decrease in plasma thyroid hormone; during antidepressant treatment has been reported. However, the putative association between the plasma thyroid indices' concentration and response has not been addressed. In the present study 21 depressed inpatients underwent a four-week double blind antidepressant with amitriptyline and mianserin; their plasma thyroid hormone indices (total thyroxine [TT4], free thyroxine [FT4], total triiodothyronine [TT3], free triiodothyronine [FT3], thyrotropin [TSH], and thyroglobulin [TBG]) were quantified to elucidate their involvement in depression and during antidepressant drug treatment. Depressed patients' plasma TSH, when corrected for age, was significantly lower than that of healthy subjects. During antidepressant treatment the entire patient cohort showed a significant decrease in plasma TT4 and FT4 concentrations. Responders showed a significant drop in TT4 FT4, FT3, and T4/TBG, but nonresponders only a decrease in FT4. During mianserin treatment, a decrease was observed in TT4, FT4, FT3, and T4/TBG. FT4 and FT3 baseline levels correlated positively with the improvement in the Hamilton Depression Rating Score (HDRS). These findings show that depressed inpatients' serum TSH levels are within the reference range, but significantly lower than those of healthy subjects, and those patients who turn out to be nonresponders have potentially lower availability of thyroid hormones than responders. Therefore, we hypothesize that in order to assure clinical improvement in depression, an adequate capacity of the thyroid hormone pool is necessary to compensate for the additional antidepressant-provoked decrease in serum thyroid hormone availability.

Adult↗

PubMed1995

A controlled study of the efficacy and safety of mianserin and amitriptyline in depressive inpatients.

As with other second-generation antidepressants, the antidepressive efficacy of mianserin was investigated in double-blind control group studies, mostly under outpatient conditions. This study tested the antidepressive efficacy and safety of mianserin as compared to amitriptyline in a sample of 51 depressed inpatients suffering from major depression. No statistically significant difference was found with regard to the main efficacy outcome criterion, the HAMD. The tolerability results demonstrated a superiority of mianserin with respect to vegetative symptoms and especially with respect to dryness of the mouth.

Adult↗

PubMed1994

Efficacy of new generation antidepressants: meta-analysis of imipramine-controlled studies.

When assessing the efficacy of a new antidepressant in comparison with a standard treatment, most clinical trials have come to the conclusion that the nullhypothesis (equal efficacy) cannot be rejected, and have not been reformulated with respect to (at least) equivalent studies. However, it cannot be concluded from this that the compared treatments have the same (or similar) efficacy, because in many of the studies the statistical power is not sufficient. Using the effect-size formula described by Glass et al. (1981), a meta-analysis were performed combining the results of comparative trials of maprotiline, mianserin, viloxazine, trazodone, nomifensine, fluvoxamine, and fluoxetine, performed according to similar objectives and designs (similar patient selection, double-blind, randomized, etc.) and with imipramine as reference compound. Together with the results of a former meta-analysis of amitriptyline-controlled studies (Möller and Haug, 1988) the present investigation indicates differences in efficacy, which in the case of most of the new generation antidepressants is similar to the reference compounds imipramine and amitriptyline.

Adolescent↗

PubMed1994

[Validating rehabilitation after stroke].

Evaluation of therapeutic efficacy in neurologic rehabilitation is methodologically limited by the well established polypragmasia and the lack of untreated controls. Controversial discussion is generated by the following topics: superiority of specific therapy versus spontaneous recovery, higher efficacy of in-patient-setting versus out-patient-setting and the value of neurorehabilitation treatment in latency of more than 1 year after the event. To develop a practicable method for the evaluation of efficacy, we surveyed retrospectively 30 patients after stroke in a sequential study design on 4 scheduled visits: first admission to in-patient rehabilitation, discharge to out-patient treatment, admission and discharge of second in-patient rehabilitation. Impairment, disability and handicap were documented by NIH-Stroke Scale, Barthel-Index, CGI, WWK-Pflegeskala N and Risk-Profile. A descriptive data-analysis implies a therapeutic gain of stroke rehabilitation in-patient setting which is apparently superior to out-patient treatment. A measurable therapeutic effect was evident even more than one year after the stroke.

Adult↗

PubMed1992

Early clinical results with the neuroleptic roxindole (EMD 49,980) in the treatment of schizophrenia--an open study.

The neuroleptic effect and tolerability of roxindole (EMD 49,980), an agonist of the dopamine-D2 autoreceptor, was studied during a 4 week treatment period in 7 patients with paranoid-hallucinatory schizophrenia (ICD-9: 295.3). In patients with a daily dosage of up to 4.5 mg/day, there was no improvement as measured with the total score of the BPRS scale. In contrast, patients with a daily dosage of up to 30 mg/day showed a slight improvement, especially in items associated with negative symptoms. In 3 patients there were slight adverse events (dizziness, hypersalivation, hypotonia, nausea/vomiting, miction disturbance) which were probably connected with the intake of roxindole.

Adult↗

PubMed1992

Comparative efficacy of antidepressants.

Selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) are a recently developed class of drugs with significantly greater antidepressant efficacy than placebo. Generally, in double-blind comparative trials, all SSRIs demonstrated antidepressant efficacy similar to that of the 'standard' tricyclic antidepressants amitriptyline and imipramine; a meta-analysis of controlled trials found the efficacy of the SSRIs to be equivalent to that of the 2 tricyclics. Nevertheless, because of small patient numbers included in most studies that compare SSRIs with other antidepressants, no definitive statements about relative efficacy can be made. In these studies it is simply possible to state that no statistically significant differences were identified between SSRIs and the comparative antidepressants. Importantly, differences in clinical characteristics exist between the SSRIs-differences in elimination half-life (t1/2 beta) between fluoxetine and/or its metabolite (total t1/2 beta = 330 hours) and other SSRIs (t1/2 beta range = 15 to 30 hours), for example. This has implications in terms of potential drug interactions and must be considered when patients have to be switched to treatment with monoamine oxidase inhibitors. Studies with fluvoxamine have been conducted in both in- and outpatients, whereas trials with other SSRIs have been confined largely to outpatient populations. Fluvoxamine has been associated with a high incidence of nausea (37%), although this may have resulted from high initial dosages (rather than upward dose titration protocols) used in early trials. Of further interest, fluoxetine doses of 20mg may be sufficient to produce a satisfactory antidepressant response, and this SSRI may be particularly useful in patients with chronic retarded depression. More clinical data are required before the efficacy of sertraline and citalopram relative to standard antidepressants can be clearly defined. Preliminary data indicate that SSRIs are effective in the treatment of panic disorder, obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), eating (e.g. anorexia and bulimia) and personality disorders (e.g. anger, impulsiveness) and substance abuse (e.g. alcoholism); early results with fluvoxamine in the treatment of panic disorder and OCD, and with fluoxetine in the treatment of bulimia, personality disorders and alcohol abuse, have been encouraging. SSRIs have a more favourable tolerability profile than tricyclic antidepressants and, unlike the tricyclics, are not associated with anticholinergic adverse effects, sedation, cardiotoxicity or weight gain. SSRIs are associated with a relatively high incidence of nausea, particularly if high doses are used at the start of treatment. However, the incidence of nausea appears to decrease as treatment is continued.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 400 WORDS)

Antidepressive Agents↗