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Biomedical subjects

J M Danion

Publications and source records attributed to J M Danion.

17 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed1992

Effects of chlorpromazine and lorazepam on explicit memory, repetition priming and cognitive skill learning in healthy volunteers.

To assess the influence of neuroleptics on explicit memory and two forms of implicit memory, repetition priming and cognitive skill learning, the effects of two low doses of chlorpromazine (12.5 and 25 mg orally) were contrasted to those of lorazepam (2.5 mg orally) and of a placebo using a free-recall task, a word-completion task and repeated testing on the Tower of Toronto puzzle, a version of the Tower of Hanoi puzzle. Seventy-two healthy volunteers took part in this double-blind study. Chlorpromazine spared free-recall and word-completion performance, but impaired the acquisition of a cognitive routine in the subjects who completed the first trials of the Tower of Toronto puzzle efficiently. Lorazepam induced an opposite pattern of memory disruption. These preliminary results suggest that chlorpromazine and lorazepam induced a double dissociation between priming and the acquisition of a cognitive routine. They provide evidence that the two forms of implicit memory rely upon distinct neurochemical systems, the latter, but not the former, being dependent upon dopaminergic systems.

Adult↗
PubMed1992

Differential effects of diazepam and lorazepam on repetition priming in healthy volunteers.

The effects of two benzodiazepines, diazepam (15 or 20 mg orally) and lorazepam (1.75 or 2.5 mg orally), and a placebo on explicit memory, lexical priming and perceptual priming were assessed using a free-recall, a word-completion and a picture-completion test. The picture-completion test included two different study conditions intended to manipulate the magnitude of the priming effect. Sixty healthy volunteers took part in this double-blind study. Free-recall performances were altered by both drugs. Lorazepam impaired word-completion and picture-completion performance, whereas diazepam only exhibited a deleterious effect on the more sensitive of the two measures of the picture-completion test. These results indicate that the two benzodiazepines have differential amnestic effects. It is suggested that these differential effects could be accounted for by a different cortical distribution of the two benzodiazepines.

Adult↗
PubMed1992

[Paroxysmal neurological manifestations disclosing panic attacks].

Thirty-seven patients presented with paroxysmal neurological manifestations attributed to anxiety attacks. The manifestations included loss of consciousness, focal sensorimotor deficits, diffuse dysesthaesiae, visual disorders and tremor. They lasted 10 to 45 minutes and occurred once per day to once per week. Organic pathology was dismissed on the basis of normal examinations and atypical course. In all patients questioning revealed symptoms that were those of acute anxiety. The fact that these attacks took place in suggestive (circumstances e.g. in crowds and car driving), and that they could be induced by challenge tests hyperpnoea, infusion of lactate) suggested that these disorders were consecutive to panic attacks.

Adult↗
PubMed1991

Explicit memory and repetition priming in depression. Preliminary findings.

Explicit memory and repetition priming, a form of implicit memory, were examined in depressed patients and controls. Explicit memory of depressed patients was severely impaired, whereas repetition priming was intact. These results are consistent with the hypothesis that the impairment of memory in depression is linked to a failure of effort-demanding cognitive processes. Repetition priming might be useful in differentiating between depression and dementia.

Dementia↗
PubMed1990

Effects of scopolamine, trimipramine and diazepam on explicit memory and repetition priming in healthy volunteers.

The effects of scopolamine, an anticholinergic drug, of trimipramine, a tricyclic antidepressant with both anticholinergic and sedative properties, of diazepam and a placebo, on explicit memory and repetition priming were assessed using a free-recall task and a word-stem completion task. Forty-eight healthy volunteers took part in this double-blind study. Diazepam provoked a dissociation between free recall, which was profoundly impaired, and word completion, which was spared. No significant changes in memory performances were observed in the scopolamine group; however, a significant correlation between explicit and implicit memory performances was observed in this group. At the low dose used, the effects of trimipramine on memory were mild. The results suggest that the cholinergic system is involved in the priming effect.

Adult↗
PubMed1990

Long-term lithium treatment does not suppress hibernation in European hamsters.

European hamsters were fed LiCl-supplemented food for a long time before, during and after the hibernating season. Long-term administration of LiCl does not suppress hibernation, which occurs normally during the first part of the experiment. Moreover lithium-treated hibernating hamsters tolerate very high plasma lithium levels. This tolerance is not explained. The results are discussed in relation with the recent theories on the similarities between depression, seasonal affective disorder and hibernation.

Animals↗
PubMed1989

Diazepam induces a dissociation between explicit and implicit memory.

The effects of 0.2 mg/kg orally administered diazepam and of a placebo on explicit memory, implicit and knowledge memory were assessed using a free recall task, a word-stem completion task and two category-generation tasks. Twenty four healthy volunteers took part in this double-blind study. Diazepam impaired explicit but not implicit memory. The drug also spared knowledge memory. Explicit memory was linked with the diazepam-induced sedation and with the self-rated affective load of to-be remembered words, but implicit memory was not. The diazepam-induced dissociation between explicit and implicit memory supports the notion of two distinct forms of memory and reproduced the dissociation observed in organic amnesia.

Adult↗
PubMed1978

[The effects of phenylbutazone on the decrease of lithium clearance].

During the treatment of a manic depressive patient, the authors reported some lithium toxicity signs, as lithium carbonate (3 X 300 mg p.d.) and phenylbutazone suppository (3 X 250 mg/p.d.) were associated, this last medication being prescribed for a phlebitis. Lithiemia increased from .70 to 1,44 mEq/l., the lithiemia clearance falling from 10 ml to 5 ml/mn/1.73 m2) and the lithium tubular reabsorption percentage increasing from 85 to 94% (standard rates: 77.4 +/- 1.3%). In a second time, a rat experimentation corroborated these findings: phenylbutazone treatment (100 mg/kg/p.o. for five days) resulted in a lithium tubular reabsorption increase. It seems that the association of lithium carbonate with phenylbutazone should be avoided. The authors point out the risk of prescribing lithium and pyrazolic by-products as phenylbutazone, which are potentially nephrotoxic.

Animals↗
PubMedDate not supplied

[Memory disorders in schizophrenia].

The current interest in memory disorders in schizophrenia results from the way perceptions of schizophrenia--whose organic origin is becoming increasingly evident--and memory--according to which there exist not one, but several memories--have developed. Memory disorders in the schizophrenic cannot be considered in isolation from knowledge accumulated in other areas of the cognitive and neuro-sciences; a more detailed understanding of these disorders requires a comparison of the different cognitive approaches, both with each other and with the neurobiological and clinical approaches, so that they can be integrated. Despite numerous methodological and conceptual difficulties, it now appears to have been established that the schizophrenic's memory deficit should be seen in the context of a wider cognitive deficit, that the memory tasks are not all disturbed and that the memory deficit cannot be identified with one specific form of memory. Thus, iconic formation, short-term memory in the traditionally accepted sense and implicit memory are hardly, if at all, affected; in contrast, the early processing of information, working memory and explicit memory are disturbed, probably to the extent that they require the implementation of strategies to organise the information to be memorized. Finally, in certain tasks, such as those evaluating latent inhibition or negative priming, schizophrenics perform better than normal subjects, suggesting that schizophrenics' cognitive deficit is localised. This profile of memory disorders is compatible with a dysfunction predominating in the frontal and temporo-hippocampal regions. Neuroleptics and anticholinergics have opposite effects on cognitive and mnesic performance, which is improved by the former and aggravated by the latter. The influence of clinical symptoms, positive or negative, institutionalisation of patients and chronic tardive dyskinesia is unclear. Among the theoretical proposals put forward to account for the observed disorders, those relating to a disturbance of the action planning process and to that of the internal representation of context are compatible with the observed memory disorders. All the clinically derived data and those produced by the cognitive and neurosciences indicate a need to reformulate the links between memory, selective attention and evaluation of the relevance of a stimulus, to develop a general model of the reciprocal interactions between cognition and affectivity and to look for the origin of a pathology as complex as schizophrenia, not in a local lesion in an isolated cerebral structure but in a disturbance of the dynamic interactions within a functional, parallel and distributed network of broadly interconnected regions.

Antipsychotic Agents↗
PubMedDate not supplied

[Rehabilitation of patients with schizophrenia].

Follow-up of 17 schizophrenic patients on long- or very long-term treatment (3 to 27 years), sectorial follow-up of a group of 57 schizophrenics since 1984 and 24 new patients since 1988, study on the development of 50 schizophrenics followed in an out-patient treatment centre and who had left this centre since 1987, are reported. The authors present their findings on their patients' socio-professional insertion or re-insertion. Thanks to progress in therapy, the long-term follow-up of schizophrenic out-patients is now possible. Complete hospitalisation can be avoided or its duration generally reduced. Socio-professional insertion or re-insertion depends on a certain number of factors affecting the observance by the patient and the regular following of his treatment. These factors and the evolution of the disorders are often unforeseeable, and render the patient's re-insertion problematical. The quality of the re-insertion also depends on the care possibilities available to the patient: sectorial follow-up, job-aid centre, sheltered workshops, associative apartments, leisure. Whatever the case, professional insertion seems much more limited than social insertion. Professional life can however be envisaged in subordinate work or in a sheltered working environment where the schizophrenic feels safe within a definite, fixed architectural and affective frame of reference.

Adult↗
PubMedDate not supplied

[Tolerability of tianeptine in 170 patients with depression treated during one year].

Tianeptine, a new antidepressant, has a tricyclic molecular structure. Its main biochemical activity consists of an increase in the reuptake of 5 HT both in men and animals, after acute and chronic administration. Tianeptine demonstrated its antidepressive clinical efficacy in several double-blind versus reference drug trials. A multicentre open trial, including depressed patients enabled us to evaluate the safety of tianeptine and to control the maintenance of the therapeutic efficacy in the course of its long-term prescription. Depressed patients included showed a major depressive episode, single (296.22) or recurrent (296.32) without melancholia or psychotic features, or a dysthymic disorder (300.40), according to DSM III criteria. A minimum MADRS score of a least 25, and the informed consent of the patients were required. The dose of tianeptine was 3 tablets per day (12.5 mg/tablet) with the possibility of increasing to 4 or decreasing to 2 tablets per day, depending on the symptomatology. Therapeutic efficacy was evaluated by item 1 and 2 of the Global Clinical Impression (CGI), the Montgomery and Asberg Depression Rating Scale (MADRS), the Hamilton Anxiety Rating Scale (HARS) and the Hopkins Symptom Check-List (HSCL). Clinical and paraclinical safety were evaluated by CGI item 3, standardized ratings of patients' complaints (CHESS 84), interruption for side effects, evaluation of blood pressure, weight, biological parameters, EKGs. This intermediate evaluation concerns the first 170 depressed patients treated over a one-year period as well as the total group of patients included (n = 447).(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)

Adult↗