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Biomedical subjects

J Turbott

Publications and source records attributed to J Turbott.

14 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed2000

Nonconvulsive generalised status epilepticus following electroconvulsive therapy.

OBJECTIVE: To describe a case of nonconvulsive generalised status epilepticus (NGS) following electroconvulsive therapy (ECT). CLINICAL PICTURE: A 40-year-old woman suffering from a major depressive episode was treated with ECT following treatment with clonazepam, haloperidol and paroxetine. After her fifth treatment she became acutely confused. An electroencephalogram (EEG) at the time was consistent with NGS. TREATMENT AND OUTCOME: Initially intravenous diazepam and phenytoin were administered with an improvement in both her mental state and EEG. An oral anticonvulsant was continued. CONCLUSIONS: NGS is a rare though treatable cause of confusional states following ECT and should be considered in the differential diagnosis.

Adult↗
PubMed1998

Duty of care.

Explore the source record for details and available documents.

Humans↗
PubMed1997

The meaning and function of ritual in psychiatric disorder, religion and everyday behaviour.

OBJECTIVE: Ritual is a central feature of obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) and is found in other psychiatric conditions. Defined in a general sense, it is seen in the everyday behaviour of animals and of humans, in secular ceremonies, and in religion. This paper examines the various types of ritual. It considers the common features and differences. METHOD: Material from psychiatric, biological, sociological, anthropological and religious studies literature is reviewed and discussed. RESULTS: The term 'ritual' describes a wide variety of phenomena. These include the rituals of OCD and range from relatively simple animal signals to profoundly meaningful human behaviour. A common feature is stereotyped physical activity which conveys information. Some clinical, developmental, evolutionary and religious/historical evidence suggests that stereotyped motor behaviour may be the primary phenomenon. CONCLUSIONS: The study of ritual in all its manifestations provides insight into the basis of important human behaviours. Obsessive-compulsive disorder is a likely paradigm for this study. Psychiatry, with its clinical orientation and biopsychosocial perspective, is a discipline within which the study might occur.

Adult↗
PubMed1996

Religion, spirituality and psychiatry: conceptual, cultural and personal challenges.

OBJECTIVE: Recent psychiatric literature and contemporary sociopolitical developments suggest a need to reconsider the place of religion and spirituality in psychiatry. This paper was written with the aim of encouraging dialogue between the often antithetical realms of religion and science. METHOD: Material from psychiatric, sociological and religious studies literature was reviewed, with particular emphasis on New Zealand sources. RESULTS: Despite the secularising effects of science, the presence and influence of 'religiosity' remains substantial in Western culture. The literature emphasises the central importance of religion and spirituality for mental health, and the difficulty of integrating these concepts with scientific medicine. Psychiatric tradition and training may exaggerate the 'religiosity gap between doctors and patients. In New Zealand, the politically mandated bicultural approach to mental health demands an understanding of Maori spirituality. CONCLUSIONS: Intellectual, moral and pragmatic arguments all suggest that psychiatry should reconsider its attitude to religion and spirituality. There are many opportunities for research in the field. Psychiatry would benefit if the vocabulary and concepts of religion and spirituality were more familiar to trainees and practitioners. Patients would find better understanding from psychiatrists, and fruitful interdisciplinary dialogue about mutual issues of 'ultimate concern' might ensue.

Culture↗
PubMed1987

Depot neuroleptic medication and serum levels by radioreceptor assay: prolactin concentration, electrocardiogram abnormalities and six-month outcome.

Twenty-six chronic schizophrenic patients on well-established depot neuroleptic regimes with stable doses (16 on fluphenazine decanoate, 10 on flupenthixol decanoate) had serum neuroleptic levels measured by radioreceptor assay (RRA) and were followed for six months. The serum prolactin (PRL) concentration and resting electrocardiogram (ECG) were also taken at the beginning of the study period. Correlations had previously been noted between RRA measured neuroleptic levels and outcome in both acute and chronic patients on oral medication. However, in this study of depot medication no significant correlations were found between serum neuroleptic concentration, serum prolactin concentration and the clinical state or outcome. The prevalence (33%) and type of ECG abnormality observed was similar to that previously reported.

Adult↗
PubMed1985

Neuroleptic serum levels measured by radioreceptor assay in patients receiving intramuscular depot neuroleptics. Some preliminary findings.

Twenty-six chronic schizophrenic patients on well established depot neuroleptic regimes with stable doses (16 on fluphenazine decanoate, ten on flupenthixol decanoate) had serum neuroleptic levels measured by a radioreceptor assay (RRA) method. The assay was sufficiently sensitive to measure serum levels in all cases, with acceptable levels of inter-assay variation. Blood level measurements were repeated on two occasions, at the same time interval from the last injection, in 18 patients (11 on fluphenazine decanoate, seven on flupenthixol decanoate) and remained reasonably stable in most cases, although others showed a wider variation. Despite a wide range of doses (X 32 fluphenazine decanoate, X 21 flupenthixol decanoate) the serum levels fell in a remarkably narrow range (X 4, X 6). There was a significant correlation between dose and blood level for flupenthixol decanoate, but not for fluphenazine decanoate.

Adult↗
PubMed1982

The peripheral kinetics of norepinephrine in depressive illness.

Sympathetic nervous system function was studied in patients with primary depressive illness. Tritiated norepinephrine was used to measure the rate of entry to plasma of norepinephrine released from sympathetic nerves ("norepinephrine spillover rate"), and to assess the neuronal uptake of norepinephrine by studying the removal of norepinephrine from plasma. Norepinephrine spillover was elevated in five of 11 patients. This abnormality, which was unrelated to the presence of individual vegetative symptoms, occurred exclusively in patients with endogenous depression. The rapid-removal phase of the disappearance of tritiated norepinephrine from plasma, which seemed to correspond with neuronal uptake of norepinephrine, was accelerated in patients with depressive illness, providing presumptive evidence of increased neuronal uptake. If norepinephrine uptake is also accentuated within the brain, a functional deficiency of the transmitter at adrenergic receptor sites might result.

Adult↗
PubMed1981

Morbid jealousy - an unusual presentation with the reciprocal appearance of psychopathology in either spouse.

This report concerns a married couple. The husband presented first to a psychiatrist with delusional jealousy. As his jealousy rapidly subsided with treatment his wife developed a florid paranoid psychosis for which she refused therapy. She then actively intervened to prevent her husband's treatment and as his jealousy returned her psychosis remitted. It is suggested that psychopathology may be more common than is suspected in the partners of jealous subjects and that on occasions one partner may be actively provoking jealous behaviour in the other.

Adult↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Differing noradrenaline kinetics in essential hypertension and depressive illness, two diseases in which the plasma concentration of noradrenaline is sometimes elevated.

1. The rate of spill-over of noradrenaline to plasma, and neuronal noradrenaline uptake, which influences spill-over, were studied in patients with essential hypertension and depressive illness. 2. Noradrenaline spill-over was increased in seven of thirty-four patients with essential hypertension and five of eleven patients with primary depressive illness, compared with values in seventeen normal subjects (range 1.0-3.63 nmol/min per m2). 3. Faulty neuronal reuptake of noradrenaline seemed to be the cause of higher noradrenaline spill-over in patients with essential hypertension. Increased sympathetic nerve firing rates apparently were responsible in the primary depressives, despite their normal blood pressure. 4. These puzzling findings suggest that hypertension occurs when neurotransmitter excess is due to defective noradrenaline reuptake (in essential hypertension), but not chronically increased nerve firing (in depressive illness).

Adult↗