Sibutramine and panic attacks.
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Biomedical subjects
Publications and source records attributed to Karen Binkley.
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Idiopathic environmental intolerance (IEI), also known as multiple chemical sensitivity, is a clinical description for a cluster of symptoms of unknown etiology that have been attributed by patients to multiple environmental exposures when other medical explanations have been excluded. Because allergy has not been clearly demonstrated and current toxicological paradigms for exposure-symptom relationships do not readily accommodate IEI, psychogenic theories have been the focus of a number of investigations. A significantly higher lifetime prevalence of major depression, mood disorders, anxiety disorders, and somatization disorder has been reported among patients with environmental illness compared with that in controls. Symptoms often include anxiety, lightheadedness, impaired mentation, poor coordination, breathlessness (without wheezing), tremor, and abdominal discomfort. Responses to intravenous sodium lactate challenge or single-breath inhalation of 35% carbon dioxide versus a similar breath inhalation of clean air have shown a greater frequency of panic responses in subjects with IEI than in control subjects, although such responses did not occur in all subjects. Preliminary genetic findings suggest an increased frequency of a common genotype with panic disorder patients. The panic responses in a significant proportion of IEI patients opens a therapeutic window of opportunity. Patients in whom panic responses may at least be a contributing factor to their symptoms might be responsive to intervention with psychotherapy to enable their desensitization or deconditioning of responses to odors and other triggers, and/or may be helped by anxiolytic medications, relaxation training, and counseling for stress management.
OBJECTIVE: To describe a patient who developed a widespread skin eruption following the use of two Chinese herbal medications, Fang Feng Tong Sheng Wan and Bi Yan Pian. CASE SUMMARY: A 34-year-old man developed widespread erythematous papules that coalesced into plaques after five days of therapy with two Chinese herbal preparations. There was no lymphadenopathy or hepatosplenomegaly, and the patient denied any fever, chills or malaise. The skin biopsy was compatible with a drug eruption. When the patient's oral medications, including the herbal medications, were discontinued, the skin eruption resolved over the next few weeks. All of the regular long term medications were restarted without any sequalae. DISCUSSION: This case, once again, emphasizes that, although herbal medications are marketed as natural products, these products can be associated with adverse drug effects. Other adverse effects that have been implicated with the use of Chinese herbal medications include interstitial fibrosis, renal failure, liver toxicity and severe dermatitis. In addition, there are several cases of adulteration of Chinese herbal products with synthetic medications. CONCLUSION: Although rare, Chinese herbal medications can be associated with serious adverse effects. Clinicians should question patients about the use of herbal products whenever an adverse drug effect is suspected.