Biomedical subjects

N Voudouris

Publications and source records attributed to N Voudouris.

3 recordsLinked to original sources

PubMed2005

Mapping the quality of life and unmet needs of urban women with metastatic breast cancer.

Enhancing quality of life and reducing the unmet needs of women are central to the successful management of advanced breast cancer. The objective of this study was to investigate the quality of life and support and information needs of urban women with advanced breast cancer. This study was conducted at four large urban hospitals in Melbourne, Australia. A consecutive sample of 105 women with advanced breast cancer completed a questionnaire that contained the European Organization of Research and Treatment of Cancer Quality of Life Q-C30 and the Supportive Care Needs Survey. Between one quarter and a third of the women reported difficulties with their physical, role and social functioning, and a little over a quarter of the women reported poor global health status. Fatigue was a problem for most women. The highest unmet needs were in the psychological and health information domains. Almost no differences in unmet needs were detected when comparing different demographic and disease characteristics of women. Health care providers should routinely monitor the quality of life and needs of women with advanced breast cancer to ensure that appropriate treatment, information or supportive services are made available.

Adaptation, Psychological↗

PubMed2001

The effect of single oral doses of zopiclone on nocturnal melatonin secretion in healthy male volunteers.

The effects of single oral doses of zopiclone and temazepam were investigated in eight healthy male volunteers using a single blind, placebo controlled cross over study. Doses of zopiclone were 7.5 and 15 mg while the dose of temazepam was 20 mg. Each dose was separated by at least a one-week washout period. For each subject the dim light melatonin onset (DLMO) was determined on a screening night and the drugs were administered at the time of the DLMO. Melatonin concentrations were determined by radioimmunoassay from plasma samples collected throughout the night. Both temazepam and zopiclone tended to reduce the amount of melatonin secreted, as determined by the area under the plasma concentration time curve. The differences from placebo were not statistically significant (F 3.31 = 1.07, P > 0.1). Similarly a repeated measures analysis of variance on the plasma concentration-time curves did not show any statistically significant differences between drugs and placebo (F 3.28 = 1.15, P > 0.1). There was no evidence from this study of a phase shifting effect of the drugs used. The reasons for the lack of effect on melatonin may be due to the differences in potency of the interaction of these drugs with the GABA-benzodiazepine-chloride ion channel.

Anti-Anxiety Agents↗

PubMed2000

Does melatonin modulate beta-endorphin, corticosterone, and pain threshold?

Converging lines of evidence suggest that the pineal hormone, melatonin, may regulate changes in pain threshold by modulating fluctuations in opioid receptor expression and levels of beta-endorphin (beta-END). This study investigated whether the circadian oscillation in plasma melatonin is involved in the modulation of plasma beta-END immunoreactivity (beta-END-ir), and whether fluctuations in pain threshold measured using the hotplate test are contingent upon the fluctuation of these two hormones in Rattus Norvegicus. The role of melatonin was explored using light-induced functional pinealectomy (LFPX) to suppress nocturnal melatonin release. Pinealectomized rats were found to have significantly elevated levels of beta-END-ir compared to control animals at both photophase (398 +/- 89 pg/ml versus 180 +/- 23 pg/ml) and scotophase (373 +/- 45 pg/ml versus 203 +/- 20 pg/ml) test-periods, thus supporting the putative melatonin-opioid axis. Similarly, latency to pain threshold of LFPX rats was significantly longer when compared to control animals at photophase (7.3 +/- 1.4 sec versus 4.8 +/- 0.7 sec) and scotophase (6.3 +/- 0.7 sec versus 5.1 +/- 0.7 sec). Previous studies have produced conflicting data regarding the role of the pineal system in modulating levels of corticosterone (CORT). We observed a moderate, but non-significant, increase in the CORT concentration of LFPX rats during the photophase test period.

Animals↗