PubMed Health⌕ Search

Biomedical subjects

R Berchou

Publications and source records attributed to R Berchou.

36 records · Page 2Linked to original sources
PubMed1987

The effect of tricyclic antidepressants on stress-induced heart rate changes in panic disorder patients.

Eight panic disorder patients participated in a double-blind placebo-controlled infusion study designed to induce panic-anxiety in the laboratory both before and after treatment with tricyclic antidepressants. Pre-infusion heart rates for the first infusion were significantly higher than baseline both before and after treatment. The delta increase in pre-infusion heart rates from baseline and the ratios of pre-infusion heart rates to baseline values were not significantly different between before and after treatment conditions indicating similar levels of arousal during the two pre-infusion periods, while the pre-infusion anxiety ratings after treatment were significantly lower.

Adult↗
PubMed1987

A laboratory procedure for the induction of flashbacks.

The authors administered infusions of lactate intravenously to seven patients with a DSM-III diagnosis of posttraumatic stress disorder, six of whom also met DSM-III criteria for panic disorder. The lactate infusions resulted in flashbacks in all seven patients and panic attacks in six patients. The authors conclude that with further development intravenous lactate infusion may be used to study flashbacks and other dissociative phenomena and to determine the relationship between flashbacks and panic anxiety.

Anxiety Disorders↗
PubMed1987

Allergy to tartrazine in antidepressants.

The authors describe five cases of apparent allergy to tartrazine (FD&C yellow dye number 5) in 170 patients exposed to the dye in antidepressants. The frequency of tartrazine sensitivity was much higher than the reported frequency of six in 1,000 persons.

Adult↗
PubMed1987

Thrombocytopenia associated with chlorpromazine, haloperidol and thiothixene: a case report.

Hematological side effects of neuroleptic drugs occur infrequently but remain a potential cause of serious toxicity. A case of recurrent thrombocytopenia due to the repeated exposure to chlorpromazine (twice), haloperidol (four times) and thiothixene (twice) in a 59 year old female treated for schizophrenia is reported. Treatment difficulties and implications of this case are discussed.

Chlorpromazine↗
PubMed1987

A grand mal seizure associated with desipramine and haloperidol.

Authors describe a case of grand mal seizure associated with administration of desipramine and haloperidol. Neuroleptic induced inhibition of desipramine metabolism is discussed as a possible explanation of unusually high desipramine plasma level of 610 ng/ml at the day of seizure.

Adult↗
PubMed1986

The effect of lithium on platelet count.

The effect of lithium on platelet count was studied by examining 12 patients treated with lithium carbonate without any additional medication, 13 patients treated with lithium carbonate with additional psychotropic medication, 25 patients with major affective disorder prior to any treatment, 25 patients with panic disorder prior to any treatment and 25 healthy controls. The platelet counts were increased in the group of subjects treated with lithium carbonate without any additional psychotropic medication. The increase was not clinically significant.

Affective Disorders, Psychotic↗
PubMed1986

The pharmacodynamic properties of lorazepam and methylphenidate drugs on event-related potentials and power spectral analysis in normal subjects.

The effect of lorazepam and methylphenidate on the ERPs and power spectral analysis was studied. Lorazepam caused prolonged latency and decreased amplitude of N200 and P300. This result suggests that lorazepam affects the neural processing of cognitive function. The drowsiness induced by lorazepam correlated inversely with alpha frequency power, but had no direct correlation with fast activity. On the contrary, when methylphenidate was given, there was no change in ERPs. There was an increase in percent alpha frequency correlated with the alertness of the subjects. An analysis of variance involving the factors of drug and time of rating showed that subjects showed a significant (p less than 0.0001) decrease in alertness over time while receiving lorazepam, and a significant (p less than 0.05) increase in alertness over time while receiving methylphenidate.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1984

Adverse effects of single therapeutic doses of diazepam on performance in normal geriatric subjects: relationship to plasma concentrations.

Elderly normal volunteers (N = 12, mean age 70.4 years) were administered placebo or diazepam 2.5, 5, 10 mg in four consecutive sessions separated by at least a 1-week interval. Memory and psychomotor performance and plasma diazepam concentrations were assessed at baseline and at 1 and 3 h following drug administration. Significant impairments were found in response to all doses of diazepam. The maximum impairment occurred at 1 h, which coincided with the highest plasma concentration of the drug.

Aged↗
PubMed1984

Alprazolam and lorazepam effects on memory acquisition and retrieval processes.

A double-blind study involving healthy young adult males examined acute effects of two benzodiazepines (alprazolam 1 mg and lorazepam 2 mg) on long-term memory acquisition and retrieval, using Buschke's "selective reminding" task and a free recall task. Subjects learned lists consisting of high and low imagery nouns. The assessments, done at baseline and hourly for 4 hours after drug ingestion, also included two psychomotor tests and subjective ratings by subjects. Both benzodiazepines produced marked memory impairment. Contrary to the prevailing view that benzodiazepines primarily impair long-term memory acquisition rather than retrieval, results from Buschke's task indicated impairment of retrieval as well. This finding may be related to the procedures and assumptions of Buschke's task. The benzodiazepine-induced impairments increased over the course of successive trials on the same list. Both drugs decreased the normal superiority in recall of high imagery words relative to low imagery words, impaired psychomotor performance, and increased subjective sedation. Alprazolam and lorazepam produced equally intense impairments. Alprazolam tended to produce earlier impairment and earlier recovery.

Adult↗
PubMed1984

The beta-receptor: isoproterenol anxiety states.

To learn the effect of isoproterenol on patients meeting Research Diagnostic Criteria (RDC) for panic disorder, we administered isoproterenol, racemic sodium lactate, and glucose to them and to nonpsychiatric control subjects. Each subject received all 3 infusions, double-blind in random order. A 21-item self-rating panic scale was constructed from the RDC for panic disorder and was used to identify RDC panic attacks. The results of this study and the preliminary results from the infusions after treatment with imipramine are discussed in the text, and the results from the first patient to be reinfused after treatment are presented graphically.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1983

Use of computerized psychomotor testing in determining CNS effects of drugs.

Two interactive, computer-controlled tests--critical flicker fusion and discriminant reaction time tasks--are described. These tasks, and subjective sedation ratings using visual analogue scales, were shown to be sensitive in a dose-related fashion to the effects of CNS depressants (diazepam, 15 mg and lorazepam, 1 and 2 mg). Such brief, interactive, computerized tasks should be useful in screening new agents for CNS activity in humans.

Adult↗
PubMed1982

Effect of pharmacist counseling on drug information recall.

The effect of counseling by pharmacists on patients' long-term recall of drug information was studied. Clinic and hospital neurological patients were counseled by a physician regarding a drug newly prescribed for them. Each patient in the study was then given a 15-item multiple-choice pretest specific for the new medication. Patients in the control group were given a posttest identical to the pretest eight weeks later. Test group patients were counseled by a pharmacist and were given the posttest eight weeks later. Specific information was categorized as to source. The mean scores of the test group patients increased 26.2 percentage points between pretest and posttest. Scores on information covered by the physician and reinforced by the pharmacist increased 19.6 percentage points, and scores on information presented only by the pharmacist with written reinforcement increased 30.6 percentage points. Scores of the control group patients showed no improvement between pretest and posttest. Pharmacist counseling had a significant effect on patients' recall of drug information after eight weeks.

Age Factors↗
PubMed1982

Tricyclic antidepressants and monoamine oxidase inhibitors in the treatment of agoraphobia.

The efficacy of tricyclic antidepressants and monoamine oxidase inhibitors for the treatment of agoraphobia and other panic disorders is reviewed with an emphasis on controlled prospective studies. After methodological biases are taken into account, there is strong evidence that antidepressants suppress panic attacks. This effect is not dependent on the presence of concomitant depressive symptoms. The clinical issues of dosage, delay in response, and relapse with discontinuation of treatment are also reviewed.

Agoraphobia↗
PubMed1979

Lithium-induced hypothyroidism and thyroiditis.

Patients with a preexisting thyroiditis may be particularly susceptible to a rapid onset of lithium-induced hypothyroidism. The evidence for this hypothesis is reviewed and a case report illustrating this phenomena is presented.

Autoantibodies↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Preinfusion anxiety predicts lactate-induced panic attacks in normal controls.

Preinfusion anxiety, heart rate, and blood pressure were measured in 31 normal subjects who received sodium lactate infusions. Eight subjects developed symptoms of panic anxiety during these infusions. Preinfusion anxiety as measured by psychologic symptoms of anxiety on the Panic Description Scale was significantly higher in the panickers while heart rate and blood pressure were not.

Adult↗