PubMed Health⌕ Search

Biomedical subjects

R P Gleason

Publications and source records attributed to R P Gleason.

6 recordsLinked to original sources

Topographic quantitative EEG amplitude in recovered alcoholics.

Topographic measures of electroencephalographic (EEG) amplitude were used to compare recovered alcoholics (n = 14) with sex- and age-matched control subjects. Delta, alpha, and beta activity did not distinguish the groups, but regional differences in theta distribution did. Recovered alcoholics showed more uniform distributions of theta amplitudes in bilateral anterior and posterior regions compared with controls. Because a minimum of 5 years had elapsed since the recovered alcoholic subjects fulfilled DSM-III-R criteria for alcohol abuse or dependence, it is unlikely these EEG theta differences reflect the effects of withdrawal.

Adult↗

Do blood pressure and age predict response to tacrine (THA) in Alzheimer's disease? A preliminary report.

Recent studies in major depression suggest that a pretreatment systolic orthostatic blood pressure (PSOP) fall of greater than or equal to 10 mm Hg in response to changing from a supine to a standing position may predict response to antidepressant treatment in older depressed patients. Because orthostatic blood pressure response is regulated, in part, by central cholinergic and noradrenergic systems, and both are implicated in Alzheimer's disease, PSOP was assessed as a predictor of initial response in Alzheimer's disease outpatients in a treatment protocol with tacrine, a cholinesterase inhibitor. We found that the magnitude of PSOP fall and increasing age each contributed to the prediction of response to tacrine. These results may suggest a relatively greater involvement of other neurotransmitter systems in younger, nonresponding Alzheimer's disease patients, and the results differ from those of a previous study.

Adult↗

Carbamazepine treatment of agitation in Alzheimer's outpatients refractory to neuroleptics.

Nine outpatients who met well-defined criteria for probable Alzheimer's disease (AD) and who had significant behavioral agitation failed to improve with neuroleptic therapy and were subsequently treated with carbamazepine. Five patients showed a clear improvement, and one patient an equivocal response according to clinical evaluation and Brief Psychiatric Rating Scale scores; those results suggests that carbamazepine may be useful to treat agitated AD patients who have not previously responded to neuroleptics and patients with other organic mental syndromes.

Aged↗

Progressive supranuclear palsy with agitation: response to trazodone but not to thiothixine or carbamazepine.

A 66-year-old man with progressive supranuclear palsy is described. Although generally apathetic, withdrawn, and spontaneous in speech and behavior, he had sudden episodes of agitation, during which he was verbally threatening and physically abusive. Treatment with thiothixine and then with carbamazepine was ineffective in controlling his violent behavior. He responded temporarily to trazodone, and a recurrence of aggressive behavior was suppressed by increasing the dose of trazodone; this response may be related to trazodone's putative effect on the serotonin system. Although both carbamazepine and trazodone have been advocated for the control of aggression in organically impaired patients, they were not equally effective in this case.

Aged↗

A pilot study of low-dose L-deprenyl in Alzheimer's disease.

The use of low-dose L-deprenyl, a selective MAO-B inhibitor, in Alzheimer's disease patients has been associated previously with improvements in agitation and episodic learning and memory. Behavioral, cognitive, and regional electroencephalogram (EEG) measures were obtained in a 4-week open pilot study of 14 patients with probable Alzheimer's disease by NINCDS criteria who were administered 10 mg L-deprenyl per day. L-Deprenyl administration was associated with significant improvements on the agitation and depression factors of the Brief Psychiatric Rating Scale, the Cornell Scale for Depression in Dementia, and spouses' blind ratings. Recall improved on the Buschke Selective Reminding Task, but intrusions also tended to increase; verbal fluency decreased. Absolute EEG delta measures were selectively suppressed in the right frontal region. The pattern of changes suggests that L-deprenyl may be associated with improvement in behavioral and cognitive performance, in part through a mild behavioral disinhibiting effect.

Activities of Daily Living↗