Advances in alcoholism research in Germany.
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Alcohol Withdrawal Delirium↗
Biomedical subjects
U Havemann-Reinecke
Publications and source records attributed to U Havemann-Reinecke.
Hyperhomocysteinemia as a new risk factor for brain shrinkage in patients with alcoholism.
Chronic alcohol consumption can induce brain atrophy, whereby the exact mechanism of brain damage in alcoholics remains unknown. There is evidence that chronic alcoholism is associated with hyperhomocysteinemia. Homocysteine is an excitatory amino acid which markedly enhances the vulnerability of neuronal cells to excitotoxic and oxidative injury in vitro and in vivo. The present volumetric magnetic resonance imaging study included 52 chronic alcoholics and 30 non-drinking healthy controls. Patients were active drinkers and had an established diagnosis of alcohol dependence. We investigated the influence of different variables on the hippocampal volume of patients suffering from chronic alcoholism. We observed that pathological raised levels of plasma homocysteine showed the most significant correlation to hippocampal volume reduction (P<0.001, multiple regression analysis). Raised plasma levels of homocysteine are associated with hippocampal (brain) atrophy in alcoholism.
Adult↗
[Dopamine and addictive diseases].
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Alcoholism↗
Injection of apomorphine--a test to predict individual different dopaminergic sensitivity?
Male rats, treated with apomorphine (APO: 2mg/kg s.c.) in an Animex-Motility-Meter, showed individually different motility patterns, each expressed by oral stereotyped behaviour and enhanced locomotor activation reproducible in a second test 4 days later. One group of the rats showed stereotyped sniffing with an increased locomotor activation, S(L,G)-rats, being predominantly "mesolimbic active" rats. The other groups could be classified as mainly licking or gnawing rats, L(S,G)-rats or G(L,S)-rats, with less increase of locomotor activation, resembling predominantly "nigrostriatal active" rats. The G(L,S)-rats seemed to be mostly "nigrostriatal active". In this study the different types of rats were treated with neuroleptic drugs in presence of APO. Haloperidol (HAL; 0.2 and 0.4 mg/kg i.p.) had a clear dose dependent antagonizing effect on APO-induced stereotypies and locomotor activity: a pronounced effect on the L(S,G)- and G(L,S)-rats and less on S(L,G)-rats. In contrast, clozapine (CLO; 10 and 15 mg/kg i.p.) did not antagonize the stereotyped behaviour in the rats tested but showed a characteristic shift in the S(L,G)- and G(L,S)-rats: the predominant stereotypy of these rats, quantified by scoring, changed to licking. In the L(S,G)-rats the predominant licking stereotypy was not changed and the locomotor activity, which was completely antagonized in the S(L,G)- and G(L,S)-rats at both CLO-doses, was affected by 15 mg/kg, only. Furthermore, after the combined treatment with APO and HAL or APO and CLO these rat-types also differed in their amount of ACTH and corticosterone release. DA-1/DA2 and/or DA-1/DA3 receptor mechanisms may be involved in these individually different motility patterns and endocrine reactions. In summary, pretesting of rats with APO and measuring the motility and endocrine parameters may give us information on a preexisting different sensitivity of individuals to react to DAergic stimulation.
Adrenocorticotropic Hormone↗
Morphine-induced hyperactivity in rats--a rebound effect?
The behavioural nature of the delayed hyperactivity induced by systemic administration of morphine was studied in rats. Different components of motility induced by morphine with or without naloxone or haloperidol at different times were analyzed by observation and quantified by an Opto-Varimex-3 Activity Meter. By this automatic recording system motility was discriminated into horizontal and two different vertical components and the total distance run by each of the rats was quantified by a computer program. Simultaneously the running pattern was recorded by a XY-plotter. By means of these recordings, three subsequent phases of behaviour could be recorded after morphine (15 mg/kg i.p.): 1. a depressed phase (akinesia) lasting 1.5-2 h, followed, 2. by an intermediate phase for 1-1.5 h, still dominated by akinesia but interrupted by sudden bursts of hyperactivity. Finally, 3. a hyperactivity phase lasted for 1.5-2 h, characterized by an equal enhancement of locomotor activity and stereotypy. After 30 mg/kg of morphine the hyperactivity was predominantly characterized by locomotor activity and stereotypy and rearing were less prominent than after the smaller dose. Naloxone (2 mg/kg i.p.) given at the beginning of the hyperactivity phase significantly antagonized rearing but not other motility parameters. However, coadministration of naloxone (2 mg/kg i.p.) simultaneously with morphine (15 mg/kg) clearly antagonized akinesia and completely prevented the development of the delayed hyperactivity. Haloperidol (0.2 mg/kg i.p.) at the beginning of the hyperactivity phase clearly antagonized all of the motility parameters seen during this phase.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)
Animals↗
Comorbid anxiety and affective disorder in alcohol-dependent patients seeking treatment: the first Multicentre Study in Germany.
The goals of this study were to describe demographic variables, drinking history, and the 6-month prevalence of Axis I comorbidity among alcohol-dependent subjects in GERMANY: The variables: amount of alcohol consumption, age at onset of the first alcohol consumed, age at onset of daily alcohol consumption, age at onset of withdrawal symptoms and number of detoxifications were related to the different comorbid disorders and gender. In this study, 556 patients from 25 alcohol treatment centres were enrolled between 1 January 1999 and 30 April 1999. After a minimum of 10 days of sobriety patients who fulfilled ICD-10 and DSM-IV criteria of alcohol dependence were interviewed for data collection using the Mini-DIPS (German version of the Anxiety Disorders Interview Schedule) and a standardized psychosocial interview. The 6-month prevalence of comorbid Axis I disorders was 53.1%. Among the patients with comorbidity, affective and anxiety disorders were most frequent. Comorbid stress disorder was associated with an early start of drinking, an early beginning of withdrawal symptoms, highest number of detoxifications, and the highest amount of alcohol consumed. Female patients with anxiety disorder consumed more alcohol and started earlier than females without this comorbid disorder. The data do not answer the question of the pathogenesis of comorbid disorders and alcoholism, but indicate that stress disorders in alcoholic patients and anxiety disorders in female alcoholics influence the course and severity of alcoholism.
Adult↗
Lack of association between hippocampal volume reduction and first-onset alcohol withdrawal seizure. A volumetric MRI study.
AIMS AND METHODS: Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) of the hippocampus has been extensively studied in both neurological and psychiatric disorders. Furthermore, hippocampal volume reductions on MRI have been reported in patients with chronic alcoholism. The present volumetric MRI study was undertaken to determine whether an association exists between hippocampal volume reduction and first-onset alcohol withdrawal seizure. Until recently, no data as to whether hippocampal volume reductions in alcoholics might serve as a predictor of withdrawal seizures were available. RESULTS: We found the average hippocampal volumes measured by high resolution MRI to be significantly reduced in 52 alcoholics compared with 30 healthy controls. Besides a decrease of hippocampal volume in patients with chronic alcoholism, we could not find any significant correlation between the occurrence of seizures during alcohol withdrawal and the amount of hippocampal volume reduction in these patients. CONCLUSIONS: Thus, the alcoholism-related atrophy within the hippocampal formation in patients suffering from chronic alcoholism does not seem to be the source of convulsive activity in these patients. Neither does the amount of atrophy allow the occurrence of first-onset withdrawal seizures to be predicted.
Adult↗