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Biomedical subjects

V Ranganath

Publications and source records attributed to V Ranganath.

3 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed1993

Rapid cycling patients: conceptual and etiological factors.

The concept of rapid cycling is confusing in terms of its definition, clinical features, course of illness and the outcome. To complicate the matter further, rapid cycling has been reported to be drug resistant. Currently this condition has been reported to be secondary to lithium, tricyclic antidepressants and other agents such as cyproheptadine, a serotonin antagonist, piribedil, propranolol and levodopa. The increase in rapid cycling has coincided with the rapid increase in cocaine use in the society even though such an association cannot prove a causal relationship. Clinical or subclinical hypothyroidism as well as hyperthyroidism have been implicated in rapid cycling. In addition to the lack of specific knowledge on the etiology, a number of heterogeneous disorders has been grouped under this entity. It is useful to attempt a classification to ascertain whether clinically distinguishable subgroups have a common or different pathophysiology and to tailor the treatment that is most desirable for each subgroup.

Bipolar Disorder↗
PubMed1991

Psychopharmacologic considerations in the treatment of black American populations.

Although striking ethnic differences in pharmacologic responses to various medications have been documented in the general medical literature, there is a paucity of such information in the psychopharmacologic literature. Recent work has provided a number of studies that illustrate interesting inter-ethnic pharmacogenetic, pharmacokinetic, and pharmacodynamic differences. In general, however, such studies have reported inconsistent findings relative to dose response relationships with various psychotropics. Results of our literature review, with a particular focus on black Americans, suggest that the lack of consistency in these investigations is largely attributable to various methodological and design problems. Prominent among these problems are: diagnostic misclassification, treatment of various ethnic groups in a homogeneous undifferentiated manner, lack of appropriate control for age and gender, and minimal consideration for chronicity of illness. As a result, though there exist some interesting data suggesting inter-ethnic genetic and kinetic differences, the extant literature on black Americans and other ethnic groups should be evaluated with some caution. The purpose of this article is to provide a systematic review of the existing psychopharmacologic literature on the black American population.

Black or African American↗