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Biomedical subjects

D Kemali

Publications and source records attributed to D Kemali.

At least 37 records · Page 2Linked to original sources
PubMed1989

Lithium decreases retinal melatonin levels in the frog.

The effect of the acute i.p. administration of lithium chloride (1 mg/kg) and of haloperidol (1 mg/kg) on retinal melatonin levels was studied in light-adapted and dark-adapted frogs of the species Rana esculenta. Two hours following drug administration, animals were killed by decapitation and a single retina from each frog was collected and homogenized in 1 ml of chilled 0.1 N HCl. After centrifugation, the pH of the supernatant was adjusted to 7.0. Melatonin was extracted by diethylether and assayed by double antibody radioimmunoassay (RIA). Lithium induced a significant decrease of retinal melatonin levels both in light-adapted (P less than 0.006) and in dark-adapted (P less than 0.01) animals, whereas no change was observed after haloperidol treatment. These results suggest that the scleral aggregation of pigment granules induced by lithium in the frog retina is not mediated by a stimulation of melatonin synthesis.

Animals↗
PubMed1989

Long-term outcome of lithium prophylaxis in patients initially classified as complete responders.

The long-term outcome of lithium prophylaxis was explored in 43 bipolar and 36 unipolar patients who had been classified as complete responders after the first 2 years of treatment. These patients were followed up prospectively for a further period of 5 years (treatment period II), during which their psychopathological state was assessed monthly or bimonthly. Forty-nine patients completed treatment period II, 2 died during this period, 7 did not attend the unit any more and could not be traced, and 21 definitively interrupted lithium treatment before the end of the period. In 18 cases the decision to stop lithium was taken by the patient. Twenty-five patients relapsed during the treatment period II. Four relapsers had three or more episodes concentrated during the last 2 years of treatment. These results suggest that the predictive value of an initial favourable response to lithium should not be overrated, and that the impact of the drug on the long-term course of major affective disorders in ordinary clinical conditions might be less dramatic than currently believed.

Adult↗
PubMed1989

A multicenter Italian study of amineptine (Survector 100).

This study reports the antidepressant efficacy and the safety of amineptine (Survector 100) in a national multicenter open clinical trial (32 hospital centers). Three hundred twenty-four patients with depressive disorders, selected according to DSM-III Diagnostic Criteria and INSERM classification, were treated with amineptine (200 mg/day) for 40 days (mean). Amineptine proved to be significantly effective with a rapid onset of action (beginning on the 7th day) on depressive symptoms, as shown by the decrease in the Hamilton Depression Rating Scale total score. The assessment of the results in the different diagnostic subgroups confirmed the wide-spectrum antidepressant activity of amineptine. Particularly in reactive and neurotic depression (nonpsychotic depression according to INSERM) and dysthymic disorders according to DSM-III, amineptine induced an improvement in 90% of patients. Nevertheless, amineptine was also effective in psychotic depression (INSERM) and in major depressive episodes (DSM-III), in which improvement occurred in 76% of patients. The low frequency of side effects and the remarkable acceptability (clinical, biological, and cardiovascular) of amineptine were also confirmed.

Adult↗
PubMed1989

Prevalence of psychiatric disorders among subjects exposed to a natural disaster.

A general practice study was carried out in 3 areas of the province of Naples, in southern Italy: Pozzuoli (PZ), a town exposed to significant seismic events in 1983, Monte Ruscello (MR), a village built to accommodate the victims of the earthquake, and Monte di Procida (MP), a town selected as a control since it is situated near PZ and was not significantly affected by the earthquake. The sociodemographic characteristics of the subjects examined were comparable in the 3 areas. The estimate of the real prevalence of psychiatric disorders according to Diamond & Lilienfeld was found to be higher in PZ and MR than in MP. Neurotic depression was the most frequent psychiatric diagnosis. The relative risk of mental disorders in subjects who reported none one or more social problems compared with those who reported none was more than 4 times greater in PZ and MR than in MP. Social problems also differed qualitatively, being more frequently related to living conditions in PZ and MR and to the primary social network in MP.

Adjustment Disorders↗
PubMed1989

Implementing psychiatric reform in southern Italy: the case of Campania.

The implementation of the 1978 psychiatric reform in Campania, the most populated region of Southern Italy, is surveyed, by referring to currently available empirical data. Emphasis is laid on the incomplete development of psychiatric wards within general hospitals and of mental health services, on the lack of residential structures, on the failure to implement comprehensive departments for mental health care, on the increase in the number of admissions to private clinics and on the fact that more than three thousand patients are still in mental hospitals. Moreover, some characteristics of the new services clearly betraying the spirit of the law are pointed out.

Commitment of Persons with Psychiatric Disorders↗
PubMed1988

Lateralization patterns of verbal stimuli processing assessed by reaction time and event-related potentials in schizophrenic patients.

Event-related potentials (ERPs), reaction time (RT), number of errors and number of omissions were recorded by using a visual target detection paradigm in which consonant pairs were presented in a central and in a lateral condition. Fourteen DSM III drug-free schizophrenics and 19 healthy subjects took part in the study. All of them were male and right-handed. Independent principal component analysis and varimax rotation were performed for each condition. Separate ANOVAs were performed on factor scores computed for each rotated principal component. In the central condition, schizophrenic patients showed a reduction of the late positive complex (LPC) peak with respect to normal controls, and this reduction was associated with a predominant negative symptomatology. No pattern of lateral asymmetry was found in either group for behavioural and ERP measures. For the lateral condition, a significant advantage of the right visual field (RVF) presentation (shorter RT and larger LPC peak for RVF stimuli) was observed in normal subjects, while no visual field effect on these two measures was detected in schizophrenics. Significant differences were found between the two groups on both behavioural and ERP measures for the RVF only. Furthermore, two ERP components showed a marked advantage of the left visual field in the patient group, associated with a predominance of positive symptoms in the clinical picture.

Adult↗
PubMed1988

Platelet 3H-imipramine binding and response to minaprine in patients with major depression.

Platelet 3H-imipramine binding was studied in 37 patients fulfilling Research Diagnostic Criteria for major depressive disorder, examined before and after four weeks of treatment with minaprine 200 mg/day, and in 19 healthy controls. Mean baseline Bmax values of depressed patients were found to be significantly lower than those of controls, while no significant difference between the two groups was observed with respect to mean Kd. Treatment with minaprine did not significantly affect Bmax or Kd in depressed patients. When patients who responded to treatment (n = 18) were compared with nonresponders (n = 19), mean baseline Bmax values were found to be significantly lower in the former group, whereas mean Kd values did not differ. It is hypothesized that reduced 3H-imipramine binding may represent a predictor of a favorable response to antidepressant drugs which potentiate serotonergic transmission.

Adult↗
PubMed1987

Prediction of outcome by historical, clinical and biological variables in schizoaffective disorder, depressed type.

The usefulness of several historical, clinical and biological variables as possible predictors of outcome was tested in a sample of patients with a cross-sectional diagnosis of schizoaffective disorder, depressed type. Four historical items were found to be successful: a family history of chronic schizophrenia, the occurrence of schizophrenic symptoms at some stage of the illness in the absence of depression and an onset of the index episode as exacerbation of previous symptoms (all associated with a relatively poor outcome), and a personal history of previous manic episodes (associated with a relatively good outcome). The various aspects of the clinical picture during the index episode, as well as the response on dexamethasone suppression test, were not found to have any predictive value. These findings confirm that, in patients with a cross-sectional diagnosis of schizodepressive disorder, the previous course of the illness is of crucial importance for prognosis, and support the usefulness of a multiaxial classification of schizoaffective states, taking into account not only cross-sectional symptomatology but also course.

Adult↗
PubMed1987

Clinical, biological, and neuropsychological features associated with lateral ventricular enlargement in DSM-III schizophrenic disorder.

Clinical, historical, neuropsychological, and biological correlates of lateral ventricular enlargement on computed tomography (CT scan) were explored in a sample of DSM-III schizophrenics. Patients with enlarged ventricles, as compared with those whose ventricles were normal, presented a longer duration of illness and mean duration of hospitalization, and higher scores on the subscales alogia, affective flattening, and attentional impairment of the Scale for the Assessment of Negative Symptoms (SANS), on the scales self-care, participation in household activities, work performance, and behavior in crises and emergencies of the Disability Assessment Schedule, on the scales rhythm, writing, reading, arithmetic, and left hemisphere of the Luria-Nebraska Neuropsychological Battery, and on the subtests digit span, digit symbol and block design of the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale. Furthermore, on the computerized electroencephalogram, beta relative activity was significantly higher in patients with normal ventricles on the right frontal, left frontal, and right central leads. On stepwise discriminant function analysis, the patient groups with enlarged and normal ventricles could be separated statistically, and duration of illness and summary score on the SANS were found to be the best discriminators.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1987

Factors associated with decreased platelet MAO activity in chronic schizophrenics.

Platelet MAO activity was determined in a sample of chronic schizophrenics, including drug-free and neuroleptic-treated patients, and in a normal control group. Patients with MAO values below and above the median were compared with respect to several clinical, historical, neuroradiological and neuropsychological variables. The enzyme activity was significantly decreased in the whole patient group and in the subgroup of neuroleptic-treated patients, but not in the subgroup of drug-free patients. The only significant difference between low MAO and high MAO patients concerned drug status (higher percentage of patients on neuroleptics in the former subgroup). On stepwise discriminant function analysis, drug status (on neuroleptics vs. off neuroleptics) correctly classified 63.4% of patients.

Adult↗
PubMed1987

Frog retinal pigment screening and lithium.

The effect of the intraperitoneal injection of lithium on the pattern of the pigment screening (PS) of the frog retina has been studied in various illumination conditions. Lithium enhances the PS pattern induced by dark and it substantially modifies the PS pattern induced by the other light conditions. The dark-induced PS pattern is very stable and might be regulated by a single factor. The PS of light-adapted frogs is easily modified by drug administration and probably depends on a variety of factors which may be affected differently by the various injected substances. The possibility that lithium, melatonin and darkness might act in the same way or on the same system which regulates the PS in dark-adaptation must not be disregarded.

Animals↗
PubMed1987

Lithium and melatonin: morphological modifications induced in frog retina pigment screening.

Pigment screening (PS) is a phenomenon occurring in the retina of lower vertebrates, which consists in the dispersion, induced by the light, of melatonin granules into processes of the pigment epithelium which extend between photoreceptors, and in the aggregation, induced by the dark, of the same granules within the cell bodies of the pigment epithelium. It has been hypothesized that this phenomenon might be modulated by melatonin, which is present not only in the pineal but also in the retina, and whose retinal content is high in the dark and low in the light. In the present study we demonstrate that a single intraperitoneal injection of lithium chloride affects in a peculiar way PS of light-adapted frogs and of frogs subjected to natural day/night conditions, but not that of dark-adapted frogs. The implications of this findings are briefly discussed, also in view of the reported effect of lithium on the 24-hour rhythm of retinal melatonin, and of the possible relationship between this effect and the altering properties of lithium on other biological rhythms.

Adaptation, Ocular↗
PubMed1987

Conditional associative learning in drug-free schizophrenic patients.

The performance on spatial and nonspatial associative learning tasks was tested in a sample of male drug-free DSM III-diagnosed schizophrenic patients and in a closely matched normal control group. Schizophrenics showed a worse performance on both versions of the task, but especially on the nonspatial one. A significant correlation was observed between some indices of the nonspatial task and the scores on two subscales (affective flattening and anhedonia) of the scale for the assessment of negative symptoms by Andreasen. These results are consistent with the hypothesis of a dysfunction of dorsolateral prefrontal cortex in schizophrenia and with the postulated linkage between such dysfunction and negative schizophrenic symptomatology.

Adult↗
PubMed1987

Perceived parental rearing behaviour and psychopathology in epileptic patients: a controlled study.

Memories of parental rearing behaviour were assessed by the EMBU in 61 epileptics and 151 healthy controls. The occurrence of the first crisis during the childhood was an inclusion criterion for patients. Epileptics, as compared with controls, rated their fathers and mothers as less stimulating, their fathers as less performance oriented and affectionate, and their mothers as more tolerant. Moreover, the score on the subscale 'favouring subject' for both fathers and mothers was higher in epileptics. As patients with and without interictal psychopathological features were compared, the scores on the subscales 'overprotective' and 'favouring subject' for mothers and 'abusive' and 'depriving' for fathers were higher in the former subgroup, whereas that on the subscale 'performance oriented' for fathers was higher in the latter. No significant difference was observed among patients suffering from the various subtypes of epilepsy. These results are consistent with the idea that parents of epileptics tend to encourage passivity in their children, have low expectations as regards their ability to operate effectively, and treat them in a more indulgent way because of their disability. Furthermore, they are in line with the reported association between maternal overprotectiveness and problem behaviour in epileptics.

Adaptation, Psychological↗