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Biomedical subjects

D Oldman

Publications and source records attributed to D Oldman.

3 recordsLinked to original sources

Social effects of wheeze in childhood: a 25 year follow up.

OBJECTIVES: To determine the outcome of childhood wheeze in terms of education, employment, housing, and social class. DESIGN: 25 year follow up study. SETTING: Community study based at the department of thoracic medicine, Aberdeen Royal Infirmary. PARTICIPANTS: Three groups of subjects who had been identified in a random community survey in 1964: those who had had asthma in childhood (n = 97), those who had wheezed only in the presence of upper respiratory tract infections (n = 132), and a comparison group who had had no respiratory symptoms as children (n = 131). Subjects were aged 34 to 40 years at the time of the current study. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Interview and questionnaire data on education, employment, housing and social class, ventilatory function, and peak flow rate. RESULTS: Pulmonary function testing showed that only the "asthmatic" group had airways obstruction; this group showed greater peak flow variation than the "wheezy" group, which did not differ from the comparison group. The asthmatic subjects were more likely to have experienced respiratory problems during their school years and associated with their work. Despite these problems, educational attainment, employment, housing, and eventual social class were similar for all three groups. CONCLUSION: Childhood wheeze did not adversely affect education, employment, housing, or social class in this population.

Asthma

Ondansetron, a 5-HT3 receptor antagonist, partially attenuates the effects of amphetamine: a pilot study in healthy volunteers.

Preclinical studies suggest that 5-HT3 antagonists modulate dopamine-mediated responses in the limbic system and may therefore have a therapeutic role in psychiatry. We have examined the effect of ondansetron, a specific 5-HT3 antagonist, on the psychological and psychomotor changes induced by amphetamine in human volunteers. Nine healthy males took part in this double-blind placebo-controlled balanced-crossover study. Each subject received one of three treatments in a randomised manner: (a) placebo/placebo; (b) placebo/amphetamine (15 mg); (c) ondansetron (4 mg)/amphetamine (15 mg). Subjects were assessed for self-ratings of hunger, mood, energy, alertness, restlessness, irritability, and asked to rate the abnormality of their overall subjective state. In addition, systolic blood pressure, and performance on psychomotor tests were repeatedly assessed. Although amphetamine did not cause any significant changes in self-rating of mood, energy, alterness, restlessness or irritability, it induced a significant increase in self-ratings for overall subjective state, and a significant decrease in self-ratings of hunger. Amphetamine also caused an increase in systolic blood pressure and a decrease in the mean time taken to complete the psychomotor tests. Pretreatment with ondansetron attenuated the effects of amphetamine on hunger and subjective state, but not on blood pressure or psychomotor performance tests. These findings suggest that in humans 5-HT3 receptor antagonists may partially modify the subjective effects of amphetamine, and are in keeping with results from animal studies that 5-HT3 receptor antagonists might affect neurotransmission within mesolimbic brain regions. However, it was not possible to exclude a pharmacokinetic interaction to explain the effects of ondansetron.

Adult