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Biomedical subjects

F N Pitts

Publications and source records attributed to F N Pitts.

At least 37 records · Page 2Linked to original sources
PubMed1981

The urban epidemic of phencyclidine (PCP) use: clinical and laboratory evidence from a public psychiatric hospital emergency service.

Routine blood samples of 145 consecutive patients seen in the Los Angeles County Psychiatric Hospital Emergency Room during a 48-hour weekday period in June 1979 were examined for phencyclidine (PCP) using a sensitive and specific gas capillary gas chromatographic nitrogen detector (GC2-N) method. Of these 145 samples 63 (43.4%) were positive and PCP levels ranged 0.34 to 142.9 nanograms/ml (mean 14.6 ng/ml +/- 3.4 S.E.M.). An analysis of the records of these 63 patients revealed a wide variety of psychotic clinical pictures resembling mania, depression or schizophrenia with relatively few of the supposedly characteristic manifestations of PCP intoxication. Each of the 63 patients had at least one manifestation of toxic psychosis and/or acute delirium, in addition to the florid symptoms characteristic of functional states. PCP measurement, pharmacokinetics and the possible relationships of this intoxication to the psychiatric manifestations are discussed.

Adult↗
PubMed1980

Drug modification of ECT: methohexital and diazepam. II.

A systematic comparison of methohexital and diazepam as anesthetics in the drug modification of ECT was done by holding atropinizaton, succinylcholine-depolarizing neuromuscular blockade, and resuscitation constant while monitoring four ECT in each of 24 patients. Each patient served as his own control, and two dosages of each drug (0.25 and 0.35 mg/kg diazepam, 0.9 and 1.1 mg/kg methohexital) were given each patient in all possible orderings (4! = 24) in a scheduled experimental design in which methohexital was given by very rapid (5 sec) and diazepam was given by the recommended slower (60 sec) infusion. The data revealed significant differences and methohexital was superior. Eight of 48 (17%) EKGs were abnormal post-ECT with methohexital, 18 of 48 (38%, phi = 5.3, p < 0.025) with diazepam. Five of 24 (21%) patients had an abnormal post-ECT EKG with methohexital, 15 of 24 (60%, phi 8.6, p < 0.005) with diazepam. Significantly more ventricular premature contractions (VPCs) occurred after diazepam. Diazepam records contained both more numerous and more extensive EKG abnormalities. Methohexital induction was clinically superior as well; there was little of the induction restlessness seen in seven treatments with diazepam (phi2 7.6, p < 0.01). The differences were less marked than in a previous study in which diazepam was given as rapidly as methohexital. Methohexital has been demonstrated to be the anexthesia of safety and choice for ECT when compared to diazepam.

Diazepam↗
PubMed1980

Incidental intoxication with phencyclidine.

Utilizing a sensitive and specific gas chromatography nitrogen detector (GC2-N) method we have demonstrated phencyclidine (PCP) in the blood of a 65-year-old widowed Mexican-American woman who lived in a second floor apartment directly over an illegal laboratory utilizing open-vat methods of PCP synthesis. This is the first proof of such incidental PCP intoxication, although police officers regularly complain of developing symptoms of intoxication after raiding such clandestine laboratories and handling the confiscated products. The presumed mechanism of incidental intoxication with PCP and the psychiatric manifestations of this patient are described and discussed.

Chromatography, Gas↗
PubMed1979

Suicide among U.S. women physicians, 1967-1972.

The authors examined AMA records of the deaths of 751 women physicians during 1967-1972. Forty-nine (6.56%) committed suicide. The suicide rate for women physicians (40.7 per 100,000 per year) was higher than for men physicians and about four times that for white American women of the same age. From the known morbid risk for suicide among women with primary affective disorder, the authors calculated that about 65% of American women physicians have primary affective disorder.

Adult↗
PubMed1979

Electroconvulsive therapy for iatrogenic hypothalamic-hypopituitarism (CRF-ACTH type).

A 41-year-old man with hypothalamic hypopituitarism (CRF-ACTH type) that persisted for 2 years after discontinuation of exogenous dexamethasone was treated with bilateral ECT for severe chronic depression. The depression improved only evanescently after 17 ECT sessions but the hypothalamic-pituitary suppression cleared completely and permanently, based on responses to four metyrapone stress tests in a 2-year follow-up period. ECT may be an effective treatment for persistent hypothalamic-pituitary suppression, even in the absence of a psychiatric disorder.

Adrenocorticotropic Hormone↗