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Biomedical subjects

H Agren

Publications and source records attributed to H Agren.

102 records · Page 6Linked to original sources
PubMed1983

Depression and somatosensory evoked potentials: I. Correlations between SEP and monoamine and purine metabolites in CSF.

In 32 patients with major depressive disorders diagnosed according to Research Diagnostic Criteria (RDC), somatosensory evoked potentials elicited at four levels of tactile fingertip stimulation were recorded. Four peak-to-baseline amplitudes (P100, N140, P200, and P300) and two peak-to-trough amplitudes (P100-N140 and N140-P200) plus their amplitude/stimulus intensity slopes were selected for analysis. All 12 measures were adjusted to same sex, age, height, and weight. Values were linearly and curvilinearly correlated with adjusted levels of homovanillic acid (HVA), 5-hydroxyindoleacetic acid (5HIAA), 3-methoxy-4-hydroxyphenylglycol (MPHG), hypoxanthine, and xanthine in the cerebrospinal fluid (CSF), monoamine and purine metabolites, respectively. Significant negative linear correlations were found between the P300 amplitude and both HVA and hypoxanthine, and between the P200 slope and both 5HIAA and hypoxanthine. A significant positive correlation existed between the N140-P200 slope and 5HIAA. Curvilinear bivariate regressions demonstrated complex topologies of regression surfaces. Neither attention nor benzodiazepine medication were of significant importance in these relationships.

Adult↗
PubMed1983

Life at risk: markers of suicidality in depression.

One hundred and ten patients with Research Diagnostic Criteria (RDC) diagnoses of major depressive disorders were assessed for present or recent suicidal ideation and behavior and for suicidal acts earlier in life before current depression using the Schedule for Affective Disorders and Schizophrenia (SADS). Suicidal scores were correlated uni- and bivariately with levels of CSF monoamine metabolites (HVA, 5HIAA, MHPG), urinary MHPG, the proportion post-/predexamethasone plasma cortisol at 1100 h, and platelet MAO activity (all standardized to same sex, age, height and weight). Results indicate that all 3 monoamine metabolites and their interactions are involved in various aspects of suicidality, at least in unipolar patients. MHPG and 5HIAA (both low or both high) were involved in current or recent suicidal ideation, and low HVA was mainly associated with past potential lethality of suicidal acts. Current hypercortisolism was found in patients that earlier in life had tried to commit dangerous suicides. Bipolar patients (depressives with a history of manic or hypomanic episodes) had earlier in life significantly more, and more dangerous, suicidal attempts than the unipolars.

Adult↗
PubMed1982

Depressive symptom patterns and urinary MHPG excretion.

Twenty-four hour urinary excretion of 3-methoxy-4-hydroxyphenyl-glycol (MHPG) was analyzed in 48 unipolar and 19 bipolar depressed patients and 16 healthy controls. All patients were interviewed using the Schedule for Affective Disorders and Schizophrenia. Various symptoms and descriptive variables were correlated univariately with urinary MHPG in two random groups, and those items showing a trend in both splits were further reduced by a multiple regression technique, first on each split separately and finally on the pooled sample. Urinary MHPG correlated significantly both in uni- and multivariate tests with age (positively, but only in females), altered motor activity (summed scores of agitation and retardation during the worst week of present or recent depression), and with existence of at least one suicide attempt before the present depressive episode (last items negatively). There were no differences between unipolar and bipolar patients, or between any patient group and the healthy controls. Males excreted about 25% more MHPG than females. Levels of MHPG in urine and cerebrospinal fluid were highly significantly intercorrelated.

Adult↗
PubMed1982

Early morning awakening in unipolar depressives with higher levels of platelet MAO activity.

Platelet monoamine oxidase (MAO) activity was analyzed in 51 patients with Major Depressive Disorder. The enzyme activity was correlated univariately and multivariately using split-half techniques with affective subdiagnosis, sex, body measures, and a great many depressive symptoms. The results indicate that unipolarly depressed patients with higher levels of platelet MAO activity woke up earlier in the morning than they had before becoming depressed. Waking up early appeared to be one least common denominator behind higher MAO activities and a unipolar subdiagnosis. Earlier reports on univariately significant differences in MAO activity between affective subdiagnoses or between the sexes were not replicated. Positive trend correlations were found between homovanillic acid and 5-hydroxyindoleacetic acid in cerebrospinal fluid and platelet MAO activity. Urinary free cortisol correlated significantly with platelet MAO activity, but only in unipolars.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1980

Symptom patterns in unipolar and bipolar depression correlating with monoamine metabolites in the cerebrospinal fluid: I. General patterns.

The symptom scores on the Schedule for Affective Disorders and Schizophrenia (SADS) of 21 unipolar and 12 bipolar depressive patients diagnosed with Research Diagnostic Criteria (RDC) were correlated with the monoamine metabolites homovanillic acid (HVA), 3-methoxy-4-hydroxyphenylglycol (MHPG), and 5-hydroxyindoleacetic acid (5HIAA) in the cerebrospinal fluid (CSF). For the unipolar group, multiple regression analyses revealed strong multiple correlations (from r = 0.92 to 0.97) to the effect that high- and low-HVA, high- and low-MHPG, and high- and low-5HIAA syndromes, respectively, could be isolated. The bipolars were too few for the same analyses to work well, but there is evidence for the high- and low-monoamine syndromes to be characterized by differential symptomatology in bipolar and unipolar patients. Through the comparison of monoamine metabolite values predicted from a total of 18 SADS symptom items with the true CSF values, a computer program was able to classify 20 of the 21 unipolar and all the 12 bipolars correctly. The results are consistent with a hypothesis of the pathoplastic role of individually set (genetically determined?) brain monoamine homeostases in shaping the profile of an affective episode.

Adult↗
PubMed1980

Symptom patterns in unipolar and bipolar depression correlating with monoamine metabolites in the cerebrospinal fluid: II. Suicide.

Suicidality scores from the Schedule for Affective Disorders and Schizophrenia on 21 unipolar and 12 bipolar depressives were correlated with monoamine metabolites in the cerebrospinal fluid using multiple regression analyses. The single item of Suicidal Tendencies Worst Week correlated highly significantly and negatively with 3-methoxy-4-hydroxyphenylglycol (MHPG) and only to a very slight degree with 5-hydroxyindoleacetic acid (5HIAA). Seriousness of Intent of Worst Suicide Attempt earlier in life correlated significantly and negatively with both MHPG and 5HIAA. Subjective Anger was positively and Overt Anger negatively associated with thoughts of suicide. The results support earlier reports that depressives with low 5HIAA are prone to violent suicides, but also point to the equal, if not even greater involvement of MHPG and noradrenergic neuronal systems in carrying out a wish for death.

Adult↗
PubMed1977

Naloxone (Narcan) treatment in depression: clinical observations and effects on CSF endorphins and monoamine metabolites.

Various dysphoric states are seen both in mood depression and on taking opiates. On the hypothesis that opiate antagonists would alter mood level, naloxone (Narcan), 0.4--0.8 mg t.i.d., was given to five depressed patients in six trials for a duration of 6--12 days. The CSF endorphin and monoamine metabolite content was analyzed before and after naloxone treatment. We observed no positive effect on mood level. However, an abrupt worsening of symptoms was noted in two cases on discontinuation of treatment. Decreasing values of endorphin Fraction I as a result of treatment was noted as a general trend. Fraction II, although elevated, showed no distinct trend. 5HIAA increased in four of the six trials. The results suggest that naloxone treatment changes endorphin and serotonin activity, though not to a clinically observable extent.

Adult↗
PubMed1975

A new approach to Chinese traditional medicine.

Traditional medicine in China has as yet been unsatisfactorily analyzed from the point of view of the history of ideas. It has come to be viewed as a monolithic system of therapy, and overlooked has been the fact that as time passed various originally different traditions and concepts were made to fit into all-embracing systems, intimately connected with a general way of thought. Theoretical superstructure in medicine has to be delineated from simple empirical observations. Only the latter can be a meaningful object for medical interest today--the theories are better studied within other disciplines.

Acupuncture Therapy↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Oral d-fenfluramine test in treatment-refractory depression. Plasma prolactin response compared in patients with and without suicide attempts and in a healthy reference group.

BACKGROUND: Fenfluramine (d-FEN) has been used as a serotonin challenge agent to assess central serotonin availability. Blunted serum prolactin (PRL) response to d-FEN has been reported in depressed patients, in suicide-prone patients, and in patients with aggression and personality disorders. We have analyzed suicidality in relation to central serotonergic events by comparing the PRL response to d-FEN in chronically depressed patients with and without suicide attempts and in healthy volunteers. METHODS: In 56 inpatients (10 patients with and 46 without suicide attempts) with at least 2 years of treatment-refractory depression (TRD) (DSM-IV) and a reference group of 30 healthy adults, the PRL response after an oral dose of 30 mg d-FEN was followed for 5 h. RESULTS: Controlling for group differences in age, sex, and weight, the PRL response to d-FEN did not differ significantly between the three groups. Far from confirming the hypothesis of a blunted PRL response in depressed patients, our results suggest: (1) that duration and treatment resistance of depression may affect the PRL secretion, and (2) that TRD and major depression may differ in biological relationship to suicidal behavior. LIMITATIONS: The findings require corroboration in larger and more closely matched study populations. The fenfluramine concentration was not analyzed in blood. CONCLUSIONS: PRL responses to d-FEN challenge did not differ between TRD patients with and without suicidality and the healthy reference group. Chronicity/treatment refractoriness per se may be related to a serotonergic mechanism.

Administration, Oral↗