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Biomedical subjects

J Fritze

Publications and source records attributed to J Fritze.

At least 91 records · Page 5Linked to original sources
PubMed1992

Post partum blues: depressive disease or pseudoneurasthenic syndrome.

Depressive mood disorders following childbirth can be quantified with self-rating and observer-rating scales. During two months, in the period from November 1989 to March 1990, women admitted to the obstetric unit of the University of Würzburg were examined on days 3 and 5 post-partum with the Hamilton Psychiatric Rating Scale for Depression, the Montgomery-Asberg-Depression-Rating-Scale and the Befindlichkeits-Scale by von Zerssen. Results reveal that during the early puerperium, scores on these scales rarely reach the same severity as in major depressive disorder. The clinical picture is no different from emotional-hyperaesthetic hyposthenia following other kinds of physical illness such as endocrine disorders.

Adult↗
PubMed1992

[The Leonhard classification of endogenous psychoses--initial biological findings and differential therapeutic considerations].

Current systems of classification of endogenous psychoses, the APA's Diagnostic and Statistical Manual and the International Classification of Diseases in particular, aim at a synthesis of Kraepelin's prognosis-orientated diagnostic scheme with the symptomatological approach as established by Eugen Bleuler and Kurt Schneider. The restriction to few diagnostic entities has remained unchanged to the present day and appeared at first to be confirmed and validated by modern pharmaco-psychiatry. Kraepelin's dichotomy has failed to make a major contribution to the etiologic clarification of endogenous psychoses. New diagnostic concepts beyond those currently applied in clinical psychiatry and biological psychiatric research must therefore be considered and should lead towards a more differentiated approach to psycho-pathological phenomena. Karl Leonhard's classification of endogenous psychoses which rests upon the pioneer work of Carl Wernicke and Karl Kleist is part of a tradition in psychopathology emphasizing the interface of biology and psychopathology. It might provide a basis for future empirical research in biological psychiatry and pharmacopsychiatry.

Humans↗
PubMed1992

The influence of neuroleptics on specific syndromes and symptoms in schizophrenics with unfavourable long-term course. A 5-year follow-up study of 50 chronic schizophrenics.

Fifty chronic schizophrenics with severe residual psychopathology were followed up over a 5-year period. All of them had continuously received neuroleptics for many years before and throughout the period of investigation. In 60% (n = 30) of the patients positive symptoms which were unchanged in quality and severity were present throughout the period of investigation. In 28% (n = 14) of the patients marked positive symptoms persisted from the very beginning up to 1990 (in every case more than 20 years). Applying Leonhard's classification it was obvious that syndromes are roughly unchanged with respect to the preneuroleptic era. In these patients neuroleptics seemed to have only unspecific suppressing effects on affectivity. It is supposed that in schizophrenia which leads to severe residual psychopathology, Leonhard's classification is superior to the positive-negative distinction and is a promising concept for future research in etiology and therapy.

Adult↗
PubMed1992

Autoaggressive behaviour and cholesterol.

A retrospective analysis of a sample of 1,088 patients suffering from affective psychoses did not reveal associations between serum cholesterol and suicidal behaviour. However, suicide was associated with lower body weight.

Adult↗
PubMed1992

Lack of association between dopamine D1 and D2 receptor genes and bipolar affective disorder.

Fifty-six patients with bipolar affective disorder and 69 healthy control subjects were tested for association of restriction fragment length polymorphism alleles at the dopamine D1 and D2 receptor loci. No significant associations were found; thus, the hypothesis that a single mutant form of either receptor gene is responsible for the phenotype of patients with bipolar affective disorder was not supported.

Alleles↗
PubMed1992

[Status of amine hypotheses in depressive disorders].

The biochemical effects of drugs modulating mood are the basis for still relevant hypotheses relating depressive disorders to dysfunctions of noradrenergic, serotonergic and/or cholinergic neurotransmission. The time course as well as the dose-effect-relationships point to the relevance for mood elevation of secondary adaptive processes rather than the direct actions of antidepressants. Direct evidence of dysfunctions sufficiently explaining the actual illness of the single individual has not been obtained at the level of transmitters, metabolites and receptors. Deficits of serotonergic transmission seem to be related to a personality dimension of poor impulse control closer than to nosological categories. This dimensional concept might also be valid for the relationships between cholinergic sensitivity and stress tolerance. Depression itself is possibly due to imbalances of multiple neuronal systems.

Acetylcholine↗
PubMed1992

[Neuroleptic malignant syndrome--a case report].

The occurrence of a malignant neuroleptic syndromes accompanied by urinary retention under the treatment with fluphenazine and prothipendyl in a mentally disabled psychotic is reported. Early recognition of the syndrome and immediate termination of the neuroleptic treatment lead to its spontaneous remission. Subsequent neuroleptic treatment by clozapine was tolerated without further complications.

Adult↗
PubMed1991

Integrity of the blood-CSF barrier in dementia of Alzheimer type: CSF/serum ratios of albumin and IgG.

Serum and cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) from 25 patients with dementia of Alzheimer type (DAT) and 25 controls were assayed for concentrations of albumin and IgG. The severity of dementia was rated with the Mini Mental State Examination. The CSF/serum ratio for albumin and IgG as well as the IgG index were used to evaluate blood-CSF barrier function in the respective groups. The control group was matched for age, sex and the indirect alcohol parameters, mean corpuscular volume and gamma-glutamyltranspeptidase. There were no signs of dysfunction of the blood-CSF barrier for proteins or signs of local synthesis of IgG in the central nervous system (CNS) of the demented patients. The permeability of the blood-CSF barrier appeared to be unrelated to dementia severity. The data do not support the hypothesis that a pathological leakage through the blood-CSF barrier facilitates the entry of extraneuronal proteins to the CNS, which might contribute to the pathophysiological process in DAT.

Aged↗
PubMed1991

Interaction between carbamazepine and fluvoxamine.

In 3 patients the addition of fluvoxamine to a constant dosage of carbamazepine (CZP) caused a substantial rise of plasma CZP accompanied by symptoms of intoxication. As this drug combination may occur increasingly in the future, this probably pharmacokinetic interaction is of practical relevance.

Adult↗
PubMed1990

Brofaromine (CGP 11 305 A): estimation of plasma concentrations by a biologic technique as compared to liquid chromatography.

In an open clinical trial 13 depressives significantly improved under the reversible and selective type-A monoamine oxidase (MAO) inhibitor brofaromine. The inhibitory potency of deproteinated plasma on a crude MAO preparation from human placenta was measured as a parameter for plasma brofaromine. There were no significant differences in plasma MAO inhibitory potency between responders (improvement greater than 50%; n = 5) and non-responders. MAO inhibitory potency significantly (p less than 0.05) increased parallel to the increase of the dosage from 50 mg b.i.d. to t.i.d. confirming the validity of this technique. The biologic assay, however, overestimated brofaromine by a factor of two in acute kinetic experiments with healthy volunteers as compared to a chromatographic technique, although both methods significantly correlated (r = 0.928).

Adult↗
PubMed1990

Cholinergic-adrenergic balance: Part 1. Relationship between central and peripheral sensitivities.

Eight healthy volunteers were studied under double-blind conditions after acute challenge with the peripheral beta 2-agonist reproterol, either alone or combined with the peripheral indirect cholinomimetic neostigmine. Their responses were also studied after administration of the centrally active indirect cholinomimetic physostigmine. The beta-adrenergic rise in heart rate was cholinergically suppressed. The beta-adrenergic rise of plasma cyclic adenosine monophosphate (cAMP) was not cholinergically modulated, while that of plasma glucose tended to be cholinergically suppressed. Physostigmine induced an anergic-anhedonic syndrome accompanied by physiological, metabolic, and neuroendocrine stress phenomena. The beta-adrenergic and cholinergic sensitivities, respectively, of the various parameters investigated tended to be nonsignificantly intercorrelated. Only a limited portion of the variance was explained by drug effects. Sensitivity to neostigmine was completely unrelated to sensitivity to physostigmine. Thus, cholinergic sensitivity seems not to be decisive for the fine tuning of the highly complex regulatory systems studied and peripheral sensitivity not to be representative for the central one, at least if unselective drugs like neostigmine and physostigmine are used.

Adult↗
PubMed1990

Cholinergic-adrenergic balance: Part 2. Relationship between drug sensitivity and personality.

Sensitivity to the centrally active cholinomimetic physostigmine varies dramatically among healthy individuals. The elucidation of the reasons for this variability could contribute to the understanding of the pathophysiology of affective disorders where a cholinergic supersensitivity has been demonstrated. Therefore, personality characteristics and habitual stress-coping strategies were related to sensitivity to physostigmine in eight healthy male volunteers. Cardiovascular and behavioral responses tended to be positively correlated with irritability and emotional liability. Passive, "helpless" strategies for coping with stress were positively related to these responses. The metabolic and neuroendocrine responses to physostigmine were generally unrelated to personality. In view of putative beta-adrenergic disturbances in depression, the responses to the peripheral beta 2-adrenergic agonist reproterol were studied. Irritability and emotionality tended to be positively correlated with cardiovascular responses to reproterol as well as with reductions of heart rate by the peripheral cholinomimetic neostigmine.

Adult↗
PubMed1990

RFLP alleles at the tyrosine hydroxylase locus: no association found to affective disorders.

Affective disorders are usually referred to as being inherited multifactorially. The contribution of a gene locus in illnesses displaying multifactorial inheritance may be assessed by searching for associations of alleles to the illness. The tyrosine hydroxylase gene encodes the rate-limiting enzyme in the synthesis of catecholamines and might be a candidate for causing the manic-depressive phenotype. Therefore, we tested 88 patients with affective disorders and 99 healthy control persons for association of restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP) alleles at the tyrosine hydroxylase locus. The comparison of allele or genotype frequencies did not reveal any significant differences between the two groups.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1990

Adrenergic-cholinergic imbalances: the physostigmine-syndrome is not antagonized by the MAO-A inhibitor brofaromine.

The centrally active cholinesterase inhibitor physostigmine induces a behavioral syndrome which is thought to represent a model of spontaneous depression. In the present acute trial in 6 healthy volunteers, this model depression was accompanied by clearcut cardiovascular, metabolic and neuroendocrine phenomena of stress. The extent of the changes from baseline, however, scarcely correlated between the behavioral and physiologic phenomena. The behavioral and physiological phenomena could not be antagonized by brofaromine, a putative antidepressant reversibly and selectively inhibiting monoamine oxidase A (MAO-A), contrasting to the complete inhibition by the central cholinolytic scopolamine. This is further evidence that antidepressant efficacy depends on long-term adaptive changes secondary to the enhancement of aminergic neurotransmission rather than this enhancement itself.

Adult↗
PubMed1990

Brofaromine (CGP 11 305 A) in treatment of depression: biological estimation of plasma concentrations.

In an open clinical trial, 13 depressives were treated with the reversible and selective type-A monoamine oxidase (MAO)-inhibitor brofaromine (CGP 11 305 A), the inhibitory potency of deproteinated plasma on a crude MAO preparation from human placenta was measured as a parameter for plasma brofaromine and possibly active metabolites of brofaromine. Patients significantly (p less than 0.01) improved under brofaromine. There were, however, no significant differences in plasma MAO-inhibitory potency between responders (improvement greater than 50%; n = 5) and nonresponders and no correlations with the change from baseline of the total Hamilton Depression Score (HAMD) or with changes of sleep (change from baseline of the HAMD sleep items). MAO-inhibitory potency significantly (p less than 0.05) increased parallel to the increase of the dosage from 50 mg b.i.d. to t.i.d., confirming the validity of this technique. The biological assay applied is a simple and reliable alternative when estimating the plasma concentrations of brofaromine and, possibly, other reversible MAO inhibitors.

Adult↗
PubMed1990

Prognostic validity of the cycloid psychoses. A prospective follow-up study.

In a prospective 4-year follow-up study, 26 out of 31 patients initially diagnosed as cycloid psychoses were investigated (anxiety-happiness psychosis n = 15; confusion psychosis n = 8; motility psychosis n = 3). Patients were independently interviewed by two clinical researchers. 61.5% showed one or several 'first-rank symptoms' according to Schneider. In addition, the SADS-LA was applied for RDC and DSM-IIIR diagnoses. According to these classification systems most of the patients were diagnosed as schizophrenic or schizoaffective. Personal interview as well as application of the Strauss-Carpenter Outcome Scale indicated a highly favorable clinical outcome, i.e. lack of affective or behavioral defective states in literally all patients of the study. These results justify the distinction of the cycloid psychoses as a nosological entity in general and--less convincingly--of the three subtypes of cycloid psychoses.

Adult↗