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Biomedical subjects

J Palumbo

Publications and source records attributed to J Palumbo.

9 recordsLinked to original sources

Regional cerebral blood flow during acute and chronic abstinence from combined cocaine-alcohol abuse.

Regional cerebral blood flow (rCBF) was assessed using SPECT and HMPAO in ten cocaine abusers within 72 h of last cocaine use and then after 21 days of abstinence. In comparison to normals the cocaine abusers had significantly reduced rCBF in 11 of 14 brain regions with the largest reductions in the frontal and parietal cortex and greater rCBF in the brain stem. These perfusion defects appeared to be primarily due to combined alcohol and cocaine abuse and frontal but not parietal defects appeared to resolve partially during 21 days of abstinence.

Adult↗

Specificity of serotonin reuptake inhibitors in the treatment of obsessive-compulsive disorder. Comparison of fluvoxamine and desipramine.

To evaluate whether serotonin reuptake inhibition is critical to the treatment of obsessive-compulsive disorder, 40 outpatients with a principal diagnosis of obsessive-compulsive disorder were randomized in a double-blind fashion to 8 weeks of treatment with either the serotonin reuptake inhibitor fluvoxamine maleate (n = 21) or the norepinephrine reuptake inhibitor desipramine hydrochloride (n = 19). Fluvoxamine was significantly better than desipramine in reducing the severity of obsessive-compulsive symptoms, as measured by the Yale-Brown Obsessive Compulsive Scale and by the global response rate ("responder" equaling "much improved"). Eleven of 21 patients were responders with fluvoxamine compared with 2 of 19 patients with desipramine. Fluvoxamine, but not desipramine, was also effective in reducing the severity of "secondary" depression. Fluvoxamine-induced improvement in symptoms of obsessive-compulsive disorder was not correlated with the severity of baseline depressive symptoms. This study provides additional evidence that the acute serotonin reuptake properties of a drug are predictive of its anti-obsessive-compulsive efficacy. It is hypothesized that the mechanism of action of serotonin reuptake inhibitors in obsessive-compulsive disorder may be related to chronic treatment-induced adaptive changes in presynaptic serotonin receptor function (eg, autoreceptor desensitization) and/or indirect influences on dopaminergic function (eg, in the basal ganglia).

Adult↗

[Dysphagia lusoria. Apropos of 3 cases].

This report contains three cases of "disfagia lusoria" (right subclavy artery congenital anomaly). The patients are of different ages and they were diagnosed by X ray, arteriography and endoscopy. Surgical treatment was carried out in one of the patients due to the severity of the symptoms.

Adolescent↗