Search PubMed⌕ Search

Biomedical subjects

J Zohar

Publications and source records attributed to J Zohar.

81 records · Page 5Linked to original sources
PubMed1981

Haloperidol blood levels during dosage reduction in chronic schizophrenic patients.

Haloperidol levels were measured by radioreceptor assay in 12 schizophrenic patients during gradual dosage reduction (at 10-day) intervals) from 60 to 0 mg/day. Serum levels were highly correlated with the oral dose in each patient, but poorly correlated across patients. Clinical deterioration appeared only 10-20 days after total cessation of the oral drug, and so it was not possible to determine an optimal blood level for chronic maintenance. Below oral dosage of 10 mg/day of haloperidol many patients' blood levels are undetectable by the radioreceptor method.

Adult↗
PubMed1980

Cyclic nucleotides in mental disorder.

Human CSF cyclic nucleotides do not distinguish manic-depresive patients or schizophrenic patients from controls, although a "high CSF cyclic AMP" subgroup of poor-prognosis schizophrenics is still under investigation. Neuroleptic therapy raises CSF cyclic GMP and lowers CSF cyclic AMP, at least in the responder subgroup of a clinically heterogeneous patient population when neuroleptics that are good adenylate cyclase inhibitors in vitro are used in the treatment. This is consistent with the concept that neuroleptic treatment in humans involves blockade of dopamine neurotransmission. Attempts to correlate the decline in CSF cyclic AMP concentration with clinical improvement may be important. Lithium treatment does not alter the level of CSF cyclic AMP, which probably derives largely from dopamine-related neurotransmission that lithium does not affect. However, the plasma cyclic AMP response to epinephrine is inhibited by lithium at therapeutic doses in vivo after chronic treatment. The lithium effect is somewhat specific in that the glucagon-stimulated rise in plasma cyclic AMP is not affected. The results in clinical experiments support the theory that norepinephrine-sensitive adenylate cyclase inhibition in brain is involved in lithium action. Research to attempt to distinguish lithium-responsive from lithium nonresponsive patients on the basis of sensitivity to lithium inhibition of the epinephrine-induced rise in plasma cyclic AMP is of considerable potential practical importance.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1976

Cyclic GMP in the CSF of patients with schizophrenia before and after neuroleptic treatment.

Cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) cyclic GMP may derive from central cholinergic neurotransmission. Measurement of CSF cyclic GMP may allow evaluation of possible implications of the dopaminergic hyperactivity in schizophrenia proposed by the dopamine hypothesis. The CSF cyclic GMP levels in 27 drug-free schizophrenic patients was measured and compared to that in 9 psychiatrically-healthy individuals. The mean CSF cyclic GMP level of the schizophrenic patients was 23 per cent lower than that of the control group, but this difference did not attain statistical significance. In addition the CSF cyclic GMP levels in a group of 10 schizophrenic patients were compared before and after 2 months of neuroleptic treatment. The mean level of cyclic GMP rose 50 per cent after treatment with phenothiazines (P less than 0.05). These results could indicate some tendency for decreased activity of central cholinergic neurons in schizophrenia as well as a restored dopaminergic-cholinergic balance after neuroleptic treatment.

Antipsychotic Agents↗
PubMed1976

Factors influencing sexual activity after prostatectomy: a prospective study.

Between 16 and 30 per cent of all prostatectomy patients become impotent after an operation for benign prostatic hyperplasia. Since the surgical technique does not seem to be the factor responsible for such a serious problem, more accentuated by the fact that this operation is becoming increasingly frequent with the increase in life expectancy, an assessment of 15 patients before and after prostatectomy is presented. With a statistical analysis of a structured interview (including a mini-Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory test before and after the operation) 3 main differentiating factors emerged between the potent and the impotent group: 1) the level of anxiety exhibited by the patient, 2) whether the patients received an explanation about the surgery and its outcome prior to the operation and 3) the patient's general satisfaction with life.

Aged↗
PubMed1976

Neuroleptics reduce spinal fluid cyclic AMP in schizophrenic patient.

Cyclic AMP in the cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) was determined in a group of 10 schizophrenic patients before neuroleptic drug treatment and after a mean of 8 week's antipsychotic drug therapy. For 8 patients with marked to moderate treatment response a significant (p less than 0.01) decline in CSF cyclic AMP was observed. This result is consistent with the theory that blockade of postsynaptic dopamine receptors is a major mechanism of the antipsychotic action of neuroleptic drugs.

Acute Disease↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Drug treatment of obsessive-compulsive disorder.

Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) traditionally has been considered a rare, treatment refractory disorder of psychological origin. However, OCD appears to be much more common than was previously believed. Moreover, in recent years controlled studies demonstrated that clomipramine is more effective than placebo and than other tricyclics for reducing obsessive-compulsive symptoms. Although it has been suggested that clomipramine was effective in treating obsessive-compulsive symptoms by an antidepressant mechanism, the majority of the controlled studies found that its antiobsessional effects occurred whether the patient was depressed or not. The apparent specificity of clomipramine, and, to some extent, newer serotonin selective antidepressants, suggests a serotonergic role in the psychobiology of OCD.

Clomipramine↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Cyclic AMP and GMP in the cerebrospinal fluid after high-dose haloperidol treatment.

Very high dose haloperidol treatment failed to reduce cyclic AMP in cerebrospinal fluid of schizophrenic patients, whereas phenothiazines have been reported to do so. This may represent in vivo evidence for the distinction between neuroleptics that block D1 receptors (adenylate cyclase linked) and neuroleptics that do not.

Cyclic AMP↗