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Biomedical subjects

P Dick

Publications and source records attributed to P Dick.

At least 55 records · Page 3Linked to original sources
PubMed1989

Guidelines for the dosage of neuroleptics. I: Chlorpromazine equivalents of orally administered neuroleptics.

Chlorpromazine (CPZ) equivalents are often used as a relative measure of the antipsychotic potency of neuroleptics. We review the CPZ equivalents of 33 neuroleptics and illustrate why imprecisions or discrepancies will be difficult to eliminate from these values. We nevertheless underline that CPZ equivalents can be clinically useful, since they facilitate the choice of doses of different neuroleptics that should induce comparable antipsychotic effects.

Antipsychotic Agents↗
PubMed1989

Guidelines for the dosage of neuroleptics. II: Changing from daily oral to long acting injectable neuroleptics.

When changing from daily oral to long acting injectable neuroleptic therapy, it is essential to choose a dose that will maintain clinical efficacy without increased adverse reactions. Information on pharmacokinetics is needed to achieve this. The authors present guidelines based on this information and observe that previous recommendations sometimes differ substantially from these guidelines. Whether these guidelines will improve the results of long term treatment of psychotic patients remains to be determined.

Administration, Oral↗
PubMed1988

Individuality and stability in the transport of precursors of monoamines across the erythrocyte membrane of mentally normal subjects.

We evaluated to what extent the tyrosine (TYR) and tryptophan (TRP) transport by the red cells was stable in normal subjects during divers clinical conditions. Twenty-two normal subjects were studied. The values of TYR and TRP transport were found to be individually determined, showed no circadian oscillations and no changes during the menstrual cycle, but varied somewhat more during the postpartum period. A few normal subjects had low TYR and TRP transport values, as observed in patients with affective disorders.

Adult↗
PubMed1987

The pharmacokinetics of lithium in normal humans: expected and unexpected observations in view of basic kinetic principles.

Lithium (Li+) does not undergo metabolism, is unbound to proteins from plasma, and excreted in major part by the kidney. We studied the disposition of single doses of Li+ given orally to 5 normal subjects, once as a conventional form and once as a slow release form. Renal clearances of Li+ were lower during night time, plasma clearances were 22 to 43 ml/min when not corrected for urinary recovery and 21 to 28 ml/min when corrected. Urinary recovery (measured on 96 hours) was 65.0 to 99.7% and was individually less stable than plasma clearance. Other observations that might have clinical relevance were that the rate of Li+ absorption from the digestive tract varied more from one subject to another than between the two pharmaceutical forms, that the 24 hours renal clearance and the extend of urinary recovery on 96 hours could not be predicted from short term measurements of Li+ (in urine and plasma), and that the known circadian changes in the rate of Li+ elimination were confirmed.

Circadian Rhythm↗
PubMed1986

Influence of the time of administration of dexamethasone 0.25 mg on cortisol secretion in normal humans.

Single low doses (0.25 mg) of dexamethasone were given at 11 p.m., 2, 5 and 8 a.m. on separate days to five normal subjects. The concentrations of cortisol in plasma on the next day were significantly decreased compared to results after placebo administration, and cortisol suppression was maximal after dexamethasone had been given at 8 a.m. Our findings suggests that the postulated phase-advance of circadian rhythms is not a major cause of cortisol non-suppression in depressives given dexamethasone.

Adult↗
PubMed1985

Day and full time psychiatric treatment: a controlled comparison.

Ninety-one patients admitted as emergencies, suffering from neurosis, personality disorder, or adjustment reaction, were randomly allocated to day hospital or to continued in-patient care. Follow-up was for up to one year. Clinical outcome was similar in the day care and in-patient groups, but patient satisfaction was significantly greater in day patients. Day hospital care was only about two-thirds of the cost of the cheaper of the two in-patient regimes, even though contact with it was on average twice as long as for in-patients.

Adjustment Disorders↗
PubMed1985

Day treatment: suitability and referral procedure.

In a prospective screening of emergency admissions of patients suffering from neurosis, personality disorder or adjustment reaction, 100 were assessed as suitable for early transfer to day hospital treatment, 101 as unsuitable, and 39 as not requiring further intervention. Of the unsuitable patients, 39 were grossly disturbed; the remainder did not differ in severity from those thought suitable, but there was a specific reason against day treatment in all but 13 of the 62--most commonly alcohol abuse, physical problems, social problems or aggression. Patients' attitudes were also important. Recruitment of patients had to be active, with regular visits to the wards by day hospital staff.

Adjustment Disorders↗
PubMed1984

DSIP in the treatment of withdrawal syndromes from alcohol and opiates.

The hypothesis for this therapeutic use of delta sleep-inducing peptide (DSIP) was based on several animal studies conducted by Tissot. He showed that morphine, alcohol, pentobarbital as well as DSIP, when injected directly into the bulbo-mesencephalo-thalamic recruiting system, induced slow-wave sleep with numerous spindles. In all cases, this effect was reversed by Naloxone. Thus, it has been postulated that DSIP possesses an agonistic activity on opiate receptors and might be of value in the treatment of withdrawal syndromes. Therefore, DSIP was administered intravenously to 107 inpatients presenting with symptoms of alcohol (n = 47) or opiate (n = 60) withdrawal. The assessment of effect was based on the clinical evaluation by the physician and the nursing staff. Approximately 13% of the patients from the first and 22% from the second group did not fulfil the requirements for the evaluation of treatment. In, respectively, 97 and 87% of opiate and alcohol addicts, the clinical symptoms and signs disappeared after DSIP administration or improved markedly and rapidly. Anxiety, however, was slower to decrease. On the average, the clinical symptomatology had a more prolonged course and a higher number of DSIP injections were required for opiate addicts than for alcoholics. Tolerance to the DSIP treatment was good, aside from headaches reported by a few patients.

Adult↗
PubMed1983

A double-blind comparative study of the clinical efficacy of fluvoxamine and chlorimipramine.

1 We report the results of a comparative clinical trial of a new antidepressant drug fluvoxamine (a specific re-uptake inhibitor of 5-hydroxytryptamine (5-HT)) with chlorimipramine. Thirty-two patients with mixed depression received one or the other drug at the same daily dosage of 150 mg. 2 In both drug groups there was an overall clinically significant improvement for all items on the Hamilton Rating Scale for Depression (67% improvement in both groups). 3 In the chlorimipramine group there were more digestive symptoms and anticholinergic effects; the difference with the fluvoxamine group approached statistical significance. 4 No clinically important effects of either treatment were observed on heart-rate or blood pressure.

Adult↗
PubMed1983

Successful treatment of withdrawal symptoms with delta sleep-inducing peptide, a neuropeptide with potential agonistic activity on opiate receptors.

It has been postulated that delta sleep-inducing peptide (DSIP) possesses an agonistic activity on opiate receptors and might be of value in the treatment of withdrawal syndromes. To test this hypothesis, DSIP (25 nmol/kg) was injected intravenously as sole treatment to 67 patients presenting withdrawal symptoms (28 from ethyl alcohol, 39 from opiates). 27% of the patients were lost or unsuitable for evaluation. From the 49 evaluable patients, DSIP produced a beneficial effect in 48 (22 alcoholics and 26 from 27 opiate addicts), with an immediate onset of action, a good and lasting suspension of the somatic symptoms and signs. Anxiety resolved more slowly, within hours. No major side-effect occurred. DSIP offers a new physiologically-based approach for the treatment of established withdrawal syndrome.

Adult↗
PubMed1982

Exchange mechanism of tyrosine between plasma and red blood cells in normal subjects and psychiatric patients.

The saturable mechanism of tyrosine (TYR) uptake by the membrane of red blood cells incubated at 37 degrees C has been studied in normal subjects and psychiatric patients. This uptake is markedly inhibited by incubation at 0 degree C, and weakly inhibited by iodoacetic acid and ouabain. The uptake of TYR is significantly lower in unipolar- and bipolar-depressed patients, and significantly higher in schizophrenics compared to normal controls. These results indicate a possible disturbance of functional capacity of membrane transport in some psychiatric diseases.

Biological Transport↗
PubMed1981

Antidepressants and serotonin neurons of the raphe.

Reserpine + nialamid administration to the rat induces a strong yellow fluorescence of the neuronal bodies of the raphe, due to serotonin (5-HT) accumulation. Under these conditions, administration of clomipramine (an antidepressant drug acting preferentially on 5-HT-mediated neurons) induces a decrease of intraneuronal fluorescence and its interneuronal diffusion. On this pattern we administered new antidepressant drugs which act on 5-HT neurons in a much more intensive way than clomipramine (fluvoxamine, clovoxamine, LM 5008, citalopram, Ro 11-2465). To varying degrees, we observed in the raphe, in addition to a decrease in intraneuronal fluorescence and interneuronal diffusion, the presence of a yellow fluorescence in capillary walls. It seems that under these antidepressants, 5-HT, which is outside neuronal bodies because of uptake blockade, is partly caught by the capillary walls. In these walls rich in monoamine oxydase, 5-HT would be catabolized, 5HIAA dispersed in the blood and thus, this 'capillary effect' could correspond to a loss of 5-HT in the raphe. Antidepressant drugs preferentially acting upon noradrenaline (NA) neurons do not, in this model, induce analogous phenomena in NA cell bodies of the locus coeruleus. So the 'capillary effect' differentiates antidepressant drugs acting specifically on 5-HT or NA neurons. It may be considered together with other parameters which also indicate asymmetries on the modes of action of antidepressant drugs, such as effects on monoamine turnover (increase for NA and decrease for 5-HT) and on receptor sensitivity (decrease for NA and increase for 5-HT).

Animals↗
PubMed1979

Controlled studies of the acute antidepressant effects of lithium.

In two randomized double-blind controlled trials on 63 depressed female in-patients subject to recurrent affective disorder (bipolar and unipolar manic-depressive psychosis) lithium was shown to have major acute antidepressant effects. At the end of three weeks lithium produced more uniform improvement than did imipramine; lithium in combination with tryptophan (in the form of Optimax) was superior to tryptophan alone--the latter drug having no discernible antidepressant activity in this group of patients. Lithium did not produce an antidepressant effect until the second and third week of both trials.

Adult↗
PubMed1978

[Comparative study of the pharmacological and clinical effects of clorimipramine and metaprimine (19560 R.P.)].

Although its pharmacology is virtually identical with that of the tricyclic antidepressants, metapramine (19560 R.P.), i.e. methyl-5 methylamino-10 dihydro-10, 11 dibenzo (b,f) azepine, differs biochemically from the tricyclics in that it markedly enhances the turnover of norepinephrine without notably inhibiting the re-uptake of this amine. Differences in the therapeutic effects of metapramine and clorimipramine have been investigated in a double-blind clinical test. The possible relationship between these differences and the biochemistry of both compounds is discussed in terms of the monoaminergic hypotheses.

Adult↗