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Biomedical subjects

R Adler

Publications and source records attributed to R Adler.

278 records · Page 16Linked to original sources

Intravenous lidocaine, amantadine, and placebo in the treatment of sciatica: a double-blind, randomized, controlled study.

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Sciatica is a neuropathic pain syndrome caused by compression and/or inflammation of spinal nerve roots by herniated disc material, and its treatment is therefore usually aimed at reducing compression and inflammation. Studies have shown that both systemic local anesthetics and N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA) receptor antagonists may produce analgesia in a variety of neuropathic pain syndromes. The present study evaluated the analgesic efficacy of i.v. infusions of the local anesthetic lidocaine, the NMDA receptor antagonist amantadine, and a placebo in sciatica. METHODS: Thirty patients with sciatica, as confirmed by physical examination and imaging studies, were enrolled in a randomized, double-blind, three-arm crossover trial. Infusions of amantadine (2.5 mg/kg), lidocaine (5 mg/kg), and a placebo were administered over a 2-hour period, 2-7 days apart from each other. Spontaneous pain (visual analog scale) and evoked pain (straight leg raise) were measured every 30 minutes for 3 hours. RESULTS: Lidocaine reduced spontaneous pain as compared with amantadine and with the placebo for all measurements and at a significant level at the 30 (P < .05), 120, and 180 (P < .01) minute time points. Maximal pain reduction from the baseline was 62 +/- 7% for lidocaine, 43 +/- 7% for amantadine, and 47 +/- 7% for the placebo. Straight leg raise test also significantly improved with lidocaine (from 30 to 37 degrees; P < .05), as compared to amantadine (34-36 degrees) and to the placebo (32-34 degrees). All three treatments were relatively well tolerated. CONCLUSIONS: Intravenous lidocaine, rather than amantadine, reduces both spontaneous and evoked sciatic pain.

Adolescent↗

Psychological and social adjustment of obese children and their families.

The psychological and social adjustment of 30 obese children and their families was examined. Mothers completed the Child Behaviour Checklist and the Family Environment Scale; children completed the Self-Perception Profile for Children. The results consistently indicate that the obese children were less socially competent, had more behaviour problems, and had poorer self-perceptions than the non-obese normative samples. Families of obese children differed significantly from families in the non-distressed normative sample in that they interacted in a more negative way. The findings are discussed in terms of an 'at risk profile' and the implications for the behavioural treatment of obese children.

Adaptation, Psychological↗

Characterization of transmitted motion in fetal lung: quantitative analysis.

A simple two-dimensional analytic model is evaluated for transmitted cardiac motion in fetal lung. The model treats the latter as being an incompressible viscoelastic medium. The mean radial deformation in an elastic medium is demonstrated to depend on a length parameter l approximately square root of mu/rho omega 2, where mu, rho, and omega correspond to elastic shear modulus, mass density, and frequency of cardiac motion, respectively. Digitized M-mode images are demonstrated as a feasible method to measure such deformations in vivo. Data for two patients are presented to illustrate the technique.

Elasticity↗

A context study of psychological conditions prior to shifts in blood pressure.

Shifts in intra-arterially registered blood pressure during an initial interview were studied in 4 young patients with essential hypertension by means of the Symptom Context Method. The relationships found between both formal variables and thematic categories of speech anteceding blood pressure shifts were in terms of patient and interviewer. All patients showed an increased rate of speech before blood pressure elevations, and in 3 of them the thematic content of 'personal failing, personal failure', 'loss of status of being useful and needed', and 'failure of others to meet the standards of the patient' was more often present before pressure elevations than decreases.

Adolescent↗

Burns are different: the child psychiatrist on the pediatric burns ward.

This article is written from the dual perspective of a child psychiatrist, consultant to a burn unit, who also happens to have suffered burns to his hands and face as the result of a car accident in 1976. One of its central themes is that burns are different from other surgical conditions. The role of the child psychiatrist as a consultant to a pediatric burn unit is explored and illustrated with clinical vignettes.

Adolescent↗