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Biomedical subjects

T R Insel

Publications and source records attributed to T R Insel.

178 records · Page 10Linked to original sources

The sleep of patients with obsessive-compulsive disorder.

Fourteen patients with obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) were studied with all-night sleep EEG recordings. Nine of these patients reported abnormal sleep patterns before the polygraphic study. Analysis of the sleep records disclosed significantly decreased total sleep time with more awakenings, less stage 4 sleep, decreased rapid-eye-movement (REM) efficiency, and shortened REM latency compared with those of a group of age- and sex-matched normal subjects. These abnormalities generally resembled those of an age-matched group of depressed patients, although significant differences remained. These findings suggest that such sleep abnormalities as shortened REM latency may not be entirely specific for primary affective illness. They also point to a possible biological link between OCD and affective illness.

Adult↗

The dexamethasone suppression test in patients with primary obsessive-compulsive disorder.

The dexamethasone suppression test (DST) was administered to 16 obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) patients. Six of these patients (37.5%) had an abnormal DST response. There was a trend for patients with the DST abnormality to have higher depression rating scale scores and a higher incidence of family history of affective illness compared to DST suppressors. Although 7 of the 16 OCD patients met DSM-III criteria for major depressive disorder, in every case the affective symptoms were secondary to the primary obsessional illness. The relationship of the DST to the specificity of psychiatric diagnoses is discussed.

Adolescent↗

Growth hormone response to clonidine unchanged by chronic clorgyline treatment.

The growth hormone (GH) response to the alpha 2-adrenergic agonist, clonidine, was determined before and after chronic clorgyline treatment in 10 psychiatric patients. No significant differences emerged in the magnitude of the GH response to clonidine before as compared to after clorgyline. These results do not support the hypothesis that postsynaptic alpha 2-adrenergic responsiveness is enhanced following chronic antidepressant treatment.

Adult↗

The dopamine system challenge in affective disorders: a review of behavioral and neuroendocrine responses.

The authors review studies of dopaminergic agents in affective disorder patients. Although evidence from cerebrospinal fluid studies, from the pharmacology of the antidepressants, and from several clinical trials implicates the dopamine system in the regulation of mood or activity level, as yet, no replicated study shows that affective level disorder patients are different from normals and their neuroendocrine response to the dopaminergic agents L-dopa and apomorphine. Some possible reasons for this apparent normality of neuroendocrine response are discussed.

Behavior↗

The psychopharmacological treatment of obsessive-compulsive disorder: a review.

This article reviews the literature concerning obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) and its treatment with drugs. We survey the differential diagnosis of OCD and the problems involved in evaluating its severity in a research setting. Pharmacological treatment of OCD has usually involved antidepressants, especially clomipramine, with equivocal but nevertheless encouraging success. Anxiolytic and neuroleptics have also been tried, but the results are inconsistent. We discuss the implications of these findings for treatment of patients with OCD and for future research.

Anti-Anxiety Agents↗

Diurnal variation in cerebrospinal fluid prolactin concentration of the rhesus monkey.

PRL immunoreactivity in the cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) of the rhesus monkey was found found to undergo a diurnal variation. Hourly samples of CSF from four adult male rhesus monkeys showed a mean peak PRL immunoreactivity of 6.30 +/- 2.53 ng/ml at 0200 h and a mean minimum concentration at 1500 h of 3.15 +/- .68 ng/ml. To our knowledge, this is the first report of a significant diurnal variation in the concentration of an anterior pituitary peptide hormone in CSF.

Animals↗

Lithium and mood change in affective disorder patients.

The authors evaluated whether the dysphoric effects reported by normals given lithium in several recent studies might also be found in depressed patients if detailed self-ratings were used in a double-blind study design. Nine depressed patients were studied at the end of lithium and placebo treatment trials. No overall adverse effects of lithium were found for the entire group, but individuals showed significant inverse correlations between pretreatment dysphoria and depression and the development of these symptoms with lithium, i.e., the less dysphoric and depressed patients (the more "normal" individuals) did report more adverse symptoms while the patients with higher initial symptom scores rated themselves as improved.

Adult↗

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↗

The social deficits of the oxytocin knockout mouse.

Numerous studies have implicated oxytocin (OT) and oxytocin receptors in the central mediation of social cognition and social behavior. Much of our understanding of OT's central effects depends on pharmacological studies with OT agonists and antagonists. Recently, our knowledge of OT's effects has been extended by the development of oxytocin knockout (OTKO) mice. Mice with a null mutation of the OT gene manifest several interesting cognitive and behavioral changes, only some of which were predicted by pharmacological studies. Contrary to studies in rats, mice do not appear to require OT for normal sexual or maternal behavior, though OT is necessary for the milk ejection reflex during lactation. OTKO pups thrive if raised by a lactating female, but OTKO pups emit fewer ultrasonic vocalizations with maternal separation and OTKO adults are more aggressive than WT mice. Remarkably, OTKO mice fail to recognize familiar conspecifics after repeated social encounters, though olfactory and non-social memory functions appear to be intact. Central OT administration into the amygdala restores social recognition. The development of transgenic mice with specific deficits in social memory represents a promising approach to examine the cellular and neural systems of social cognition. These studies may provide valuable new perspectives on diseases characterized by social deficits, such as autism or reactive attachment disorder.

Animals↗