bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Biochemical and pharmacological properties of oxazepam
Authors: GARATTINI S.
Published: August 2007

Oxazepam is the final metabolic product in vitro and in vivo of a large number of pharmacologically active benzodiazepines. Oxazepam shows antimetrazol activity varying in intensity and duration according to the animal species considered.

This difference is in part related to different “sensitivity and in part due to different disposition of oxazepam. Particularly relevant is the difference in biliary excretion by various animal species. Oxazepam is currently available as a racemate but two optical isomers can be separated as succinate half esters. The (+) form appears to bc more active than the (‐) form, probably because more oxazepam is released from the (+) than the (‐) isomerin vivo. In vitro studies confirm that the liver hydrolyzes the (+) oxazcpam succinate half ester more than the (‐) form.

Other work has aimed at analyzing the effects of oxazepam on brain chemical mediators, with particular reference to the cholinergic system. Finally it is shown that oxazeparn, similarly to other benzodiazepines. increased aggressiveness in male mice during chronic treatment.
Subjective effects and vigilance after diazepam and oxazepam in normal subjects
Authors: GOTTESTAM K. G. , ANDERSSON B. E.
Published: August 2007

Twenty‐two normal subjects were given single oral doses of diazepam 5 mg, oxazepam 1.5 mg and placebo in a double‐blind cross‐over trial. Subjcctive effects according to a rating scale and performance on a vigilance task were assessed. The results showed a difference between each of the two drugs and placebo. but none between the drugs, with regard to the vigilance test. The results from the rating of subjective effects showed an increase in “tiredness for both drugs, and a decreased “well‐being for oxazepam.
Prevalence of psychological impairment in city and country samples
Authors: Brunetti P. M. , Dacher M. , Sequeira S.
Published: August 2007

A study was conducted of the psychological health of 125 married French women aged between 35 and 39 years, divided into five professional groups of 25 subjects. Two of these gruops were taken from a rural area, three from Paris. The criteria of health have been psychiatric symptomatology, psychological impairment, frequency of the periods of impairment. A significant difference was found between the farmers and all the other groups. Differential data are also given regarding the medical assistance received by the groups.
Survey of psychiatric morbidity in a semi‐urban population in Sri Lanka
Authors: Wijesinghe C. P. , Dissanayake S. A. W. , Dassanayake P. V. L. N.
Published: August 2007

This paper reports a survey of psychiatric morbidity in a semiurban community (population 7,653) in Sri Lanka. The entire population was first screened by social workers using a standardized interview. Probable cases were then examined by psychiatrists. Each psychiatric disorder identified was rated on four different parameters of severity, and only those rating moderate or severe were labelled as cases.

The socio‐demographic characteristics of the cases and the population at risk, and the frequency and nature of psychiatric disorders are presented in Tables. The 6‐month period prevalence for all psychiatric disorders was 45.5 per 1,000, with psychoses amounting to 6.9 (males 5.5; females 8.4) per 1,000, and neuroses to 25.2 (males 9.9; females 40.6) per 1,000. The large majority of disorders were chronic and had not received psychiatric treatment. The relevance of these surveys in the provision of psychiatric services in developing countries is discussed.
Sensitive delusion of reference, ‘sensitiver Beziehungswahn’
Authors: Rasmussen S.
Published: August 2007

Ten patients discharged with the diagnosis of ‘sensitiver Beziehungswahn’ were followed up 22–28 years after their discharge. In one case, the course of the illness indicates that the patient suffered from a manic‐depressive psychosis, and in two cases, this diagnosis was likely. In two cases the disorder seemed definitely to be schizophrenia. One case was presumably a transient paranoid reaction. One patient was likely to have suffered from hysteria or epilepsy, three cases remained uncertain. The study did not prove suitable in the evaluation of the validity of ‘sensitiver Beziehungswahn’ as a nosological entity, since at the time of diagnosis the patients only incompletely fulfilled the criteria set up by Kretschmer, but it throws light on the diagnostic practice and the tendency to a change between the classification into many independent disease entities and the subsequent inclusion into larger and fewer forms.
Effects of tricyclic antidepressants on human plasma levels of TSH, GH and prolactin
Authors: Widerlouv E. , Wide L. , Sjoustroum R.
Published: August 2007

Six healthy male volunteers were given chlorimipramine 25 mg t.i.d. or nortriptyline 25 mg t.i.d. in a randomized order for 7 days. Plasma samples were assayed for TSH, GH and prolactin before and after stimulation with TRH 200 μg i.v. It was found that the tricyclic antidepressants did not exert any influence on plasma hormonal levels compared with no treatment conditions.

Diminished TSH‐responses following daily TRH injections were demonstrated in endogenously depressed and chronic schizophrenic patients. A decreased TSH‐response was observed in healthy volunteers after a second TRH injection with an interval of 2 days be tween the TRH injections. A complete restoration of the TSH response was obtained after an interval of 4 days.
Calcium metabolism in lithium‐treated patients
Authors: Baastrup P. C. , Christiansen C. , Transbøl I.
Published: August 2007

The bone mineral content (BMC) together with biochemical indices of calcium metabolism were measured in 83 manic‐depressive patients on long‐term lithium therapy. The patients were diagnosed and divided into a unipolar and a bipolar group according to strict symptomatic course criteria.

The patients with bipolar course had a significantly decreased BMC (88% of normal, P>0.001), while the unipolar patients had normal BMC. Both groups had biochemical changes consistent with primary hyperparathyroidism.
Endorphins in human cerebrospinal fluid: Clinical correlations to some psychotic states
Authors: Lindtröm L. H. , Winderlöv E. , Gunne L.‐M. , Wahlström A. , Terenius L.
Published: August 2007

The significance of endorphins, endogenous morphine‐like agents, in some psychiatric disorders was investigated. Samples of cerebrospinal fluid were taken by lumbar puncute from healthy volunteers and from patients with schizophrenic, manic‐depressive and puerperal psychosis and analyzed for two major fractions of endorphins (Fractions I and II).

In 19 healthy volunteers the levels of the two fracstions fell within a fairly narrow range. In constrast, six out of nine drug‐free and symptom‐rich schizophrenics showed elevated levels of Fracstion I, which returned to normal or slightly supranormal values after treatment with neuroleptics or propranolol. This decrement was paralleled by a clinical improvement in four of six responding patients.

In four manic‐depressive patients, serial samples of cerebrospinal fluid revelaed elevated endorphin levels, particularly Fraction I during the manic stage. In three out of four patients with puerperal psychosis, the levels of endorphins (either Fraction I or II) were elevated in the acute drug‐free stage. During a later symjptomfree stage, after treatment with ECT and/or neuroleptics, the endorphin levles were within the normal range.

The present data lend credit to the hypothesis that endorphins are involved in some psychotic states in the human.
Depressive syndrome in schizophrenia
Authors: Planansky K. , Johnston R.
Published: August 2007

A depressive syndrome, closely resembling melancholia, was found in a large proportion of chronic schizophrenic men. Depression was most prominent during acute psychotic phases and was characterized by a delusional core of worthlessness and guilt. The depressive syndrome may persist throughout the patient's psychotic life and appears to be an integral component of schizophrenic psychopathology.
Has tryptophan any anticonvulsive effect?
Authors: Raotma H.
Published: August 2007

In an intra‐individual crossover trial depressed patients were treated with the 5‐hydroxytryptamine (5‐HT) precursor Gtryptophan (GTP) and unilateral ECT, or with unilateral ECT alone. The oral dose of L‐TP was 6 g the day before ECT and 3 g on the day of ECT, 4 hours before the treatment. The seizure duration was measured on EEG records.

The time of the electrical stimulation needed to induce generalized seizures was similar for both treatment alternatives. Thus L‐TP seems not to elevate the threshold to ECT‐induced convulsions.

The mean duration of a seizure was significantly shorter when the patients were treated with L‐TP + ECT than when treated with ECT alone. It is suggested that L‐TP exerts an inhibitory influence on the ability to sustain epileptic activity.
Maintenance treatment of chronic schizophrenic patients
Authors: Dom R. , Mesmaecker L. De , Broucke M. Van Den , Hest T. Van , Baro F.
Published: August 2007

The clinical effect of clopenthixol decanoate has been assessed in a 5‐month controlled study including 21 hospitalized chronic schizophrenic patients. The ratings were done with BPRS, NOSIE‐30, the two psychological tests of WAIS and Grünbaum, and the rating scale of Simpson & Angus to assess extrapyramidal side effects. Clopenthixol decanoate was found an effective and longacting antipsychotic compound with few autonomic and neurological side effects. Compared with previous maintenance treatment it also showed a positive influence on depression and facilitation of the social adaptation of the patients.
The dementia of dementia praecox
Authors: Johnstone E. C. , Crow T. J. , Frith C. D. , Stevens M. , Kreel L. , Husband J.
Published: August 2007

A group of 18 long‐stay patients with a diagnosis of schizophrenia were compared with a group of 10 age‐matched subjects who had been institutionalized by reason of physical disease, on performance on tests of intellectual function; and with a group of agematched healthy subjects, both on tests of intellectual function, and radiographically, using the technique of computerized axial tomography (EMI scan) of the brain. By comparison with the normal controls the patients with schizophrenia had increased cerebral ventricular size (assessed as cross‐sectional area) and, by comparison with both control groups, showed substantial impairments on intellectual testing. The differences in ventricular area between patients and controls remained significant (P < 0.01) after four patients who had been leucotomized had been excluded. Within the non‐leucotomized patient group ventricular area was unrelated to previous neuroleptic medication, ECT or insulin coma therapy, but there was a significant relationship between ventricular area and intellectual impairment (P < 0.01). Intellectual impairment, as assessed by the Withers & Hinton test battery, the Inglis paired associate learning test, and the digits‐backward test, was greater (P < 0.05) in patients with negative features (affective flattening, retardation, poverty of speech) than in those without such features. Premorbid occupational histories suggested that nearly all of these patients had at one time functioned at an adequate intellectual level. The findings suggest that within the group of patients with schizophrenia there is a subgroup whose illnesses have hitherto been considered typically schizophrenic, who have severe intellectual impairment associated with evidence of structural brain disease. The size of this subgroup and the significance of the cerebral changes remain to be determined.
“Psychogenic needs” in patients with affective disorders
Authors: Strandman E.
Published: August 2007

To investigate the occurrence of different psychogenic needs or groups of needs, 118 consecutive out‐patients with previous depressive disorders were asked to complete the Cesarec and Marke Personality Inventory; 103 completed it. Strict diagnostic criteria were used in subgrouping the series which thus consisted of unipolar depressive psychosis (UP), 26 patients; bipolar depressive psychosis (BP), 16; unclassified depression (NUD), 8; and reactio neurotico‐depressive (RND), 15. BP distinguished themselves from the other groups by a tendency to have a reduced need of approval, dependency, guilt feelings and ego conflicts and a stronger wish to dominate and lead. These results are in line with earlier findings. The NUD group was small but tended to have extreme scores, i.e. a particularly weak need to dominate and to be in the centre but also to be cared for.
Phobic partner‐specific impotence in women
Authors: Taylor F. Kräupl
Published: August 2007

Functional coital impotence is not exclusive to men. It also occurs in two groups of women: those suffering from vaginismus and those with depressive episodes that give rise to a partner‐specific sexual phobia. The latter syndrome is by no means uncommon, yet it has not so far attracted the attention it deserves. This neglect may be largely due to the emotional complications which ensue from it and camouflage its depressive‐phobic background. It can be amenable to psychotherapeutic measures combined with antidepressant medication.
Prognosis of post partum mental disturbance
Authors: Uddenberg N. , Englesson I.
Published: August 2007

Sixty‐nine women who had been studied in connection with their first para‐natal period were followed up 41/2 years later. Information was collected both from the mother (semi‐structured interview) and her child (play session). Those 16 mothers who had been severely mentally handicapped during their first post partum period were compared with the others. About half of the women in the handicapped group reported repeated and/or prolonged periods of impaired mental health even during the following years. Further, the women in the handicapped group reported a poor relationship to the partner more often than the others. The same women more often than the others experienced diffculties in adapting to the parental role; e.g. their general attitude towards the child, as estimated by the interviewer, was more often a rejecting one. They were also described more negatively by their children than women that had not been severely handicapped. It is concluded that women mentally disturbed post partum run a high risk of poor mental health even in the future and that in these cases the mother‐child relationship may often develop in an unfavourable way.
Diagnosis of schzophrenic borderline states
Authors: Vanggaard T.
Published: August 2007

The aim of this paper is to contribute to the clinical description of the group of schizophrenic borderline patients. In the first place important clinical features pointed out in older, basic papers will be restated. Secondly, additional observations, not used in clinical practice before, at least not explicitly, are described, data which are believed to be useful for the diagnosis of the states in question as well as for the differential diagnosis from other conditions, neuroses in particular. In the latter regard the following points are considered to be of outstanding importance: the presence or absence of a primary gain; the presence or absence of strivings to obtain an emotional secondary gain; the nature of the interpersonal relationship; the composition of the single symptoms.

Pseudonormal, pseudoneurotic and pseudopsychopathic states are characterized. Micro‐psychotic and overt psychotic states are described. Clinical differences from schizophrenic psychosis as observed in patients in the nuclear group of the schizophrenias are pointed out.
Therapeutic effects of clozapine
Authors: León C. A.
Published: August 2007

The double‐blind method was used to compare the therapeutic effects of clozapine and chlorpromazine in a sequential cohort of 50 schizophrenic patients with similar demographic characteristics, randomly allocated to two groups (“experimental” and “control”) of 25 patients each. At the end of the 6‐week trial period, statistically significant differences were found between the two groups in both the symptom check‐list score and the overall clinical evaluation. Follow‐up evaluations conducted at 3‐ and 4‐year intervals show that the differences between the two groups are persistent, which points in the direction of a better and more sustained therapeutic effect of clozapine over chlorpromazine. No discernible ill effects which could be attributed to either drug were detected throughout the 4‐year period.
EEG response to sine wave modulated light in XYY, XXY, and XY men
Authors: Volavka J. , Mednick S. A. , Rasmussen L. , Teasdale T.
Published: August 2007

Ten XYY, 14 XXY, and 47 control XY men were located in a birth cohort of non‐institutionalized, tall men. Their EEGs were recorded during stimulation with sine wave modulated light; 2.5, 5, 10 and 20 Hz were the modulation frequencies. EEGs with and without stimulation were subjected to power spectral analysis. The frequency‐specific EEG change due to visual stimulation (i.e. photic driving) was studied.

The XYY subjects showed generally lower levels of driving than their XY controls. At stimulation frequencies of 10 and 20 Hz, the EEG driving in the XYY subjects was significantly smaller when measured in the same frequency bands (i.e. 10 and 20 Hz). In addition, stimulation at 10 Hz elicited a significantly smaller response at the third harmonic frequency (i.e. 30 Hz) in the XYY subjects.

No consistent differences in EEG driving were detected between the XXY subjects and their XY controls, or between XXY and XYY subjects.
Therapeutical significance of clopimozide in the treatment of chronic psychotic patients
Authors: De Cuyper H. J. A. , Van Praag H. M. , Mulder W. R. E. H.
Published: August 2007

This report, which concerns both an open and a double‐blind study, describes the activity profile and optimum daily dose of clopimozide (R 29 764) investigated in 40 chronic psychotic patients.

The results of the open study indicated that clopimozide represents an equal, if not superior, choice versus the other neuroleptics which the patients had been receiving before the open study. Patients sought more contact with those surrounding them, were less preoccupied with their delusions and hallucinations, and showed a better adapted social behaviour.

However, these results were not confirmed by the data from the double‐blind study ‐ showing that clopimozide was less superior to the placebo than expected on the basis of the open trial.

Two hypotheses are advanced to explain this discrepancy: first, the difference in investigational method and second, possible over‐dosage of the drug at an average optimum daily dose of 13.95 mg.
Bimodal distribution of serum tryptophan level
Authors: D'Elia G. , Lehmann J. , Raotma H.
Published: August 2007

Serum levels of total L‐tryptophan (L‐TP) were determined before and during treatment in patients suffering from endogenous depression, who were treated with L‐TP, 6 g daily, and unilateral electro‐convulsive therapy (ECT). The gaussian curve of initial L‐TP concentrations changed into a bimodal distribution during treatment. The patients with initially lower L‐TP levels also had lower L‐TP levels during the treatment, thus forming the low‐concentration group within the bimodal distribution. In the patients with higher initial concentrations, the L‐TP levels increased to a much greater degree, forming the high‐concentration group. Patients in this group needed a larger number of ECT's, probably owing to L‐TP's property of shortening the seizure duration. No other background data or clinical variables showed significant differences between the groups. It is suggested that the bimodality of L‐TP levels is genetically determined.
Attempted suicide
Authors: Okasha A. , Lotaif F.
Published: August 2007

This study comprises 200 cases from a total of 1,155 patients who attempted suicide in 1975 and were admitted to the casualty department of Ain Shams University Hospital in Cairo, which has a catchment area comprising approximately 3 million people. A crude rate of suicide attempts in Cairo would be 38.5/100,000. There was a high percentage among the age group 15–44 years with no major differences between the two sexes. Single patients represented 53 % of the total, with students showing the highest risk (40 %). Depressive illnesses, hysterical reactions, and situational disorders, in that order of frequency, were the main causes of the attempt. Overdose by tablet ingestion was the most common method used (80 %). Official government records are misleading and do not represent the true rate.
Plasma progesterone, oestradiol 17 β and premenstrual symptoms
Authors: Taylor J. W.
Published: August 2007

Thirty‐nine healthy women, mainly hospital employees, median age 23, kept a daily record of symptoms throughout their menstrual cycles and plasma progesterone and oestradiol 17β levels were measured daily in the premenstrual week and second daily for the remainder of the cycle. Groups with symptom scores (affective, somatic and total) above and below the median score were compared with respect to mean plasma hormone levels and the pattern of change of plasma hormones over the 3 weeks before menstruation and the last 7 premenstrual days. Progesterone/oestrogen ratios for the latter period were also compared in the same subjects. No significant differences were found. There was a positive correlation of age with mean plasma progesterone level in the 3 weeks before menstruation.
A double‐blind comparison of flupenthixol decanoate and fluphenazine decanoate in the treatment of chronic schizophrenia
Authors: Pinto R. , Bannerjee A. , Ghosh N.
Published: August 2007

Sixty‐four chronic stabilised schizophrenics were studied for 18 months in order to assess the possible difference in therapeutic effects and side effects between flupenthixol decanoate and fluphenazine decanoate. Although certain differences in the BPRS sub‐scores in favour of flupenthixol were present at various stages in the study, there was no significant difference between the two drugs in the overall antipsychotic scores at the end of the assessment period; however, more patients on fluphenazine required additional therapy for depression or anxiety during the trial period.
Amnestic‐confabulatory syndrome in hydrocephalic dementia and Korsakoff's psychosis in alcoholism
Authors: Berglund M. , Gustafson L. , Hagberg B.
Published: August 2007

The clinical course of six alcoholics with Korsakoff's psychosis was compared with 23 patients with hydrocephalic dementia before and after shunt operation. The initial clinical state as well as the symptom improvement showed important similarities between the Korsakoff group and the hydrocephalic dementia group, who improved after shunt operation. Fantastic confabulation and apraxia were only observed in the hydrocephalic dementia group. Psychometrically, both groups showed a similar degree of improvement of the initially impaired verbal memory while only the hydrocephalic dementia group showed impairment of spatial abilities indicating a constructional apraxia. It is suggested that the similarities of the two conditions are related to dysfunction of diencephalic and temporal‐limbic structures. The constructional and general apraxia as well as the fantastic confabulation in hydrocephalic dementia indicate a cortical, especially frontal cortical, dysfunction in this disorder.
Psychiatric disorder in Canberra
Authors: Henderson S. , Duncan‐Jones P. , Byrne D. G. , Scott R. , Adcock S.
Published: August 2007

A standardised survey of prevalence has been carried out in a general population. The epidemiological method employed is innovative in its use of two established instruments, the GHQ and the PSE, harnessed together in a two‐phase design. 756 persons were interviewed, giving a response rate of 85 % in phase 1. 157 were then interviewed with the PSE in phase 2 within a few days, giving a response rate of 92 % in this weighted subsample.

The point prevalence of non‐psychotic morbidity, based on the distribution of GHQ scores, is higher than elsewhere in Australia, the excess being in Canberra males. The PSE data weighted back to represent the total population, show a distribution of morbidity in women which is remarkably similar to that in the very different population of Camberwell. The overall point prevalence of threshold and definite cases is 9.0 % 3.2. Case rates did not vary significantly with age or sex, but were higher in the separated, the single and the widowed.

This study represents an advance in the reliable and economical detection of psychiatric morbidity at specified levels of severity in general populations.
Delirium tremens; SOME CLINICAL FEATURES. PART I
Authors: Kramp P. , Hemmingsen R.
Published: August 2007

Twenty patients with delirium tremens and related states were investigated from the time of admission until the acute state was over. Using strict diagnostic criteria the material was divided into two groups according to the severity of the clinical condition; nine patients had fully developed delirium tremens (grade 3), 11 patients had a less severe clinical state, known as “Predelirium” (grade 2). The material was found to be representative for the condition under discussion.

Patients with grade 2 were admitted during the day and the evening, but not during the night; patients with fully developed delirium tremens (grade 3) were admitted during both the day and the night, and this difference is discussed.

The two groups had the same pattern of alcohol abuse, but patients with proper delirium tremens had had a drinking bout preceding the acute state; this was not seen among patients with a less severe clinical state. Patients with grade 2 had had symptoms like sleep disturbances and gastro‐intestinal disturbances for 12–24 hours before the admission, whereas grade 3 patients had had such symptoms for about 48 hours.

Patients with grade 2 stopped drinking when the first symptoms of the acute state appeared, whereas patients with fully developed delirium tremens continued to drink in spite of their condition. These anamnestic data were supported by the finding that significantly more patients with proper delirium tremens had alcohol in the blood – several even concentrations about 2 g/l – at the time of admission compared to patients with a less severe clinical state. This lack of “latency period”, which previously has been described as a typical feature in the development of delirium tremens, is discussed.

It is concluded that due to the methodology used, it has been possible to point out some of the differences between the milder, often harmless, conditions and the potentially serious, fully developed delirium tremens.
Comparison between saliva and serum lithium concentrations in patients treated with lithium carbonate
Authors: Vlaar H. , Bleeker J. A. C. , Schalken H. F. A.
Published: August 2007

The relation between serum and saliva lithium concentration was studied in patients treated with lithium carbonate.

In 23 patients a highly variable salivaherum ratio was found in simultaneous saliva and serum samples.

In five patients studied during a period of 4–8 weeks three patients showed a high fluctuation in saliva/serum lithium ratio. In 20 patients saliva lithium concentrations varied unexpectedly in a second sample produced after 15 min. Although some authors report a high and stable relation between saliva and serum lithium concentration, we consider the saliva lithium level unreliable as a prediction of the serum lithium level in patients treated with lithium carbonate.
Nonspecific factors and side effect complaints: FACTORS AFFECTING THE INCIDENCE OF DROWSINESS IN DRUG AND PLACEBO TREATED ANXIOUS AND DEPRESSED OUTPATIENTS
Authors: Downing R. W. , Rickels K. , Rickels L. A. , Downing D.
Published: August 2007

Discriminant function analyses were applied to data obtained from anxious psychiatric outpatients treated with either chlordiazepoxide (n = 353) or placebo (n = 259) and depressed outpatients treated with either amitriptyline (n = 310) or placebo (n = 328), who had participated in controlled drug trials of 4 weeks’duration, in an attempt to identify factors associated with complaints of drowsiness made by these patients. Although the magnitude of the relationships between individual predictors and drowsiness was small, several factors emerged which had consistent impact across treatment groups. Predictors of complaints of drowsiness attributed to active drugs arose primarily from demographic attributes probably reflective of life style, and from illness and treatment history. In contrast, predictors of drowsiness attributed to placebo were almost exclusively confined to indices of the severity of several aspects of presenting symptomatology. In particular, more frequent complaints of drug‐induced drowsiness were found among better educated individuals with an illness of long duration. Complaints of placebeinduced drowsiness were more common among patients with more severe emotional (phobic‐obsessive) symptomatology and more frequent headaches and among those individuals in whom hypochondriasis was less severe.
Factors affecting the experience of the initial psychiatric consultation in outpatients with anxiety states
Authors: Persson G.
Published: August 2007

The experience of the first consultation was measured by a questionnaire in 42 outpatients with neurotic anxiety tension states. The correlation between this experience and the doctor's level of experience, the sex combinations of doctors and patients and the personality of the patient, as measured by an inventory 1–2 years after the end of the drug study (35 patients completed the inventory), was studied.

Patients who had had a more favourable experience had more often been interviewed by doctors with longer psychiatric experience. Female patients tended to report a more favourable experience with male doctors than male patients did. Patients with a less favourable experience deviated more from the norms of the personality inventory with regard to, for instance, passive dependency than patients with a more favourable experience did, but the difference between the groups was not significant.
Factors related to drug compliance adn attrition in neurotic outpatients treted with anxiolytics
Authors: Persson G.
Published: August 2007

Forty‐six outpatients with anxiety‐tension states took part in a study on the effects of anxiolytic drugs. At the first interview ratings were performed and the patients answered a questionnaire as to their experience of the consultation (n=42). Based on follow‐up exminations after 2, 4 and 8 weeks, three groups were formed: completers, who did not experience side‐effects to be of such intensity that they changed the recommended dose (n=15); deviators who due to side‐effects changed the recommended dose temporarily or permanently (n=20); and attritors (n=7). One to two years after the end of the drug study a personality inventory was sent out by post. It was returned by 35 patients.

1) Completers, deviators and attitors were similar with regard to age, education and social class. 2) They were also similar with regard to initial distress level. 3) Completers had the highest scores on scales measuring the personality traits defence of status and guilt‐feelings and on the factor index neurotic self‐assertiveness, while attritors had the lowest scores. 4) Completers, deviators and attritors were similar with regard to experience of the first consultation. 5) Patients with a more favourable experience of the first consultation reported taking lower doses of the drugs.
Personality and depressive illness
Authors: Pilowsky I.
Published: August 2007

This paper reports an investigation into the relationship between personality (as measured by the Sixteen Personality Factor Questionnaire) and depressive illness type, as determined by responses to the Levine‐Pilowsky Depression Questionnaire.

When the effects of age and depressive severity are accounted for, a significant difference emerges between “endogenous” and “non‐endogenous” depressive states in that the former are associated with a lower score on Factor E, indicating a more submissive, dependent personality. The possible implications of this finding are discussed.
Female alcoholics
Authors: Morbidity V. , Dahlgren L. , Idestroum C.‐M.
Published: August 2007

Data from the public health insurance societies regarding 66 female alcoholics, hospitalized for the first time for alcoholism at the Department of Alcohol diseases. Karolinska Hospital, Stockholm, were studied, and the development pattern of mobidity was compared with that of 68 male alcoholics fulfilling the same criteria. The observation period was 15 years. The progress of the alcoholism was not reflected in data from the social insurace societies up to the time of the first clinical treatment. However, the mobidity increased in both sexes after the treatment period, with higher disability, severity, and frequency rates, a large number of persons with disbality pensions and increasing social stigmatization. The proportion of women granted disability pensions increased to significantly higher values than that of men, and that of women in the general population. The women had significantly fewer registrations in social registers than the men during the whole period. Women and older patients had higher disability rates, more sick‐days due to “mental disease” and a higher severity rate before admission. All differences were equalized in the last part of the study.
Delirium tremens and related clinical states: AETIOLOGY, PATHOPHYSIOLOGY AND TREATMENT
Authors: Hemmingsen R. , Kramp P. , Rafaelsen O. J.
Published: August 2007

Definitions of Delirium Tremens (DT) and related clinical states are discussed together with the concepts of aetiology and pathogenesis in relation to psychiatric disease.

The withdrawal theory which considers reduction or cessation of alcohol intake as an important precipitating factor in DT is discussed; this theory is supported by experimental studies of ethanol withdrawal in man and by studies indicating cross dependence between ethanol and several other CNS depressors; the arguments in the literature for and against the withdrawal theory are discussed.

Other possible aetiological factors such as type of liquor, hypovitaminosis, liver disease, dysfunction of the adrenals and fat emboli are reviewed, and it is concluded that these factors are unimportant as precipitating or specific aetiological factors in DT.

The discussion about treatment of DT is concentrated on drug treatment, and the literature concerning antipsychotics and sedatives is reviewed. It is concluded that barbital, a long‐acting barbiturate, is the most effective treatment; diazepam can be recommended as an acceptable alternative. Finally, practical recommendations concerning treatment are given.
Types of attempted suicide (parasuicide)
Authors: Henderson S. , Lance G. N.
Published: August 2007

The clinical usefulness of a typology of parasuicide, reported in a previous paper, has been improved. A finer grained classification, using six instead of only three clusters, has proved itself to be clinically highly realistic. By a new method of cluster analysis which examines 80 attributes in each of 350 patients, the following types of parasuicide emerge: (1) operant, not alienated; (2) repeaters; (3) depressed with high life endangerment; (4) operant and alienated; (5) wristcutters; (6) undifferentiated. This more detailed typology may offer some advantages for clinical management and research.
Preliminary clinical test of zimelidine (H 102/09), a new 5‐HT uptake inhibitor
Authors: ÅBerg A. , Holmberg G.
Published: August 2007

Zimelidine, a bicyclic compound, which in animal experiments causes specific inhibition of the uptake of 5‐HT, was tried on 15 patients with depression of endogenous type. It produced considerable and highly significant 5‐HT uptake inhibition in rat brain slices incubated in blood plasma from the patient under treatment, but no inhibition of NA uptake.

Depressive symptoms were effectively relieved or entirely abolished in about two thirds of the patients. Only four patients did not react to the drug, and three of these were probably in need of NA uptake inhibitors, which on other occasions had worked well on their depressions. These three patients showed an extreme degree of retardation. During zimelidine treatment they were not just unaffected but showed signs of excitation, impatience and desperate feelings. These preliminary findings strongly indicate the true existence of depressive cases in need of an NA uptake inhibitor, but completely resistant to a specific 5‐HT uptake inhibitor.

The final dose of zimelidine was 75 mg b.i.d. This dose, although sufficient in most cases, was obviously somewhat low for a few of our patients. The concentration in blood plasma of zimelidine should probably reach a minimum level of 250 nmol/l and norzimelidine 500 nmol/l, and to achieve this a general dosage of 100 mg b.i.d. is recommended.
Verbal tests and transsexualism
Authors: Kenna J. C. , Hoenig J.
Published: August 2007

Gender discriminating vocabulary tests administered to a consecutive series of 53 male transsexuals show different results. The Slater Selective Vocabulary Test, Cohen's factors and the Terman‐Miles Attitude Interest Analysis Test (M‐F) show male transsexuals to have a higher degree of feminization than normal controls. The Wechsler‐Bellevue Vocabulary Test and the Wechsler M‐F Test are difficult to interpret, and do not show a clear trend of feminization in transsexual males. The investigation has shown that male transsexuals have a vocabulary which differs from that of normal males in the direction of greater feminization.
Increase in weight after treatment with depot neuroleptics
Authors: Korsgaard S. , Skausig O. B.
Published: August 2007

A trial has been performed investigating changes in weight in 99 female patients who have been treated with clopenthixol decanoate or perphenazine enanthate after prior treatment with different oral neuroleptics. We found a significantly higher mean weight after the oral treatment period and a slight, but not statistically significant, further weight increase after the following depot period. In addition the rate of increase in weight was significantly lower during the depot treatment period. These increases might be due to achievement of a steady‐state in weight during the first treatment period with oral intake. We found no difference between clopenthixol decanoate and perphenazine enanthate as regards change in weight or rate of change in weight.
Socio‐economic status and prevalence of mental disorders in certain rural communities in India
Authors: Nandi D. N. , Banerjee G. , Boral G. C. , Ganguli H. , (Sachdev) S. Ajmany , Ghosh A. , Sarkar S.
Published: August 2007

A psychiatric field‐survey was conducted in three villages in West Bengal, India in order to correlate the prevalence of mental morbidity with the socio‐economic status of the families. The sample was divided into four groups on the basis of religion or caste. Total morbidity had no statistically significant relationship with socio‐economic status in any of the four groups. In the total sample it was directly related. Higher classes had significantly higher rates. Psychoses were not correlated with socio‐economic status in any of the groups. Neuroses showed a significantly higher rate in the upper strata of two groups; in the other two groups the trend of prevalence was in the same direction. The four groups had significant differences in their rates of total morbidity. In all the groups females had a higher rate of mental morbidity. Psychoses, Neuroses and Depression were commoner in females and Schizophrenia was commoner in males.
Season of birth in mental disorders in mental disorders in Tokyo, Japan, by year of admission and age at admission
Authors: Shimura M. , Miura T.
Published: August 2007

Seasonal distribution of births of schizophrenics and manic‐depressives born in Tokyo between the years of 1841 and 1940 and first admitted between 1879 and 1973 was examined by year of birth, year of first admission and age at first admission. In both mental disorders, a fall‐excess of births could be seen among those born up to the latter part of the 19th century, after which the distribution changed to show a spring‐excess. The distributional pattern seemed to depend upon both year of birth and year of admission, rather than on age at first admission.
Father/child relationship: Background factors in the father
Authors: Nettelbladt P. , Uddenberg N. , Englesson I.
Published: August 2007

This investigation studied by direct interviews in a randomly selected sample of 58 Swedish unbroken families, factors of importance for the father's experience of his preschool child. The father's experience of his child was shown to correlate with the child's expereince of him.

Fathers experiencing their child in a positive way had been more active in the care of the child, less “authoritarian” and more physically intimate. They described good marital relations. Fathers with a low income or unsatisfied with their job were more negative towards their child than others. There was no association between the father's mental health and his experience of his child. Fathers reporting poor early parental contact were less positive towards their child than others. The man's relation to his own father was more connected with his experience of his child than his relation to his own mother, especially when the child was a boy.
Sexmodifying operations on transsexuals in Denmark in the period 1950–1977
Authors: Sørensen T. , Hertoft P.
Published: August 2007

In Denmark registration of all sex change applicants has become centralized, sice removal by operation of biologically healthy sexual organs cannot be performed unless authorized by the Ministry of Justice.

All sex change applications in the period 1920–77 are examined and notes have been taken of the historical preconditions of operative treatment of transsexuals and the varying decisions regarding method of treatment. The first legal castration in Denmark – described as a sensation in the international press – was carried out without any further knowledge of transsexulalism as a nosological unity. It was believed that the patient was a suffering homosexual and that the suffering was caused by libidinal pressue, and so castration was sanctioned.

It is pointed out that since the end of the fifties there has been more reservation in complying with wishes for castration, while wishes for change of name and identity number (in his country females have even numbers, while males have odd numbers) are complied with to a much higher degree than earlier. The number of persons applying for change of name, castration, and permission to publicly cross‐dress has been recorded, and an approximately fivefold incidence of sex changes applicants is found in the period from 1950 to 1977. This increase is not solely ascribed to a rise in the number of transsexuals, but it is more likely due to better operative treatment causing applications form more potential petitioners. The relation between applying males and females has tended to be equalizing through the last three decades, so that ratio males:females is 2.8:1 in the secventies. The importance of a care ful psychiatric phenomenological elucidation before deciding on sexodifying changes is stressed.
Treatment of premenstrual tension with lithium carbonate – A PILOT STUDY
Authors: Steiner M. , Haskett R. F. , Osmun J. N. , Carroll B. J.
Published: August 2007

Some previous reports have suggested that lithium treatment is of benefit to women with the premenstrual tension syndrome (PMTS). In this study 15 women carefully selected for severe PMTS were given lithium carbonate (600–900 mg/day) continuously for three menstrual cycles. Lithium did not affect physical premenstrual symptoms and was ineffective in most women against behavioral premenstrual symptoms. Despite the low dosage most women also experienced significant drug‐related side effects. Although a statistically significant improvement was recorded by several symptom rating instruments, this benefit was of no practical clinical value. The three women who responded best to lithium, and who requested continued treatment beyond 3 months, met diagnostic criteria for subsyndromal affective (cyclothymic) disorder. Lithium is not recommended for the average woman with PMTS.
Transsexualism as a nosological unity in men and women
Authors: Sørensen T. , Hertoft P.
Published: August 2007

Wishes for and conceptions of sex change have existed in widely different cultures for millenniums. Aetiological theories about the cause of transsexualism are reported, but it is concluded that we have no decisive knowledge favouring either one or the other theory. Treatment of the condition, including surgical operation, is therefore symptomatic.

The importance of a careful phenomenologic elucidation of the condition is emphasized as a necessary precondition of the diagnostic demarcation, of creating the necessary contact with the transsexual, and necessary as a starting point for a therapeutic effort. The phenomenologic difference between the two transsexual sexes is emphasized by comparison with two narcissistic character types, both described by Wilhelm Reich– the passive feminine character and the phallic narcissistic character. Both the transsexual male and female are characterized by an insecure gender identity. The transsexual male reacts to this insecurity and anxiety by withdrawing to conceptions of living in a submissive over‐aesthetical femininity. Aggressive and libidinal powers are pushed away from the consciousness, resulting in the often observed pseudo‐femininity in transsexual males. The transsexual female, on the other hand, seeks to subdue a similar insecure gender identity by obtaining ego‐satisfaction in adoption of strong outer attitudes and actions. She takes on a caricatured masculine attitude. It is shown how these phenomena are reflected in the sexual area. The transsexual man does not find the sexual genital satisfaction important, while the transsexual woman, on the contrary, is genitally fixated and preoccupied with sexual display.

Among the transsexual males there is a delimited core group that is characterized by a stable ego‐structure, a good reality testing, plus the above‐mentioned character traits, specified by the special pseudo‐feminine narcissism and the lack of genital interest. We have not been able to make a similar cleavage of a core group among female transsexuals and the deliminations of this group are on the whole more difficult, especially concerning certain homosexual women.

The necessity of delimiting the transsexual syndrome phenomenologically from psychotic conditions in persons with a desire for sex change is emphasized.
Assessment of renal concentrating ability in lithium‐treated patients – COMPARISON OF LONG‐TERM DEHYDRATION WITH ADMINISTRATION OF A VASOPRESSIN ANALOGUE
Authors: Vestergaard P. , Hansen H. E.
Published: August 2007

In patients given long‐term treatment with lithium maximum urine osmolality was measured after 26 h of dehydration and after intranasal administration of desamino‐8‐D‐arginine vasopressin (DDAVP). A high correlation was found between the results of the two tests suggesting that the DDAVP test is a suitable method of assessing renal concentrating ability in lithium‐treated patients.
Psychiatric symptoms in ruptured anterior communicating aneurysms: social prognosis
Authors: Okawa M. , Maeda S. , Nukui H. , Kawafuchi J.
Published: August 2007

Pre‐ and postoperative psychiatric symptoms were compared in 85 patients with anterior communicating aneurysms and 73 of these cases were followed up to determine the long‐term results. Psychiatric symptoms of varying severity were present preoperatively in 61 % of the cases, which decreased to 34 % after surgery. Use of the microsurgery microscope resulted in a no change: aggravation:mortality ratio of 27:5:0, as compared with 33:204 when the microscope was not used.