Am J Psychiatry 2001 Sep;158(9):1511-4
Division of Psychiatry, Ministry of Health Be'er Sheva Mental Health Center, Faculty of Health Sciences Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Israel. lernervld@yahoo.com
OBJECTIVE: The authors' goal was to conduct a double-blind trial of vitamin B(6) in the treatment of tardive dyskinesia in patients with schizophrenia. METHOD: Fifteen inpatients with schizophrenia who met research diagnostic criteria for tardive dyskinesia were randomly assigned to treatment with either vitamin B(6) or placebo for 4 weeks in a double-blind crossover paradigm. The Extrapyramidal Symptom Rating Scale was used to assess patients weekly. RESULTS: Mean scores on the parkinsonism and dyskinetic movement subscales of the Extrapyramidal Symptom Rating Scale were significantly better in the third week of treatment with vitamin B(6) than during the placebo period. CONCLUSIONS: Vitamin B(6) appears to be effective in reducing symptoms of tardive dyskinesia.
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PMID: 11532741, UI: 21422803
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Ann Emerg Med 2001 Sep;38(3):339-41
Los Angeles County + University of South California Medical Center, Los Angeles, CA, USA.
PMID: 11524658, UI: 21415369
BMJ 2001 Sep 15;323(7313):634
PMID: 11575321, UI: 21459166
BMJ 2001 Sep 15;323(7313):633-4
PMID: 11575320, UI: 21459165
BMJ 2001 Sep 8;323(7312):531
PMID: 11546691, UI: 21430707
Forensic Sci Int 2001 Sep 1;120(3):189-94
Institute of Legal Medicine, University of Foggia, Ospedali Riuniti, Via L. Pinto 1, I-71100, Foggia, Italy. vfinesc@tin.it
Recent studies suggest that many fatal heroin overdoses are caused by anaphylactoid reaction. In the present study we measured tryptase and eosinophil cationic protein in post-mortem blood of 48 deaths after heroin injection. We also investigated the presence and pulmonary distribution of mast-cells using specific immunohistochemical antibody for tryptase and morphometric evaluation in those cases of heroin-related deaths. The data were compared with 44 subjects who died following head trauma and to 32 cases of fatal anaphylactic shock. In the heroin-related death cases, the measurements of serum tryptase levels and eosinophil cationic protein dosages resulted in particularly elevated concentrations compared with the trauma cases. Nevertheless, the data that our study supplies by immunohistochemical techniques indicate that when mast-cells count in the lung was determined, no definite pattern was obtained between fatal heroin overdose cases and the control groups. Furthermore, the wide range of morphine concentrations found in post-mortem blood samples suggest that the term 'overdose' is relative and does not sufficiently characterize death associated with heroin addiction. Our study confirms that elevated concentrations of serum tryptase are associated with many heroin-related deaths. At this moment to attribute the cause of these deaths to 'heroin overdose' ignores the likely causal contribution of other possible systemic reactions to the mechanism of death.
PMID: 11473801, UI: 21367685
J Clin Psychiatry 2001 Aug;62(8):653
PMID: 11561939, UI: 21445843
Lancet 2001 Feb 24;357(9256):604
Department of Microbiology, Victoria Hospital, Kirkcaldy, UK. andrew.whyte@faht.scot.nhs.uk
PMID: 11558488, UI: 21442191
Toxicol Sci 2001 Aug;62(2):353-9
Department of Cell and Molecular Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics, Medical University of South Carolina, 171 Ashley Avenue, Charleston, SC 29425, USA. mcmilldc@musc.edu
Favism is an acute anemic crisis that can occur in susceptible individuals who ingest fava beans. The fava bean pyrimidine aglycone divicine has been identified as a hemotoxic constituent; however, its mechanism of toxicity remains unknown. We have shown recently that divicine can induce a favic-like response in rats and that divicine is directly toxic to rat red cells. In the present study, we have examined the effect of hemotoxic concentrations of divicine on rat erythrocyte sulfhydryl status, hexose monophosphate (HMP) shunt activity, morphology, and membrane skeletal proteins. In vitro exposure of rat red cells to divicine markedly stimulated HMP shunt activity and resulted in depletion of reduced glutathione with concomitant formation of glutathione-protein mixed-disulfides. Examination of divicine-treated red cells by scanning electron microscopy revealed transformation of the cells to an extreme echinocytic morphology. SDS-PAGE and immunoblotting analysis of the membrane skeletal proteins indicated that hemotoxicity was associated with the apparent loss of skeletal protein bands 2.1, 3, and 4.2, and the appearance of membrane-bound hemoglobin. Treatment of divicine-damaged red cells with dithiothreitol reversed the protein changes, which indicated that the observed alterations were due primarily to the formation of disulfide-linked hemoglobin-skeletal protein adducts. The data suggest that oxidative modification of hemoglobin and membrane skeletal proteins by divicine may be key events in the mechanism underlying favism.
PMID: 11452148, UI: 21345441
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