Am J Psychiatry 2001 Aug;158(8):1336-7
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PMID: 11481187, UI: 21373832
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Am J Psychiatry 2001 Aug;158(8):1276-85
Cognitive Neuropsychiatry Research and Academic Unit, Department of Psychiatry, University of Melbourne, Sunshine Hospital, St. Albans, Victoria 3021, Australia. cpant@unimelb.edu.au
OBJECTIVE: This study examined the interrelationship between negative symptoms, orofacial tardive dyskinesia, and specific neurocognitive processes, particularly those involved in memory and executive function, in patients with schizophrenia. METHOD: A set of computerized neurocognitive tasks, the Cambridge Neuropsychological Test Automated Battery, was used to assess executive and memory function in 54 hospitalized patients with chronic schizophrenia. Analysis of covariance was used to examine differences between groups with or without the topographical syndromes of orofacial tardive dyskinesia and between groups with high or low negative symptom scores. Principal-components and path analyses were used to examine further the influence of negative symptoms and orofacial tardive dyskinesia on performance on tests of memory and executive function. RESULTS: Both orofacial tardive dyskinesia and negative symptoms were significantly and independently associated with deficits on measures of spatial working memory span derived from principal-components analysis, but only orofacial tardive dyskinesia was associated with deficits on measures of spatial working memory strategy. Both were also associated with impairment on the delayed-matching-to-sample task, a test of memory. These associations were not explained by deficits in global intellectual function. Path analysis suggested that the relationships between the clinical symptoms and performance on the delayed-matching-to-sample task were mediated entirely through their relationship with the spatial working memory measures. CONCLUSIONS: In schizophrenia, orofacial tardive dyskinesia and evident negative symptoms are relatively independent markers of compromise of the cerebral systems that mediate spatial working memory. Candidate neural circuits include the frontal-striatal-thalamic systems, particularly those involving the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex.
PMID: 11481163, UI: 21373808
Am J Psychiatry 2001 Aug;158(8):1206-14
Department of Psychiatry and Neurology, Hamamatsu School of Medicine, 3600 Handa-cho Hamamatsu, 431-3192 Shizuoka, Japan. ysekine@hama-med.ac.jp
OBJECTIVE: A positron emission tomography (PET) study has suggested that dopamine transporter density of the caudate/putamen is reduced in methamphetamine users. The authors measured nucleus accumbens and prefrontal cortex density, in addition to caudate/putamen density, in methamphetamine users and assessed the relation of these measures to the subjects' clinical characteristics. METHOD: PET and 2-beta-carbomethoxy-3beta-(4-[(11)C] fluorophenyl)tropane, a dopamine transporter ligand, were used to measure dopamine transporter density in 11 male methamphetamine users and nine male comparison subjects who did not use methamphetamine. Psychiatric symptoms in methamphetamine users were evaluated by using the Brief Psychiatric Rating Scale and applying a craving score. RESULTS: The dopamine transporter density in all three of the regions observed was significantly lower in the methamphetamine users than the comparison subjects. The severity of psychiatric symptoms was significantly correlated with the duration of methamphetamine use. The dopamine transporter reduction in the caudate/putamen and nucleus accumbens was significantly associated with the duration of methamphetamine use and closely related to the severity of persistent psychiatric symptoms. CONCLUSIONS: These findings suggest that longer use of methamphetamine may cause more severe psychiatric symptoms and greater reduction of dopamine transporter density in the brain. They also show that the dopamine transporter reduction may be long-lasting, even if methamphetamine use ceases. Further, persistent psychiatric symptoms in methamphetamine users, including psychotic symptoms, may be attributable to the reduction of dopamine transporter density.
PMID: 11481152, UI: 21373797
Ann Intern Med 2001 Aug 21;135(4):S-30
PMID: 11529203, UI: 21406317
Hum Exp Toxicol 2001 Feb;20(2):118-9
Instituto Nacional de Toxicologia, Barcelona, Spain.
We report a case of fatal weeverfish sting. An 18-year-old man was stung on the left leg by a weeverfish, which he was attempting to capture while snorkelling off the coast of Majorca (Spain). The man felt intense pain, but managed to swim to his boat where he lost consciousness after boarding rapidly. An hour later, when examined by a doctor, the subject was found to be in cardiorespiratory arrest. Reanimation manoeuvres were unsuccessful. The most import post-mortem findings were in the skin and lungs. A puncture wound, which traversed the greater saphenous vein and was covered by an intense haemorrhagic infiltrate, was observed in the skin. The lungs showed haemorrhagic alveolar oedema.
PMID: 11327512, UI: 21224163
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