Administration Of Psychoactive Drugs Research Articles

Factors for Timely Identification of Possible Occurrence of Delirium in Palliative Care: A Prospective Observational Study.

Delirium occurs in 50–80% of end-of-life patients but is often misdiagnosed. Identification of clinical factors potentially associated with delirium onset can lead to a correct early diagnosis. To this aim, we conducted a prospective cohort study on patients from an Italian palliative care unit (PCU) admitted in 2018–2019. We evaluated the presence of several clinical factors at patient admission and compared their presence in patients who developed delirium and in those who did not develop it during follow-up. Among 503 enrolled patients, after a median follow-up time of 16 days (interquartile range 6–40 days), 95 (18.9%) developed delirium. Hazard ratios (HR) and corresponding 95% confidence intervals were computed using Cox proportional hazard models. In univariate analyses, factors significantly more frequent in patients with delirium were care in hospice, compromised performance status, kidney disease, fever, renal failure, hypoxia, dehydration, drowsiness, poor well-being, breathlessness, and “around the clock” therapy with psychoactive drugs, particularly haloperidol. In multivariate analyses, setting of care (HR 2.28 for hospice versus home care, 95% CI 1.45–3.60; p < 0.001), presence of breathlessness (HR 1.71, 95% CI 1.03–2.83, p = 0.037), and administration of psychoactive drugs, particularly haloperidol (HR 2.17 for haloperidol, 95% CI 1.11–4.22 and 1.53 for other drugs, 95% CI 0.94–2.48; p = 0.048) were significantly associated with the risk of developing delirium. The study indicates that some clinical factors are associated with the probability of delirium onset. Their evaluation in PC patients could help healthcare professionals to identify the development of delirium in those patients in a timely manner.

Psychiatric medicalization in three Brazilian women's prisons: an ethnographic approach to the itineraries of criminalization, pathologization and pharmaceuticalization

This article analyzes the psychiatric medicalization of women in three Brazilian women's prisons, from the fields of mental health, the anthropology of confinement, and gender studies. A qualitative study employing ethnographic methods was carried out from October 2006 to February 2007, which included participant observation, informal conversations, semi-structured interviews, and life histories. Understood as a state device of power, psychiatric medicalization processes are marked by three itineraries: the mass criminalization of women, pathologization of women's crimes, and psychiatric pharmaceuticalization (especially through the administration of psychoactive drugs). These processes thus establish a vicious cycle that perpetuates or produces the disorders that psychiatry seeks to heal and enables the continuity of drug use (illicit-licit-illicit) and its ties to the illegal drug market, while highlighting how gender - in its intersections with other categories of differentiation - influences the production of mental illnesses, which must be treated as a public health problem that extends beyond the walls of women's prisons.

Spontaneous reductions in smoking during double-blind buprenorphine detoxification

ObjectiveEvidence suggests a positive association between administration of psychoactive drugs and rates of cigarette smoking. Prevalence of smoking among opioid-dependent individuals, for example, is four times greater than the general population. We recently completed a randomized double-blind trial evaluating outpatient buprenorphine taper for prescription opioid (PO) abusers, which provided a unique opportunity to examine naturalistic changes in smoking among participants who detoxified without resumption of illicit opioid use. MethodParticipants received no smoking-cessation services and were not encouraged to alter their smoking in any way. A subset of 10 opioid-dependent smokers, who were randomized to receive the same 4-week buprenorphine taper and successfully completed detoxification, were included in the present study. They provided staff-observed urine specimens thrice-weekly throughout the 12-week trial. Specimens were analyzed onsite via enzyme-multiplied immunoassay for urinary cotinine, a metabolite of nicotine that provides a sensitive biochemical measure of smoking status. ResultsMean cotinine levels were significantly different across study phases, with significantly lower cotinine levels during taper (1317.5ng/ml) and post-taper (1015.8ng/ml) vs. intake (1648.5ng/ml) phases (p’'s<.05). Overall, mean cotinine levels decreased by 38% between intake and end-of-study, reflecting a reduction of approximately eight cigarettes per day. ConclusionsThese data provide additional evidence that opioids influence smoking and extend prior findings to include primary PO abusers, rigorous double-blind opioid dosing conditions and urinary cotinine. These results also suggest that, while likely insufficient for complete cessation, patients who successfully taper from opioids may also experience concurrent reductions in smoking and thus may be ideal candidates for smoking cessation services.

EPA-1229 – Comparison of the saccadic refixation parameters in patients treated with methadone and individuals from the control group

Introduction Administration of psychoactive drugs increases dopaminergic receptor stimulation, improves mood and stimulates motor activity. Structural and functional changes can be observed in particular structures of the central nervous system (CNS). Aims/Objectives This study aims to assess the saccadic refixation parameters in opioid addicted subjects treated with methadone compared to control group. Methods Eighty-six patients from the substitution program were examined. The study included 36 subject of the control group. The trial was conducted twice: before and about 1.5 hours after the administration of therapeutic dose of methadone. Performed Latency Test(LT) with Saccadometr diagnostic system. Results The statistical analysis showed that the mean duration before and after the administration of methadone was a statistically significant increases (p=0,0001) in the subjects from substitution program compared of the control group but after administration of methadone the value greatly increased in experimental group (before 52 ms , after 56 ms ). It was observed that the mean amplitude after the administration of methadone increased statistically significantly in experimental group compared of the control group (p=0,02). Mean peak velocity of latency after the administration of a therapeutic dose of methadone was statistically significant decreased in experimental group compared of the control group (p=0,0004). Conclusion The results indicate a change in the dynamics of saccade after methadone administration. The observed changes in values for eye movements may be due to the inhibitory effect of methadone on CNS.

Time–frequency analysis of spike-wave discharges using a modified wavelet transform

The continuous Morlet wavelet transform was used for the analysis of the time–frequency pattern of spike-wave discharges (SWD) as can be recorded in a genetic animal model of absence epilepsy (rats of the WAG/Rij strain). We developed a new wavelet transform that allows to obtain the time–frequency dynamics of the dominating rhythm during the discharges. SWD were analyzed pre- and post-administration of certain drugs. SWD recorded predrug demonstrate quite uniform time–frequency dynamics of the dominant rhythm. The beginning of the discharge has a short period with the highest frequency value (up to 15 Hz). Then the frequency decreases to 7–9 Hz and frequency modulation occurs during the discharge in this range with a period of 0.5–0.7 s. Specific changes of SWD time–frequency dynamics were found after the administration of psychoactive drugs, addressing different brain mediator and modulator systems. Short multiple SWDs appeared under low (0.5 mg/kg) doses of haloperidol, they are characterized by a fast frequency decrease to 5–6 Hz at the end of every discharge. The frequency of the dominant frequency of SWD was not stable in long lasting SWD after 1.0 mg/kg or more haloperidol: then two periodicities were found. Long lasting SWD seen after the administration of vigabatrin showed a stable frequency of the discharge. The EEG after Ketamin showed a distinct 5 s quasiperiodicity. No clear changes of time–frequency dynamics of SWD were found after perilamine. It can be concluded that the use of the modified Morlet wavelet transform allows to describe significant parameters of the dynamics in the time–frequency domain of the dominant rhythm of SWD that were not previously detected.

Evaluation of common gene expression patterns in the rat nervous system.

In the postgenomic era, integrating data obtained from array technologies (e.g., oligonucleotide microarrays) with published information on eukaryotic genomes is beginning to yield biomarkers and therapeutic targets that are key for the diagnosis and treatment of disease. Nevertheless, identifying and validating these drug targets has not been a trivial task. Although a plethora of bioinformatics tools and databases are available, major bottlenecks for this approach reside in the interpretation of vast amounts of data, its integration into biologically representative models, and ultimately the identification of pathophysiologically and therapeutically useful information. In the field of neuroscience, accomplishing these goals has been particularly challenging because of the complex nature of nerve tissue, the relatively small adaptive nature of induced-gene expression changes, as well as the polygenic etiology of most neuropsychiatric diseases. This report combines published data sets from multiple transcript profiling studies that used GeneChip microarrays to illustrate a postanalysis approach for the interpretation of data from neuroscience microarray studies. By defining common gene expression patterns triggered by diverse events (administration of psychoactive drugs and trauma) in different nerve tissues (telencephalic brain areas and spinal cord), we broaden the conclusions derived from each of the original studies. In addition, the evaluation of the identified overlapping gene lists provides a foundation for generating hypotheses relating alterations in specific sets of genes to common physiological processes. Our approach demonstrates the significance of interpreting transcript profiling data within the context of common pathways and mechanisms rather than specific to a given tissue or stimulus. We also highlight the use of gene expression patterns in predictive biology (e.g., in toxicogenomics) as well as the utility of combining data derived from multiple microarray studies that examine diverse biological events for a broader interpretation of data from a particular microarray study.

Comparisons between Discrete Lever-Press and Shuttle Avoidance Responses in Mice: Acquisition Processes and Effects of Psychoactive Drugs

Acquisition processes of discrete lever-press (L-type) and shuttle (S-type) avoidance responses as well as effects of psychoactive drugs thereon were investigated in dd strain mice. The mice showed a more rapid acquisition of S-type avoidance than L-type. However, the mean avoidance rates and occurrences of good-performing mice (showing an avoidance rate of higher than 75%) were almost the same in both types when the training was carried out for more than 1 5 sessions of 1 hr each. The response rate of L-type avoidance was 2.5–3 times as high as that of S-type avoidance. Methamphetamine and cocaine increased the response rate in almost the same grade in both types of avoidance. Chlorpromazine, haloperidol, pilocarpine and physostigmine suppressed both L-type and S-type avoidance responses. However, the L-type showed a higher sensitivity than the S-type to the avoidance-suppressing effect of these drugs. Atropine, scopolamine and morphine suppressed L-type avoidance response, while they facilitated S-type avoidance. The drug-induced changes in the response rate of the S-type were well correlated with those in the ambulatory activity. The changes in the response rate of the L-type were also consistent with those in the ambulatory activity after administration of methamphetamine, cocaine, chlorpromazine, haloperidol, pilocarpine and physostigmine, but inconsistent after atropine, scopolamine and morphine. The present results suggest that L-type and S-type avoidance responses in mice sometimes show a different change after administration of psychoactive drugs.

Endocrine effects of chronic administration of psychoactive drugs to prepubertal male rats. II. LSD.

The endocrine effects of chronic D-lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD) administration to prepubertal animals were studied by injecting intraperitoneally three times a week for a month either 100 mug or 500 mug of the psychoactive drug per kilogram or the vehicle to groups of Sprague-Dawley male rats starting at 21 days of age. Animals injected with either dosage of LSD had smaller body weights than controls and tail length was significantly reduced in the high dosage group, plasma levels of growth hormone (GH) were decreased in the high dosage group, and pituitary levels in the low dosage group. Plasma levels and pituitary concentrations of luteinizing hormone and follicle stimulating hormone were not significantly modified by the drug. The low dosage of LSD decreased the brain levels of noradrenaline and increased those of dopamine, while the high dosage decreased those of 5-hydroxyindoleacetic acid. These data suggest that LSD, when administered chronically to developing animals, can inhibit body growth probably by altering the secretion of GH through modifications of its neuroendocrine control.