Assessment Of Liability Research Articles

Liability issues and assessment of decision-making capability in nursing home patients

Liability issues and assessment of decision-making capability in nursing home patients

Stimulus functions of drugs and the assessment of abuse liability

AbstractThe development of a unifying framework for conceptualizing the commonalities in various forms of substance abuse must encompass the data base focused upon the stimulus functions of drugs. In the first instance, for example, the research on drug self‐administration has provided convincing evidence of a remarkable concordance between laboratory animals and human substance abusers in the reinforcing stimulus functions of a range of chemical agents. The recognition of these cross‐species and cross‐drug generalities has radically changed conceptualizations of substance abuse from a reactive to a more active process and has encouraged the kind of functional analysis of drug‐seeking and drug‐taking that has proven productive and useful in the study of other behavioral interactions. In this regard as well, recent refinements in the analysis of the discriminative stimulus functions of drugs have provided a more comprehensive basis for characterizing a chemical agent's spectrum of action and evaluating its abuse liability. While the correlation between the discriminative stimulus functions and the reinforcing stimulus functions is remarkably high for some drug classes, there are notable exceptions. Finally, the assessment of abuse liability requires an analysis of the eliciting stimulus functions of drugs as reflected by the physiological and behavioral changes, both acute and chronic, that follow drug administration. The methods used to evaluate both physiological dependence and behavioral toxicity in relationship to sensory and motor effects for a range of abused drugs have depended heavily upon an assessment of the eliciting stimulus functions of such compounds.

Economic evaluation of waste minimization options

AbstractThree analytical tools developed to assist hazardous waste generators in identifying and evaluating the economic feasibility of waste minimization options are presented. Ranging in scope and sophistication from comprehensive financial analysis models to simple data management systems, these analytical tools are: a financial analysis model; a multi‐option model (MOM); and a future liability assessment model.

Liability to self-heating of particular samples of fertilizer grade ammonium nitrate

Results of testing the liability of various samples of fertilizer grade ammonium nitrate (AN) to self-heating are presented. Test methods applied comprises: DTA, TG, determination of mass loss at constant temperature, pH-measurement of aqueous solutions. The assessment of liability to self-heating is based on comparison to the relevant results of a standard AN product.

A simple and rapid method of inducing physical dependence with benzodiazepines in mice

Physical dependence was rapidly induced in mice by administering diazepam intraperitoneally twice daily using an incremental dosing regimen (50 to 450 mg/kg) for nine consecutive days. Withdrawal was induced (24 hr after the last dose) by administration of a benzodiazepine antagonist, RO-15-1788 (10 mg/kg, IP). All of the mice exhibited clear-cut withdrawal symptoms (i.e., convulsions) within minutes of antagonist treatment. This method offers a simple, reliable, high throughput procedure for the assessment of benzodiazepine-like physical dependence liability and withdrawal, and it would be useful for screening purposes.

Methaqualone.

Methaqualone is considered a sedative hypnotic drug with a pattern of pharmacological effects similar to those of barbiturates such as pentobarbital. It does have chemical similarities to the barbiturates but was, in fact, synthesized as part of an Indian program looking for antimalarial drugs (Brown and Goenechea, 1973). Methaqualone was selected for the focus of this study five years ago, because of its popularity as a euphoriant among casual recreational drug users in the Boston area. Methaqualone, instead of a barbiturate hypnotic, was therefore used to test our proposed methodology for the assessment of the abuse liability of sedative drugs. As one reviews the history of the clinical use and illicit abuse of methaqualone, it appears particularly unfortunate that a study of this sort was neither completed nor available to our Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) in 1965. It was at this time that the drug was approved for prescription use and placed in Schedule V, a schedule which essentially places no restrictions on the clinical use of a prescription drug (Falco, 1976). This paper will both review the development of methaqualone and present an experimental methodology for assessing its abuse liability under seminaturalistic conditions.

The reinforcing functions of drugs and assessment of abuse liability: J. V. Brady. The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine

The reinforcing functions of drugs and assessment of abuse liability: J. V. Brady. The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine

Preclinical assessment of abuse liability of drugs.

Studies that are used in preclinical assessment of the liability of a drug to become an abuse problem are reviewed. These studies examine the capacity of a drug to produce physiological dependence or to function as a reinforcer. Studies that examine physiological dependence by assessing whether a drug reverses signs of withdrawal from a standard drug are rapid, reliable and inexpensive methods for determining if a drug produces dependence of a type similar to the standard. However, these techniques will not determine if the drug produces a unique type of dependence. Studies that examine whether a drug functions as a reinforcer have been predictive of whether a drug will be abused in human populations. Attempts to rank order drugs with respect to their efficacy as reinforcers, however, are not predictive of measures of extent of abuse in human populations. Since abuse of drugs in human populations is a function of societal variables in addition to pharmacological factors, it is unlikely that preclinical assessments will ever yield more than qualitative information on abuse liability of drugs.

Assessment of addiction liability of benzodiazepines and buspirone.

Assessment of addiction liability of benzodiazepines and buspirone.

A comparison of the cardiovascular and the behavioral changes following naloxone as measures of the degree of physical dependence on morphine in rats

AbstractBehavioral and cardiovascular changes evoked by naloxone (0.5 mg/kg) were evaluated in unrestrained rats made physically dependent by a constant infusion of morphine at increasing doses over 7 days. The relationship between the duration of morphine administration and the naloxone‐induced cardiovascular changes was investigated to determine the reliability and sensitivity of blood‐pressure measurements in assessing the degree of physical dependence produced in these animals. No significant behavioral or cardiovascular changes from preaddiction levels were observed during morphine infusion. Arterial pressure increased significantly in a dose‐ and time‐dependent manner in response to naloxone injected on days 1, 3, 5, or 7 of the morphine infusion schedule. Heart rate changes which accompanied the increase in blood pressure, however, were similar in magnitude over the course of increasing physical dependence. The frequency of counted behavioral signs precipitated by naloxone over the same infusion schedule indicated a significant, progressive increase only for escape attempts, whereas withdrawal body shakes and writhing peaked early in the schedule and actually declined to very low frequencies by day 7. A high dose of morphine (50 mg/kg) was injected following naloxone‐precipitated withdrawal in an attempts to reverse the abstinence symptoms. The only symptoms significantly inhibited by morphine were the increase in arterial pressure and the occurrence of diarrhea. These results indicate that the absolute increase in arterial blood pressure produced by naloxone in opiate‐dependent animals may serve as a simple, objective, and sensitive measurement, along with traditional behavioral signs, in the assessment of narcotic dependence liability.

Physical dependence induced by opiate partial agonists in the rat

The ability of four opiate partial agonists (buprenorphine, xorphanol, nalbuphine and butorphanol) to produce antinociception and morphine-like physical dependence was examined in the rat. For comparative purposes, morphine was also tested. Dose-response curves were constructed using the rat tail pressure test for analgesia which indicated a rank order of potency of buprenorphine ⪢ morphine > butorphanol > xorphanol = nalbuphine. Assessment of primary physical dependence liability was made using the technique of chronic intraperitoneal infusion followed by precipitation of abstinence with the opiate antagonist, naloxone. The results clearly indicate that buprenorphine was not only the most potent antinociceptive agent, but also possessed the lowest incidence of physical dependence as indicated by precipitated abstinence signs. The other opiates were very much weaker as antinociceptive agents and all produced clear signs of physical dependence.

Abuse liability assessment in human subjects

Abuse liability assessment in human subjects

Experimental abuse liability assessment of benzodiazepines.

The topic of this article is the experimental psychology and experimental pharmacology of benzodiazepines as applied to their abuse liability assessment.1 The issues of physiological and psychological dependence on benzodiazepines are considered to be separate topics and will be examined as such.

Relationships between disease levels on seed tubers, on crops during growth and in stored potatoes. 4. Gangrene and soft rot

Incidences of gangrene and soft rot were assessed on seed tubers and on progeny tubers during growth, at harvest, and after storage, in up to 26 commerical King Edward crops in each of 5 years and up to 13 crops grown from ‘healthier’ seed in 4 years. Gangrene inoculum on seed tubers generally influenced disease levels throughout the season, and inoculum levels during growth were related to disease incidence in store. However, relationships were not significant in every year and more disease developed in some seasons (e.g. 1974) than others. Disease incidence in store was generally low, and an initial curing period of 2 weeks at 15°C decreased incidence at 3°C by about 75%. Assessments of soft rot inoculum and liability to rotting used methods that were still being developed. Relationships between assessments at different times were not significant; disease development in store was negligible. Factors other than inoculum (e.g. damage and soil moisture status at harvest) strongly influence the incidence of both these diseases in store.

Assessment of morphine-type physical dependence liability: a screening method using the rat.

The effects of centrally acting drugs on body weight changes during 8-h periods in the daytime were studied in the rat in attempts to relate those effects with morphine-type physical liability. Repeated administration of drugs which have morphine-type physical dependence liability altered the prevailing pattern of continuous body weight decrease during the observation period in control animals to an initial increase and subsequent decrease. Withdrawal of these drugs following chronic drug treatment caused a precipitous loss of body weight. Such a body weight loss was further enhanced by the administration of naloxone. In chronically morphine-treated animals, substitution for morphine with a single dose of a test drug caused an increase in body weight or attenuated the loss of body weight due to morphine withdrawal when the test drug has physical dependence liability. Drugs may be classified according to their effects on body weight changes into several groups, each with different physical dependence liability. It is concluded that physical dependence liability of centrally acting drugs can be predicted simply, inexpensively and objectively, by their effects on the pattern of daily body weight changes.

Methods of assessment of liability of coal to rockbursts : GIL, H DRZEZLA, B In Polish. 1F, 1T, 16R. PRZEGL. GORN. V29, N12, 1973, P493–497

Methods of assessment of liability of coal to rockbursts : GIL, H DRZEZLA, B In Polish. 1F, 1T, 16R. PRZEGL. GORN. V29, N12, 1973, P493–497

Government Views on Water-Pollution Control

I am very pleased to be with you today and would like to discuss the federal government's views on water-pollution control. To cover the entire field of water pollution in this presentation would be too ambitious an undertaking; therefore, I will concentrate on oil-pollution control as an example of the government's views and actions toward water pollution. The words I deliver to you today are spoken as a representative of the Dept. of the Interior. In a short while, the Environmental Protection Administration will be my mentor, as the Federal Water Quality Administration joins with other pollution control agencies in a cohesive new national program for managing the total environment. There is no reason to expect, however, that the broad outlines of federal policy on pollution control, more specifically oil-pollution control, will change in the new agency. I think you are well aware of the basic elements of this federal water pollution policy. Simply stated: The federal government is responsive to the American public's insistence on clean water. The federal government public's insistence on clean water. The federal government is anxious to assist in the establishment and operation of pollution control programs and facilities, but it in turn expects the cost of clean water to be shared by both the public and private interests. And finally, the federal government intends to accent its regulatory and enforcement orientation. The basic elements of and trends in the federal oil-pollution policy may also be simply stated. The damage to the environment done by ever-increasing amounts of oil pollution must be ameliorated. The risk of accidental oil spills must be minimized through the use of adequate prevention measures and the judicious application of negative incentives for careless polluters -- i.e., prosecution, penalties and assessment of full liability for costs of cleanup. Also, the amount of oil discharged in normal operations - most especially vessel ballast discharge - must be reduced by using new procedures and equipment. When spins do occur, common sense dictates that federal, state, local, and private forces combine to insure rapid and effective private forces combine to insure rapid and effective control and cleanup. The Torrey Canyon casualty blighted the English Channel in 1967, and awoke the world to the potential catastrophes that ply the ocean every day. potential catastrophes that ply the ocean every day. It was not until 1969, however, when the Santa Barbara well blowout shocked millions of Americans into action, that U. S. oil-pollution control programs really got off the ground. Oil-pollution control legislation had been languishing in the Congress and appeared to be headed for a long, uphill fight. Neither the Torrey Canyon, the Ocean Eagle, the Hess Hustler nor the Witwater casualties were sufficient to get this going. The Santa Barbara episode was a spur in the side of all, and set the stage and tenor for the type of public reaction to aquatic despoilment that is prevalent today. Public outcry over Santa Barbara sent Congress on a whirlwind of spill-control action, and various committees actually began to compete for legislation. JPT P. 829

EFFECTS OF BARBITURATES AND ETHER ON SPONTANEOUS ELECTRICAL ACTIVITY OF DOG BRAIN

EFFECTS OF BARBITURATES AND ETHER ON SPONTANEOUS ELECTRICAL ACTIVITY OF DOG BRAIN