Gene/Protein Disease Symptom Drug Enzyme Compound
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Query: UMLS:C0004134 (ataxia)
 15,886 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

Volatile organic solvents and aerosols are available in a wide variety of household and commercial products. Inhalation of these substances produces euphoria, excitement, sedation, delusions, and visual and auditory hallucinations. With acute and chronic use, organic solvents and aerosols cause slurred speech, ataxia, frank intoxication, and poor insight and judgment. Both acute and chronic toxic effects can occur, and addiction can develop with chronic use.
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PMID:Organic solvent and aerosol abuse. 205 31

Three patients had neurologic signs due to isopropyl alcohol (IPA) intoxication. Over a several-week period, a known alcoholic developed apathy, confusion, ataxia, and hyperreflexia. During this period, there was no ethanol available to him, and he denied use of other intoxicants. He was found stuporous in the hospital after drinking IPA and admitted to IPA abuse during the preceding weeks. Two other men were admitted in a stupor after large ingestions of IPA. Intoxication with IPA has two different presentations: stupor in a known alcoholic and encephalopathy of unknown cause in individuals who hide their addiction. Ethanol, methanol, IPA, and ethylene glycol intoxications are associated with different clinical and laboratory findings.
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PMID:Isopropyl alcohol intoxication. 198 19

Fifty-seven cases of meprobamate ingestion from 1974 through 1979 were reviewed. Serum meprobamate concentrations, clinical findings, and epidemiologic data were studied to determine the present status of the abuse of this compound. The average patient was a 37-year-old woman who ingested meprobamate and at least one other drug (usually a benzodiazepine, a barbiturate, ethanol, or an opiate) in a suicide attempt of gesture. She arrived at the hospital either alert or lethargic with equal frequency. Half of the time she was seen only in the emergency room, and half of the time she was hospitalized. She was usually treated with supportive care alone and survived the ingestion. Serum meprobamate concentrations exceeding 12 mg/dl were consistent with coma. Dysarthria, hypotension, tachycardia, and ataxia were the most common physical findings. Meprobamate addiction was present in six patients.
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PMID:The present status of meprobamate ingestion. A five-year review of cases with serum concentrations and clinical findings. 745 16

Dextromethorphan (DM), the dextrorotatory isomer of 3-hydroxy-N-methylmorphinan, is the main ingredient in a number of widely available, over-the-counter antitussives. Initial studies (Bornstein 1968) showed that it possessed no respiratory suppressant effects and no addiction liability. Subsequently, however, several articles reporting abuse of this drug have appeared in the literature. The drug is known to cause a variety of acute toxic effects, ranging from nausea, restlessness, insomnia, ataxia, slurred speech and nystagmus to mood changes, perceptual alterations, inattention, disorientation and aggressive behavior (Rammer et al 1988; Katona and Watson 1986; Isbell and Fraser 1953; Devlin et al 1985; McCarthy 1971; Dodds and Revai 1967; Degkwitz 1964; Hildebrand et al 1989). There have also been two reported fatalities from DM overdoses (Fleming 1986). However, there are no reports describing the effects of chronic abuse. This report describes a case of cognitive deterioration resulting from prolonged use of DM.
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PMID:Cognitive deterioration from long-term abuse of dextromethorphan: a case report. 780 71

Toluene is a chemical that is very useful in our lives but harmful to our health. Behavioral toxicology has the merit of providing an accurate indication of functional toxicity to the CNS through the analysis of learned behavior and use of behavioral analysis techniques that give us various learning paradigms for investigating the effects of chemicals on memory, stimulus discrimination, attention, time perception, etc. Learning is a common ability among various species and it is possible to predict toxicity to human health from animals. Behavioral toxicology is assumed to play an important role in occupational and environmental health. Using typical test batteries such as shuttle, Sidman, and pole-climb avoidance, and FI, FR, DRL, and DMS tasks, the effects of toluene were investigated and the results were reviewed. One important objective of a test battery is to be able to detect already-known toxicity. Behavioral toxicology research indicated such effects of toluene toxicity as hyperactivity, ataxia, addiction, insomnia, and memory disturbances. Some excellent results which might indicate clinically unknown effects of toluene such as hearing loss, impairments of time discrimination, and improvements of STM were also demonstrated. Introduction of blood and brain toluene levels as an index of toluene exposure and more sophisticated learning tasks which reflect specific higher nervous functions of the CNS has been proposed.
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PMID:Behavioral approaches to toluene intoxication. 832 66

A case is reported of a patient who experienced sudden onset of severe respiratory failure, shock and coma after first-time intranasal heroin abuse. During the following days full consciousness was restored, revealing persistent oculogyric crises, axial retropulsive dystonia and ataxia. Initially computer tomography (CT) scans of the brain were normal and cerebral spinal fluid examination showed a slight elevation of lactate. Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scans of the brain demonstrated diffuse bilateral subcortical white matter hyperintensities, with sparing of the U-fibers, symmetric bilateral hyperintensities of the globus pallidum and very hyperintensive subcortical foci in the right hemisphere. Differential diagnostic assessment, treatment, clinical and MRI course of a 6-month follow-up are discussed.
Addiction 1999 Mar
PMID:Subacute onset of oculogyric crises and generalized dystonia following intranasal administration of heroin. 1072 57

The benzodiazepines are still extensively used in psychiatry, neurology and medicine in general. Anxiety disorder and severe insomnia are important syndromal indications, but these drugs are widely prescribed at the symptomatic level, resulting in potential overuse. The official data sheets recommend short durations of usage and conservative dosage. Although short-term efficacy is established, long-term efficacy remains controversial, as relevant data are scanty and relapse, rebound and dependence on withdrawal not clearly distinguished. The risks of the benzodiazepines are well-documented and comprise psychological and physical effects. Among the former are subjective sedation, paradoxical release of anxiety and/or hostility, psychomotor impairment, memory disruption, and risks of accidents. Physical effects include vertigo, dysarthria, ataxia with falls, especially in the elderly. Dependence can supervene on long-term use, occasionally with dose escalation. The benzodiazepines are now recognised as major drugs of abuse and addiction. Other drug and non-drug therapies are available and have a superior risk benefit ratio in long-term use. It is concluded that benzodiazepines should be reserved for short-term use--up to 4 weeks--and in conservative dosage.
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PMID:Limitations on the use of benzodiazepines in anxiety and insomnia: are they justified? 1062 86

Paradichlorobenzene (PDB) is a common household deodorant and pesticide found in room deodorizers, toilet bowl fresheners, and some mothballs. Although human exposure to the compound is generally limited and harmless, PDB in larger doses can produce neurotoxic effects, including a chemical "high" similar to that seen with inhalants such as toluene. Although rare, frank addiction to PDB has been reported, and, in such cases, has been associated with gait ataxia, tremor, dysarthria, limb weakness, and bradyphrenia, in various combinations. In such cases, the adverse neurologic consequences have been presumed to result from a direct toxic effect of this small, organic molecule. We report a case of chronic mothball ingestion where profound encephalopathy with cognitive, pyramidal, extrapyramidal, and cerebellar features appears to have been largely the result of PDB withdrawal, rather than direct toxicity. This case raises important questions about the mechanism of PDB neurotoxicity and possible treatment options for PDB-addicted patients. We propose that in cases with clear clinical deterioration after abstinence, readministration and gradual taper of PDB might be considered a therapeutic option.
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PMID:Mothball withdrawal encephalopathy: case report and review of paradichlorobenzene neurotoxicity. 1734 27

Sleep disturbances are a common finding in the clinical practice of addictions. Clinical management of insomnia is known to influence the prognosis of the addiction and the success of the detoxication process itself (Peles, Schreiber, and Adelson, 2006; Pace-Schott, Stickgold, Muzur, Wigren, Ward, et al., 2005; Bootzin and Stevens, 2005; Maher, 2004). Thus the relevance of controlling sleep disturbances from the very beginning of the detoxification process. However, managing this situation is often not easy for the clinician. The classical option of using sedating-hypnotic drugs to treat insomnia in polydrug users presents objections: the tolerance associated to high doses of benzodiacepines chronic abuse in many drug addicts obliges the clinician to use high doses of hypnotics, both in acute detoxification and the following de-habituation, with the associated resulting risk of dependence and undesirable side effects (excessive sedation, nocturnal enuresis, ataxia, etc).
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PMID:Quetiapine in the treatment of sleep disturbances associated with addictive conditions: a retrospective study. 1908 42

Polyneuropathy, hearing loss, ataxia, retinitis pigmentosa, and cataract (PHARC) is a neurodegenerative disease marked by early-onset cataract and hearing loss, retinitis pigmentosa, and involvement of both the central and peripheral nervous systems, including demyelinating sensorimotor polyneuropathy and cerebellar ataxia. Previously, we mapped this Refsum-like disorder to a 16 Mb region on chromosome 20. Here we report that mutations in the ABHD12 gene cause PHARC disease and we describe the clinical manifestations in a total of 19 patients from four different countries. The ABHD12 enzyme was recently shown to hydrolyze 2-arachidonoyl glycerol (2-AG), the main endocannabinoid lipid transmitter that acts on cannabinoid receptors CB1 and CB2. Our data therefore represent an example of an inherited disorder related to endocannabinoid metabolism. The endocannabinoid system is involved in a wide range of physiological processes including neurotransmission, mood, appetite, pain appreciation, addiction behavior, and inflammation, and several potential drugs targeting these pathways are in development for clinical applications. Our findings show that ABHD12 performs essential functions in both the central and peripheral nervous systems and the eye. Any future drug-mediated interference with this enzyme should consider the potential risk of long-term adverse effects.
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PMID:Mutations in ABHD12 cause the neurodegenerative disease PHARC: An inborn error of endocannabinoid metabolism. 2119 94


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