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Query: UMLS:C0011570 (depression)
 172,036 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

Depression is both a common and a greatly undertreated illness in the United States today. The focus of this review is a definition of the characteristics of four subtypes of depression which appear to be differentially sensitive to four different classes of medications. The tricyclic antidepressants should be used for patients with unipolar depression and vegetative symptoms. Lithium appears to be most effective for bipolar depressives. The monoamine oxidase (MAO) inhibitors are best used for patients with atypical depression. Antipsychotic medications appear to be useful for depressed patients with psychotic symptoms or agitation. Recent pharmacokinetic and biochemical data, including serum lithium levels, plasma tricyclic levels, and the predictive ability of pretreatment urinary 3-methoxy-4-hydroxyphenylglycol (MHPG) levels are also reviewed.
West J Med 1977 May
PMID:Subtypes of depression--diagnosis and medical management. 1 27

In a double-blind trial involving 99 patients, equi-analgesic doses of tilidine and pethidine (100 mg of each i.m.) were compared as to their effectiveness in laparoscopies, gastroscopies, esophagoscopies and liver needle biopsies. The two substances produced equally analgesic effects both during and after the various procedures, with the exception of the liver biopsies, in which tilidine was shown to be significantly more effective than pethidine. Whereas no sedation was noted in connection with tilidine medication, pethidine produced a marked, undesirable sleepiness in 12% of the cases observed. Due to the high analgesic efficacy and tolerance of tilidine found in both this and numerous other clinical trials and to its particular advantages over pethidine and other opiates (no respiratory depression, no effect on intestinal motility) tilidine can be recommended for premedication in gastrointestinal endoscopies and liver needle biopsies. Tilidine (Valoron) is not subject to the restrictions imposed by the West German narcotics laws.
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PMID:[Double-blind study on the analgesic efficacy of tilidine (valoron) and pethidine (dolantin) in gastro-intestinal endoscopies and liver biopsies (author's transl)]. 14 48

The regulated passage of an intense convulsion producing electrical current through the brain as in Electro Convulsive Therapy (ECT) is an accepted modality of psychiatric therapy. The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of a brief cyclic electrical current to both auricles. The current was tolerable, nonconvulsive in nature and self-administered by the patients at home. The data indicates the procedure proved a very potent method for the control of mental depression, anxiety-depression and delusional states. In the majority of cases, it completely eliminated, for many months after treatment, the need for psychiatric or drug supportive therapy.
Comp Med East West
PMID:The use of low intensity electrical stimulation to the auricles in psychiatric patients. 30 37

Psychiatric research has made remarkable advances in understanding the pathophysiology of depressive illnesses. Biologic depressions are now understood as neurotransmitter deficiency diseases. Certain forms of depression are treated with tricyclic antidepressant drugs, which increase the amount of available neurotransmitters. Complicating the clinical picture, however, is the problem of wide variability of levels of tricyclic drugs in the plasma of persons receiving the same dosage. Another problem is the apparent linear dose-response relationship of imipramine hydrochloride and its sister compound desipramine hydrochloride while amitriptyline and nortriptyline follow an inverted U-shaped dose-response curve. However, with newer, more sophisticated diagnostic methods, combined with monitoring of tricyclic drug levels in plasma, therapeutic efficacy can approach 90 percent. Available neurotransmitters also can be increased using monoamine oxidase (MAO) inhibitors. Although MAO inhibitors have been less popular than the tricyclic drugs, recent clinical research tends to support their efficacy. Distinct individual differences in the rate of metabolism of MAO inhibitors have been found. New methods are being devised to detect these differences and monitor directly the effects of these drugs. One of these methods, platelet MAO inhibition, shows some clinical promise. Tricyclic drugs and MAO inhibitors have recently been joined by lithium carbonate, which shows notable efficacy in removing acute manic-depressive symptoms as well as preventing their return during maintenance treatment. Its utility in treating cyclic depressions without mania is now being explored by researchers.
West J Med 1979 Aug
PMID:Recent advances in antidepressant drug treatment. 39 Aug 88

A psychiatric field-survey was conducted in three villages in West Bengal, India in order to correlate the prevalence of mental morbidity with the socio-economic status of the families. The sample was divided into four groups on the basis of religion or caste. Total morbidity had no statistically significant relationship with socio-economic status in any of the four groups. In the total sample it was directly related. Higher classes had significantly higher rates. Psychoses were not correlated with socio-economic status in any of the groups. Neuroses showed a significantly higher rate in the upper strata of two groups; in the other two groups the trend of prevalence was in the same direction. The four groups had significant differences in their rates of total morbidity. In all the groups females had a higher rate of mental morbidity. Psychoses, Neuroses and Depression were commoner in females and Schizophrenia was commoner in males.
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PMID:Socio-economic status and prevalence of mental disorders in certain rural communities in India. 43 27

Of 14 medical and surgical patients who committed suicide in a general hospital, there were ten men and four women, ranging in age from 19 to 82. The patients had not made statements of suicidal intent; however, their hospital records showed there had been symptoms of depression and contained indirect references to a preoccupation with suicide. Most of the patients had been depressed because of their illnesses or distressing symptoms. It is important to keep in mind that there are clues that help anticipate suicide. Awareness by hospital staffs of symptoms and subtle signs of depression and of suicidal thoughts in patients is important in reducing the number of suicides in general hospitals. Of preventive and treatment measures, warmth, compassion and commitment to the care of patients by hospital staffs are most important.
West J Med 1979 May
PMID:Suicide in general hospitals. 51 65

Functional overlay is not a recognized psychiatric diagnosis. Evaluating functional overlay and differentiating between this concept and organic conditions is important in medicolegal areas in which financial values are placed on pain and disability. Functional overlay is not malingering: the former is based on preconscious or unconscious mechanisms, the latter is consciously induced. In considering psychologic reactions to pain and disability, a gradient of simulation, malingering, symptom exaggeration, overvaluation, functional overlay and hysteria is useful. The dynamics of overlay are a combination of anxiety from body-image distortion and depression from decreased efficiency of the body, as well as the resulting psychosocial disruption in a patient's life.
West J Med 1979 Jun
PMID:Functional overlay: an illegitimate diagnosis? 51 98

Propylthiouracil and methimazole are used widely in the treatment of hyperthyroid disorders. The most important complication of the use of these drugs is depression of the neutrophilic granulocyte count. Granulocytopenia occurs in about 4 percent and agranulocytosis occurs in about 0.3 percent of treated patients. Although this depression of the granulocyte count is reversible after the drug is discontinued, serious infection frequently accompanies agranulocytosis and accounts for almost all deaths related to the drugs. It is important to be aware of the clinical features of granulocytopenic reactions due to antithyroid drugs.
West J Med 1977 May
PMID:Agranulocytosis and antithyroid drugs. 86 81

Novonal, a hypnotic dispensed without medical prescription in West Germany, has in the past two years been used relatively often in suicide attempts. It is quickly absorbed after oral intake, with a blood half-life of 6-11 hours, most of it being excreted by the kidneys after metabolic degradation. Analysis of 23 cases of Novonal intoxication revealed that cardiac arrhythmias, hypotension and respiratory depression may occur with 6 g Novonal (contained in a pocket of 20 tablets) and must thus be rated as potentially lethal. In severe cases of poisoning haemoperfusion or haemodialysis may be useful. Pharmacological data suggest that forced diuresis is ineffective.
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PMID:[Novonal (diaethylallylacetamide) poisoning (author's transl)]. 92 33

Phencyclidine is now one of the most frequently used main ingredients of "street drug" preparations. Its effects are highly dose dependent and three varieties of acute intoxication have been seen clinically associated with different dosages and routes of administration. Most persons using phencyclidine smoke it sprinkled on parsley in low doses. The presence of horizontal and vertical nystagmus associated with hypertension in a patient who is agitated or comatose are diagnostic of a phencyclidine intoxicated state. Sensory isolation and intravenous administration of diazepam in the event of seizure activity have proved effective in the treatment of acute intoxicated states. Phencyclidine has pronounced behavioral toxicity and several deaths due to this agent have now been documented. It is unknown whether seizure activity or respiratory depression is the primary cause of death in pharmacological overdoses.
West J Med 1975 Nov
PMID:Phencyclidine--states of acute intoxication and fatalities. 121 Mar 29


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