Gene/Protein Disease Symptom Drug Enzyme Compound
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 28,634 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

Designer drugs, chemically altered compounds derived from federally controlled substances, have become a major cause of addiction and overdose deaths. These drugs include mescaline analogs, synthetic opioids, arylhexylamines, methaqualone derivatives and crack, a new form of cocaine. Sudden changes in mood, weight loss, depression, disturbed sleep patterns, deteriorating school or work performance, marital problems, and loss of interest in friends and social activities may be signs of drug addiction. Life-threatening complications of acute intoxication, such as hyperthermia, seizures, combative and psychotic behavior, and cardiorespiratory collapse, require prompt diagnosis and supportive intervention.
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PMID:Substance abuse: the designer drugs. 202 Nov 4

Pyogenic osteomyelitis of the spine is an uncommon disease. A series of 16 cases is reported. The site of involvement includes the lumbar, cervical, and thoracic segments, in that order of frequency of occurrence. Drug addiction and diabetes mellitus are important predisposing factors. The spectrum of clinical presentation is described. Late presentation is usually masked by old age, debilitation, and previous antibiotic treatment. Rapid progression with septicemia is also encountered. The importance of differentiating this condition from tuberculosis spondylitis is emphasized. Definitive diagnosis should depend on bacteriological, histological, and, with the recent introduction of antituberculosis antibody test, serological studies. Timely surgical intervention is indicated in complicated cases. Radical excision and anterior spinal fusion yields early and complete eradication of the infected material plus arthrodesis, which prevents late collapse of the spine.
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PMID:Pyogenic osteomyelitis of the spine--a review of 16 consecutive cases. 298 Jan 42

To supplement a detailed epidemiologic study of an outbreak of viral hepatitis in Venezuelan Indians in isolated valleys, apparently resulting from delta agent infection, 10 autopsy specimens were studied histologically and immunocytochemically, and five biopsy specimens were examined. The patients were children and young adults and predominantly males. A sequence of hepatitis from focal necrosis with conspicuous small-droplet steatosis, through massive necrosis, prolonged postnecrotic collapse to early cirrhosis with massive collapse was postulated. The histologic changes tentatively suggest a cytopathic effect of the delta agent without significant indication of lymphocytotoxicity, at least in the parenchyma. Delta agent was demonstrated in hepatocyte nuclei in moderate amounts in the focal-necrotic stage and in isolated cells in the massive-necrotic stage, but in large amounts during the transition to cirrhosis. Whether these patients, in whom neither HBcAg nor HBsAg were demonstrable in the liver, suffered exclusively from superinfection of hepatitis B virus carriers and/or coinfection of hepatitis B virus with the delta agent remains to be resolved. Delta infection may occur in isolated settings with no relation to Italian origin, drug addiction, or polytransfusion. The infection is far more widely spread than previously assumed.
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PMID:Histologic studies of severe delta agent infection in Venezuelan Indians. 662 19

The severe socioeconomic crisis in Bulgaria, accompanying the transition after the collapse of the totalitarian regime affected unfavorably the health status of the population, increasing the incidence of socially important diseases by making poverty, unemployment, emigration, alcoholism and drug addiction widespread. Systematic studies of acute poisoning suicide and poisoning mortality still lack. To analyze acute poisoning (AP) characteristics during this period in a large industrial-agricultural region of Bulgaria, we retrospectively examined 327 adult AP deaths in Plovdiv region 1990-1998. Males (73.1%) prevail in all age categories. As a caseload men predominate in "working age" categories, women in "pre/retirement age". Mortality rates tended to increase with age, more marked in men. The main cause of death from AP was alcohol intoxication in men (30.1%) and drugs in women (33.7%). Suicides prevailed over accidents (54.1% vs. 45.9%). Accidents were significantly higher in men, suicides in women; 57.5% received no medical aid for more men than women (61.9% vs. 45.5%). Untapped resource for decreasing AP mortality rates are patients who do not receive medical aid and die at home, although that is difficult to correct in a period of crisis.
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PMID:Characteristics of adult acute poisoning mortality in a large industrial-agrarian region of Bulgaria during socioeconomic transition and crisis (1990-1998). 1111 47

Opioids classically regulate the excitability of neurons by suppressing synaptic GABA release from inhibitory neurons. Here, we report a role for opioids in modulating excitatory synaptic transmission. By activating ubiquitously clustered mu-opioid receptor (MOR) in excitatory synapses, morphine caused collapse of preexisting dendritic spines and decreased synaptic alpha-amino-3-hydroxy-5-methyl-4-isoxazolepropionic acid receptors. Meanwhile, the opioid antagonist naloxone increased the density of spines. Chronic treatment with morphine decreased the density of dendritic spines even in the presence of Tetrodotoxin, a sodium channel blocker, indicating that the morphine's effect was not caused by altered activity in neural network through suppression of GABA release. The effect of morphine on dendritic spines was absent in transgenic mice lacking MORs and was blocked by CTOP (D-Phe-Cys-Tyr-D-Trp-Orn-Thr-Pen-ThrNH2), a mu-receptor antagonist. These data together with others suggest that endogenous opioids and/or constitutive activity of MORs participate in maintaining normal morphology and function of spines, challenging the classical model of opioids. Abnormal alteration of spines may occur in drug addiction when opioid receptors are overactivated by exogenous opiates.
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PMID:Mu-opioid receptors modulate the stability of dendritic spines. 1565 52

Personal narratives of alcohol and other drug addiction circulate widely in popular culture and they also have currency in professional therapeutic settings. Despite this, relatively little research has explored the conventions operating in these narratives and how they shape people's experiences and identities. While research in this area often proceeds on the premise that addiction biographies are straightforwardly 'true' accounts, in this paper we draw on the insights of critical alcohol and other drug scholarship, and the concept of 'ontological politics' to argue that biographies produce normative ideas about addiction and those said to be experiencing it. Our analysis compares traditional addiction narratives with the biographies we reconstructed from qualitative interviews with 60 people in Australia who describe themselves as having an 'addiction', 'dependence' or drug 'habit'. We track how addiction is variously enacted in these accounts and comment on the effects of particular enactments. By attending to the ways in which people cope, even thrive, with the kind of consumption that would attract a diagnosis of addiction or dependence, the biographies we produced disrupt the classic narrative of increasing drug use, decline and eventual collapse. Doing so allows for consideration of the benefits of consumption, as well as the ways that people carefully regulate it to minimise harms. It also constitutes individuals as active in managing consumption-an important move that challenges dominant understandings of addiction as a disorder of compulsivity. We conclude by considering the implications of our attempt to provide an alternative range of narratives, which resonate with people's diverse experiences.
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PMID:Telling different stories, making new realities: The ontological politics of 'addiction' biographies. 2857 16