Gene/Protein Disease Symptom Drug Enzyme Compound
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Query: UNIPROT:P01189 (beta-endorphin)
 21,003 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

Ninety-three patients with an exacerbation of chronic schizophrenia were included in a 4 week trial comparing placebo with 1, 3 and 10 mg des-enkephalin-gamma-endorphin (DE gamma E; beta-lipotrophin 66-77; Org 5878) per day (i.m.). Maintenance antipsychotic and other medications were continued unchanged. Treatment effects were assessed by means of the Comprehensive Psychopathological Rating Scale--subscale schizophrenia (CPRS-S), Brief Psychiatric Rating Scale (BPRS) and Global Assessment Scale (GAS) rating scales at weekly intervals. Safety data, i.e. laboratory investigations, vital signs and ECG recordings, were assessed before and during the trial. Side-effects were evaluated by means of a Record of Symptoms Emerging. Sixty-eight patients completed the trial, the reason for drop-out mainly being inadequate treatment effects and refusal of medication administration. One patient violated the protocol. After 4 weeks of treatment the mean CPRS-S score of the group receiving 10 mg DE gamma E daily had decreased statistically significantly more than the corresponding score of the placebo group (p less than 0.01). The same trend was apparent with BPRS (p = 0.08) and GAS (p greater than 0.1) scores. Therefore, the study should be considered inconclusive. No clinically relevant side-effects attributable to DE gamma E were observed.
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PMID:Des-enkephalin-gamma-endorphin in the treatment of schizophrenia. 223 65

Clinical prospects of an analog of thyrotropin-releasing hormone (DN-1417) and des-tyrosine-gamma-endorphin (DT gamma E) in schizophrenia were examined by using the Brief Psychiatric Rating Scale (BPRS) and the electroencephalogram (EEG). Twelve inpatients with chronic schizophrenia were administered fixed doses of neuroleptics throughout the study. Six patients were treated with DN-1417 (DN-1417 group), and the remaining 6 patients with DT gamma E (DY gamma E group). One mg/day of DN-1417 or DT gamma E was given intramuscularly for 2 consecutive weeks followed by 1 week of no drug treatment. In the DN-1417 group, both total BPRS scores and scores on hallucinatory behaviour and unusual thought content decreased in the first and third weeks. The power values of alpha and beta activities from the frontal area increased in the first and third weeks, whereas an increase in alpha activity and a decrease of high-fast beta activity from the occipital area were obtained during the study. On the other hand, the DT gamma E group failed to show either a decrease in BPRS scores or any remarkable EEG changes except for a slight decrease in beta activity. These results suggest that the positive symptoms of schizophrenia are improved by DN-1417 treatment, and that the alterations in BPRS scores coincide with changes in the frontal EEG.
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PMID:A treatment trial with an analog of thyrotropin-releasing hormone (DN-1417) and des-tyrosine-gamma-endorphin in schizophrenia. 288 64

Baseline plasma levels of beta-endorphin, beta-lipotropin, and ACTH were assayed in 37 patients with chronic schizophrenia: 24 men and 13 women, 28 with hebephrenic and nine with paranoid schizophrenia. None of the patients had received any medication for at least 10 days. The mean values of both opioids were significantly higher in the schizophrenic patients than in 21 age- and sex-matched control subjects. Insulin stimulation and dexamethasone suppression tests were given to eight of the patients, and the circadian rhythms of beta-endorphin, beta-lipotropin, ACTH, and cortisol were assayed in the same eight patients. Insulin stimulation, dexamethasone suppression test results, or circadian rhythmicity was impaired in seven of these eight patients.
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PMID:Secretion pattern of endogenous opioids in chronic schizophrenia. 609 63

The endorphin neuropeptides may have neuroleptic-like effects on dopamine function and may be antischizophrenic. Ten chronic psychotic patients with neuroleptic-induced tardive dyskinesia and parkinsonism received placebo and des-tyrosine-gamma-endorphin (DT gamma E). Drug effects on movement disorders and eye-blinking rates were assessed by blind evaluations of randomly sequenced videotapes made during standardized examinations before and 30, 60, and 120 minutes after each injection and at 24 hours postinjection on days of consecutive treatment. Changes in schizophrenic symptoms were evaluated openly with the schizophrenia subscale of the Comprehensive Psychiatric Rating Scale. There were no significant effects of DT gamma E on any parameter and no side effects. This suggests that DT gamma E, within the tested dose range, does not influence the pathophysiology of neuroleptic-induced dyskinesias or chronic schizophrenia or have neuroleptic properties. However, DT gamma E is well tolerated and should be tested with higher doses during prolonged treatment.
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PMID:Effect of des-tyrosine-gamma-endorphin in tardive dyskinesia. 701 Dec 48

The authors report their experience in using Continuous Ambulatory Peritoneal Dialysis (C.A.P.D.), in the treatment of chronic schizophrenia. This attempt refers to studies which confirm any role of endorphins in the origin of schizophrenia. Consecutively to american authors who found endorphins (molecular weight 3 300) in the dialysat of hemodialysed schizophrenics, they choose C.A.P.D. This continue technic of dialysis is more efficient than hemodialysis in removal of substances which molecular weight is between 1 500 and 5 000. This technic was used in 3 chronic schizophrenics: the disease has developed since 6 to 17 years and all the previous treatments failed. The duration of C.A.P.D. was 3 to 6 months. The only complication was one episode of inflammation of the peritoneum during 14 months of dialysis. Followed by the same staff with the AMDP 3 scale, the psychiatric evolution includes: --improvement and relapse in 2 patients (but we have to consider the difficulties of socioprofessional rehabilitation of these long term patients); --"clinical recovery" (17 months) in the third patient. The incidence of mothering and institutionalism is not negligible. Dosage of Met-enkephalin and beta-endorphin by radioimmunoassay in the drained dialysat did not show any difference between schizophrenics and the reference chronic renal patient. The results obtained with C.A.P.D. are not very satisfactory so far. But further research especially on the role of endorphins in schizophrenia and on their analysis technics in the body fluids perhaps will allow to treat schizophrenia again by dialysis.
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PMID:[Continuous ambulatory peritoneal dialysis in schizophrenia. Experimentation in 3 cases]. 722 91

To study the effects of beta-endorphin in chronic schizophrenia, nine male patients participated in a double-blind crossover comparison of a single intravenous 20-mg injection of beta-endorphin and saline. Bolus injection of beta-endorphin from an albumin-coated syringe produced markedly higher plasma concentrations than did slow intravenous infusion from a non-albumin-coated syringe. Beta-endorphin intravenously injected in nine patients produced a statistically significant increase in serum prolactin levels. In one patient, both 10 mg of morphine sulfate and 20 mg of beta-endorphin produced similar increases in the alpha power of the EEG. In eight patients, beta-endorphin administration was associated with a statistically significant but not clinically obvious improvement in schizophrenic symptoms.
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PMID:beta-Endorphin and schizophrenia. 738 35

We studied the relationship between parasympathetic, sympathetic and pituitary-adrenal functions in chronic schizophrenic patients with complications such as postoperative paralytic ileus and hypotension during anaesthesia. Plasma epinephrine, norepinephrine (NE), adrenocorticotropin (ACTH), cortisol and the coefficient of variation (CV) of the R-R intervals on the electrocardiogram (ECG) as parasympathetic parameter were measured in schizophrenic and control patients. The CV value of the R-R interval on the ECG before the start of anaesthesia was significantly decreased to 2.3 +/- 0.2 in the schizophrenic patients as compared with 3.5 +/- 0.3 of the control patients. The CV value of the R-R interval on the ECG in schizophrenic patients with postoperative paralytic ileus was more diminished to 1.6 +/- 0.2. The CV values in schizophrenic patients with and without hypotension during anaesthesia were similar and we could not find any significant difference. Chronic schizophrenic patients developed a decrease in NE, ACTH and cortisol responses to surgical stress, while there were no significant differences in these hormonal changes between those patients with and without paralytic ileus and hypotension during anaesthesia. In conclusion, the CV value of the ECG R-R interval may be correlated inversely with the expectancy of postoperative ileus in chronic schizophrenic patients. Their suppressed pituitary-adrenal function and sympathetic system may be indirectly associated with the paralytic ileus and hypotension.
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PMID:Pituitary-adrenal and parasympathetic function in chronic schizophrenic patients with postoperative ileus or hypotension. 1008 56

We studied the effects of a short-term hypertonic stimulus on plasma levels of the stress hormones adrenocorticotropin (ACTH), cortisol, prolactin, and the blood volume- and electrolyte-controlling hormones arginine vasopressin (AVP) and atrial natriuretic peptide (ANP). Seven patients suffering from chronic schizophrenia with negative symptoms and ten healthy control subjects were investigated by a 20-minute infusion of 10 ml/kg body weight of hypertonic (2.5%) versus isotonic (0.9%) saline. All patients, who were medication-free for at least one week prior to the study, and all control subjects participated in two investigations in randomized order according to a single-blind cross-over design. During hypertonic infusion, plasma osmolarity and sodium levels were increased similarly in both groups and significantly more than during isotonic saline. Hypertonic saline caused a significant increase of plasma ACTH, cortisol and prolactin in patients in contrast to controls. AVP and ANP plasma concentrations were elevated after infusion of hypertonic saline, however, only patients showed a significant rise in plasma ANP. These results show that a dysregulation of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) system in a subset of patients with chronic schizophrenia may become overt during an osmotic stimulation, indicating an increased sensitivity of patients with schizophrenia to osmotic stress.
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PMID:Neuroendocrine effects of a short-term osmotic stimulus in patients with chronic schizophrenia. 1258 82