Alessandro Lenzi

High-affinity 3H-imipramine binding sites: A possible state-dependent marker for major depression

Ten patients with DSM-III diagnoses of nonbipolar recurrent major depression were studied in an attempt to assess the relationship between 3H-imipramine binding site density and clinical depressive state. They were compared with eight healthy controls who had no past or family history of affective disorders. Evaluations with the Hamilton Rating Scale for Depression and the Self-Rated Scale for Depression were done on the same day as platelet collection at baseline, and also at 2 and 5 weeks after the beginning of treatment with tricyclic antidepressants. The number (Bmax) and the affinity (Kd) of platelet 3H-imipramine binding sites were highly correlated with the improvement of the clinical depression. These results raise the interesting possibility that a decrease in 3H-imipramine binding sites may be a state-dependent marker in patients suffering from nonbipolar recurrent major depression.

Social class and mood disorders: clinical features

SummaryWe examined clinical features in 877 in- und outpatients affected by depression who were enrolled in psychopharmacological trials, subdivided according to Hollingsheads method into five social classes. The results showed that social class correlated significantly with the subtypes of mood disorders, with bipolar disorder being more frequent amongst the upper than the lower social classes. Furthermore, as already reported in other countries, social class appeared to influence the psychopathological pattern of depressive symptoms: somatization and anxiety were more frequent amongst the lower social classes, while psychic and cognitive symptoms were more common amongst the upper classes.

Decreased Platelet Serotonin Uptake in Bipolar I Patients

The 5HT transporter complex in platelets is similar to that in the brain and thus widely used in biological psychiatry as a peripheral marker of the 5HT system. Our study aim was to measure 14C-5HT uptake parameters (Vmax and Km) in platelets from 12 patients affected by bipolar disorder, as compared with 12 healthy controls. The uptake assay was performed according to the method of Arora and Meltzer (1981). The results showed that the Vmax was significantly lower in bipolar patients than in healthy controls, with no modification of the Km. These preliminary data would indicate therefore that the mechanism of 5HT transport is altered in platelets of bipolar patients.

Comparison of Aggressive Behavior between Men and Women in Sport

A group of 33 sportsmen and 43 sportswomen and a group of 488 subjects (less than 30 years old) selected from a sample of 816 subjects representative of the general Italian population were compared using the factor scores and total scores on the Italian version of the Buss and Durkee questionnaire. Analysis suggests a positive correlation between aggressiveness and sport and are compatible with the hypothesis that sporting activities serve as a means of controlling aggressiveness of women and help the individual psychosocial development of men. The decision to practice sports would seem to be connected with the needs to conform to cultural stereotypes, which portray the man as aggressive and the woman as gentle and submissive.

A General Purpose Distributed Learning Model for Robotic Ecologies

Abstract The design of a learning system for robotic ecologies need to account for some key aspects of the ecology model such as distributivity, heterogeneity of the computational, sensory and actuator capabilities, as well as self-configurability. The paper proposes general guiding principles for learning systems’ design that ensue from key ecology properties, and presents a distributed learning system for the Rubicon ecology that draws inspiration from such guidelines. The proposed learning system provides the Rubicon ecology with a set of generalpurpose learning services which can be used to learn generic computational tasks that involve predicting information of interest based on dynamic sensorial input streams.

Effectiveness of the combination verapamil and chlorpromazine in the treatment of severe manic or mixed patients

1. The authors investigated the possible antimanic properties of a Calcium channel blocker, Verapamil, in 15 in-patients admitted consecutively to the female psychiatric ward at Pisa University for a manic episode. 2. The results showed that most of the patients presented a global improvement of the manic symptoms and, in some cases, even a complete clinical remission. 3. Although it was necessary to add chlorpromazine for the severe conditions of several patients, verapamil appeared to speed the positive outcome and to lead to a faster resolution of the symptoms. In addition, the association of verapamil and chlorpromazine did not produce any relevant side-effect. These preliminary findings thus indicate that verapamil by itself does not seem to be sufficient in the treatment of a severe affective episode, but it may constitute an alternative to lithium salts in association with neuroleptics.

A single electroconvulsive treatment affects platelet serotonin uptake in bipolar I patients

We evaluated serotonin (5HT) uptake parameters in platelets of a group of bipolar I patients in both a depressive phase and a mixed state, before (t0) and after (t1) the first electroconvulsive treatment (ECT). The results showed the presence of significant changes in the number of the carrier proteins for 5HT at t1, which in most cases preceded the clinical improvement. Although other mechanisms are certainly involved, these data suggest that ECT may influence the 5HT transport through platelet membranes.

Do Acetylcholinesterase Inhibitors Have a Role in Improving Cognitive Impairment in Patients with Schizophrenia

At present, there are no really efficacious tools available to counteract cognitive deficits in patients with schizophrenia: even though new atypical antipsychotic drugs represent an advance compared with typical antipsychotic drugs, the results obtained with this class of drugs are actually partial. Acetylcholinesterase inhibitors (AChEIs) that have been proven to be effective on psychiatric symptoms, behavioural abnormalities and cognitive dysfunction of patients with dementia may be effective on cognitive deficit in patients with schizophrenia, and may also improve their psychopathology and behaviour.In the present paper we review the use of AChEIs in the treatment of schizophrenia. Although these AChEIs have different action mechanisms (donepezil only inhibits acetylcholinesterase; rivastigmine also inhibits butyryl-cholinesterase; galantamine also interacts with nicotinic acetylcholine receptors), they have similar clinical effects.We have observed no or mild effects on cognitive deficits and symptoms in double-blind studies, a dramatic effect on a patient’s subjective well-being and ability to cope and subjective judgement of psychiatrists in the case reports and open studies.The question remains as to how we can accurately measure a patient’s capacity to feel, to cope and his/her desire to live with other people — aspects very different from intelligence and cognitive function. Further double-blind placebo studies are required to determine the role of AChEIs in the improvement of quality of life for patients affected by schizophrenia.

Variations in Platelets 3h-Imipramine Binding During Two Different Periods of the Year

Our study shows that platelet 3H-imipramine binding in healthy volunteers undergoes changes, with higher values during the period February-June than during the period August-December

Distributed Neural Computation over WSN in Ambient Intelligence

Ambient Intelligence (AmI) applications need information about the surrounding environment. This can be collected by means of Wireless Sensor Networks (WSN) that also analyze and build forecasts for applications. The RUBICON Learning Layer implements a distributed neural computation over WSN. In this system, measurements taken by sensors are combined by using neural computation to provide future forecasts based on previous measurements and on the past knowledge of the environment.