Anna Higgitt

The effects of the benzodiazepine antagonist Ro 15-1788 on psychophysiological performance and subjective measures in normal subjects

Ro 15-1788 is an imidazodiazepine which was initially described as a pure benzodiazepine antagonist lacking in intrinsic actions. Although recent animal work has shown the drug to have differing intrinsic actions depending on the dose, the majority of studies on human subjects conclude that it is a pure antagonist of benzodiazepines. Two oral doses of Ro 15-1788 (30 mg and 100 mg) were compared with 5 mg diazepam and placebo in their intrinsic effects on a range of psychophysiological, performance and subjective measures in 12 healthy adult subjects. At both these doses Ro 15-1788 showed a mixture of agonist (benzodiazepine-like) effects and other non-benzodiazepine-like effects on the variables measured. Although there was no clear-cut dose-response relationship, the results suggested a predominance of benzodiazepine-like effects at the higher dose on physiological measures whilst the lower dose was observed to have greater effects on a number of behavioural and subjective dimensions. The subjective changes were the opposite of those normally found for benzodiazepines.

The outcome of psychodynamic psychotherapy for psychological disorders

Notwithstanding a history of over 100 years, psychoanalytically informed psychological therapies have a poor evidence base. This paper provides a selective review of trials of brief psychodynamic psychotherapies and an overview of mostly follow-up or follow-along studies of long-term more intensive psychoanalytic therapy. In relation to the treatment of mood disorders, particularly depression, anorexia nervosa and some personality disorders, there is evidence to suggest that brief psychodynamic psychotherapy is comparable in effectiveness to empirically supported treatments. No trial has shown it to be superior to alternative treatment. Notwithstanding the small number of studies, independent replications of the same version of short-term therapy are totally lacking. This survey of the literature underscores the urgent need for innovative therapeutic interventions based on psychoanalytic models of mental functioning which are specific to the clinical problems they aim to address. q 2005 Association for Research in Nervous and Mental Disease. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

The prolonged benzodiazepine withdrawal syndrome : anxiety or hysteria ?

In an attempt to establish whether prolonged withdrawal symptoms after stopping intake of benzodiazepines is caused by return of anxiety, hysteria, abnormal illness behaviour or the dependence process itself producing perhaps a prolonged neurotransmitter imbalance, a group of such patients suffering prolonged withdrawal symptoms (PWS) was compared on a range of psychophysiological measures with matched groups of anxious and conversion hysteria patients and normal controls. It was found that the psychophysiological markers of anxiety were not marked in the PWS group; nor were the averaged evoked response abnormalities found to be associated with cases of hysterical conversion in evidence. The PWS group were hard to distinguish from normal controls on the basis of psychophysiological measures and thus it was felt to be unlikely to be an affective disturbance. It was concluded that PWS is likely to be a genuine iatrogenic condition, a complication of long‐term benzodiazepine treatment.

A psychotic episode following Erhard Seminars Training

ABSTRACT– A case of a psychotic episode following Erhard Seminars Training is reported. This is the first reported case of adverse psychological effects from this type of training in Great Britain but it closely resembles previous reports from the United States of America. The possibility of a distinct syndrome is tentatively raised. The apparent rarity of such episodes is noted.

Bioterrorism: Psychological and Public Health Interventions

![Figure][1] This publication is a collaborative endeavour by international authors with expertise that can guide planned responses to terrorism, in particular bioterrorism. Ursano ([2002][2]) has listed the goals of terrorism as: erosion of national security; disruption of the continuity