Elliott B. Hammett

Preliminary study of carbamazepine in post-traumatic stress disorder

Ten patients meeting DSM-III criteria for post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) participated in a five-week open trial of carbamazepine. Seven patients manifested moderate to very much improvement, as shown on the Clinical Global Impression scale. Among the multiple symptoms associated with PTSD, nightmares, flashbacks, and intrusive recollections were selectively reduced in intensity and frequency. The results suggest that a kindling model or a model of a paroxysmal disorder may be applicable to PTSD.

The response of depressed inpatients to isocarboxazid.

Fifty-six inpatients with unipolar depression completed treatment with isocarboxazid. In comparing the differences between responders and nonresponders, it was found that psychomotor retardation, pathological guilt, daily persistence of unremitting symptoms, phobic anxiety, dexamethasone suppression test nonsuppression, and neuroticism were significantly more common among nonresponders. Reactivity of mood, blaming others, and extraversion were more common in responders. Total endogenous depression scores on the Newcastle 1, Newcastle 2, and Michigan scales were also significantly higher in nonresponders. Attained platelet monoamine oxidase inhibition was similar in both groups.

A diagnostic approach to pain.

Abstract Various factors involved in pain, including the causative stimulus, the affective-cognitive reaction, and the subsequent coping reaction, are explored, and a composite model is provided that may be helpful in narrowing the diagnosis and thus localizing areas where effective intervention may be possible.

On conscious primal scene fantasies.

Pertinent literature concerning the pathogenicity of the primal scene is reviewed. Two psychoanalytic cases, both of whom had conscious primal scene fantasies prior to beginning psychoanalysis, are discussed. These fantasies did not represent significant ego or superego deficits. The authors suggest that conscious primal scene fantasies, in these patients, represented screen memories. Both patients were successfully analyzed.