Marjorie L. Brown

Classical and physiologic adaptive conditioned responses to anticholinergic drugs in conscious dogs

Abstract In conscious, unrestrained dogs, equivalent doses of atropine sulfate and Ditran produced a conditioned paradoxic salivary response and a classical conditioned response of mydriasis when the animals were placed into the experimental chamber. The onset and extinction rates for these responses were almost identical for both drug groups and onset appeared after as few as six treatment sessions. Although these drugs arc parasympatholytic agents, a possible explanation of the responses implicates a sympathetic nervous system activation.

A comparison of hypnosis, acupuncture, morphine, valium, aspirin, and placebo in the management of experimentally induced pain.

Hypnosis, acupuncture, morphine, and aspirin are reasonably widely used analgesic “agents.” The question of whether the effects of such agents are in whole or in part a function of suggestibility or hypnotizability has been debated in the literature, with suggestibility given as perhaps a major component of placebo effects. It has been suggested by some that acupuncture effects are mediated principally through suggestibility and/or hypnosis.’ Certainly most of the anesthetic and analgesic effects claimed for acupuncture stimulation can be equally well demonstrated with hypnosis. Whether the same can be said of acupuncture “tonification” procedures in the treatment of more-orless specific physical illnesses is not known, since acupuncture treatment for symptoms other than the relief of pain, and the production of analgesia/ anesthesia have not enjoyed much popularity in Western medicine, and little or no investigative effort has been expended on such research in the Englishspeaking countries. Of the many possible phenomena demonstrable under conditions of hypnosis or acupuncture, the reduction of experimentally induced pain is perhaps one of the simplest for research purposes. The effectiveness of hypnosis in reducing such pain has been well documented.2 Additionally, pain may be alleviated pharmacologically. Whether it is, in fact, pain that is reduced or anxiety associated with such pain that is affected by analgesics will not be debated here. Whatever it is that is reduced causes subjects to emit statements suggesting reduction in discomfort. These statements are our data base. This study explored the analgesic effects of acupuncture, hypnosis, and a number of pharmacological agents in human subjects. The experiment was designed to answer the following questions: 1) Is the analgesic effect of acupuncture on experimentally induced pain attributable to suggestibility or to hypnotizability? 2) Is induced analgesia by acupuncture stimulation dependent on stimulation at specified acupuncture points or is random-site stimulation equally effective in reducing pain? 3) Are there differences in the analgesic effects of acupuncture compared to hypnoanalgesia and chemically induced

Disturbing behavior: a study of incident reports

Over 5,000 incident reports from a large state hospital were factor-analyzed, and actuarial risk-rates were calculated for the resulting nine factors. Incident risk-rates are presented for sex, race, marital status, and diagnosis. Findings include: (1) young, single males with deferred diagnosis are high incident risk; and (2) schizophrenic incident rates, when corrected for length of stay, are relatively low.

Prediction of length of hospital stay

Abstract The Missouri standard system of psychiatry 1 is a statewide program for reporting uniform information on all patients admitted to the hospitals within the Missouri Division of Mental Health. Professional staff, technicians, clerks, patients, and relatives contribute precoded observations about patients. An electronic data-processing network stores, processes, and returns incoming data. The central aim of this system is to derive models of psychiatric disease states, of outcome according to a variety of parameters and responses, and of patients who respond to certain types of treatment. These models will provide standards for comparison with individual patients and for grouping patients into classes which will allow generalizations and probability statements to be generated about individuals from the groups. The probability statements so generated are promptly returned to the practicing clinician as suggestions to aid him in his decision making. There is considerable evidence 2,3 that such cookbook methods are adequate and that clinicians should have such results made available to them. This article reports our findings in a cross-validated study of length of hospital stay (LOS) and the significant items that were found to predict long and short stays. Information concerning LOS has an obvious utility in helping the clinician to plan more effectively for a patients care in the hospital as well as providing him a sound basis for counseling with relatives. We anticipated further dividends from the study, such as the emergence of factors that contribute to chronicity and perhaps the discovery of some clues relating to etiology.

Surgical preparation of externalized carotid artery loops in dogs

Abstract A surgical procedure is described for the permanent externalization of the common carotid artery in dogs. This preparation has been utilized for repeated direct continuous measurement of systolic and diastolic arterial pressures and for other procedures such as blood sampling, induction of the bilateral carotid occlusion response and for the intraarterial administration of drugs.

Effects of chronic chlorpromazine administration on systemic arterial pressure in schizophrenic patients: Relationship of body position to blood pressure

In schizophrenic patients, mean blood pressure differed significantly when the measurements were obtained in the standing, sitting, or supine positions. Highest arterial pressure occurred in the sitting position, and the lowest pressure in the supine position. Chronic chlorpromazine (CPZ) administration produced a significant lowering of mean arterial pressures obtained from schizophrenic patients in standing or sitting, but not in supine, positions. Chronic CPZ did not produce orthostatic hypotension but did significantly reduce the postural pressor responses produced by positional changes. Male patients showed significantly greater postural blood pressure responses in the sitting position than women, but both groups demonstrated equivalent blood pressure changes produced by chronic CPZ. Determination of upright and supine body position blood pressures in the clinical evaluation of drugs is suggested and discussed.

Chronic chlorpromazine administration: Some pharmacological and psychological effects in man

This study was undertaken to determine whether there were changes in the pharmacological profile of chlorpromazine when it was given over a long period of time and in view of these findings to examine claims that chlorpromazine is clinically useful as an antidepressant. Fifteen patients with chronic mental illness were given infusions of epinephrine, norepinephrine, histamine, and yohimbine before and at 1, 10, 30, and 90 days during a course of chlorpromazine therapy. Psychological measurements by observers unaware of drugs given indicated that the anxiety‐arousing effects of epinephrine were reduced by chlorpromazine but that the anxiety‐like effects of yohimbine were potentiated. Histamine and norepinephrine had no significant psychological effect. Treatment with chlorpromazine reduced manifestations of mental illness. Base‐line blood pressure was reduced Significantly early in chlorpromazine therapy but only slightly later on. The systolic pressor effects of epinephrine were reduced by chlorpromazine but to a lesser extent late in the 90 day period. Norepinephrine systolic blood pressure effects were not Significantly altered by chlorpromazine. The cardiovascular effects of histamine were potentiated by chlorpromazine throughout as were the cardiovascular effects of yohimbine. In a parallel dog study chlorpromazine augmented norepinephrine pressor effects. It is concluded that, in view of its tendency to potentiate yohimbine and norepinephrine, chlorpromazine has some characteristics similar to those of the antidepressant drug imipramine. These results are discussed in relation to findings that chlorpromazine and imipramine alter storage and release of catecholamines

Behavioral and arterial pressure effects of pimetime in conscious dogs

Abstract Pimetine, 1-dimethylaminoethyl-4-benzylpiperidine, was investigated for activity in two experimental models using conscious dogs which have demonstrated high predictive ability in discerning psychotropic agents and categorizing them into tranquilizer or antidepressant classes. Pimetine treatment produced a dose-related reversal of the Ditran Rating Scale score at dose levels devoid of apparent direct behavioral effects. This drug also produced a moderate pressor effect associated with a potentiated acetylcholine arterial pressure response and inhibited responses to serotonin, bilateral carotid occlusion, tyramine and histamine. A clinical study of the antidepressant effects of pimetine is indicated by the results.