Reese T. Jones

Psychological studies of marijuana and alcohol in man.

Regular users of marijuana (cannabis sativa) were given smoked and orally administered marijuana, a placebo, or alcohol. They were unable to distinguish between smoked marijuana and the tetrahydrocannabinol-free placebo. The oral administration of tincture of cannabis produced primarily dysphoric symptoms and was similar to alcohol in this respect. The smoked marijuana altered pulse rate, time estimation, and EEG, but had no effect on a measure of field dependence or on a digit symbol substitution task. Both drugs appeared to be mild intoxicants in a laboratory setting. Consideration of the dose, prior experience with drugs, setting, and possible cross tolerance of marijuana and alcohol are important in evaluating the significance of the clinical effects.

Fluoxetine for cocaine dependence in methadone maintenance : quantitative plasma and urine cocaine/benzoylecgonine concentrations

Cocaine abuse is a common clinical problem among opioid-dependent patients who are in methadone maintenance treatment. In an open prospective study, 16 DSM-III-R, cocaine-dependent, methadone maintenance treatment patients were treated with fluoxetine, at a mean dose of 45 mg/day for 9 weeks. Eleven subjects (69%) were infected with the human immunodeficiency virus. Cocaine use was significantly reduced by the end of treatment, although most subjects did not achieve abstinence. Comparison of intake to week 9 showed a significant decrease in self-reported cocaine use, craving, and quality of high. Actual cocaine use was measured by a quantitative analysis of cocaine and benzoylecgonine (BE) concentrations in plasma and urine. Median BE and cocaine concentrations in urine decreased significantly from intake to week 9 of fluoxetine treatment. This decrease would not have been detected if BE had been measured only qualitatively, as present or absent in the urine. Fluoxetine was well tolerated in combination with methadone and did not appear to alter methadone concentrations in plasma. Few adverse effects were noted. No subjects had to discontinue fluoxetine. Fluoxetine may be a promising treatment approach for cocaine abuse in methadone maintenance patients. Quantitative determination of exact cocaine and BE concentrations in biofluids may be a more accurate method of measuring cocaine use outcome than qualitative urinalysis.

Human pharmacology of the methamphetamine stereoisomers.

To help predict the consequences of precursor regulation, we compared the pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics of the methamphetamine (INN, metamfetamine) stereoisomers.

Auditory Evoked Potential Variability in Schizophrenia

Abstract Variability of the individual brain wave potentials comprising an auditory averaged evoked potential (AEP) is greater for schizophrenic than for normal subjects. In schizophrenics this increased AEP variability results in fewer similarities, and therefore lowered correlations, between two AEPs evoked by tones of the same pitch. Thus, the increased difference between AEPs to tones of two different pitches found in schizophrenia seems to be a function of increased AEP variability. This increase of AEP variability in schizophrenic patients reflects response variability and is not principally the result of increased background EEG variability. AEP standard deviation is highly correlated with AEP amplitude, and methods of correcting for this are discussed.

Auditory evoked potential variability in schizophrenia. II. The application of discriminant analysis

The data recorded by Callaway et al. in a study of degree of dissimilarity of two-tone average evoked potentials (AEPs) in normal and schizophrenic patients were analyzed by the Step-Wise Discriminant Analysis (SWDA) technique. The analysis was undertaken to determine if (a) groups of single-trial records obtained with two dissimilar tones show a greater dispersion than groups of single-trial records obtained with identical tones, and (b) the degree to which the dissimilarity of two-tone AEPs, if found, is consistent between subjects (i.e., the same evoked potential components contribute to the dissimilarity in an equivalent manner). The application of this analysis to the two-tone AEPs demonstrates that although there is indeed a somewhat increased dissimilarity between the AEPs to dissimilar tones, there is no appreciable difference in this respect between schizophrenic and normal subjects. Furthermore, there is little consistency in the AEP components that differentiate the two AEPs from one subject to the next. The results of this analysis in conjunction with those reported in a companion paper by Callaway et al. (1970) suggest that the previously reported differences between normal and schizophrenic subjects are largely the result of the increased variability in the AEP of schizophrenics rather than of a consistent tendency of the patients to concentrate on trivial differences between the tones.

Chlorpromazine slows decay of visual short-term memory

The effects of chlorpromazine, scopolamine, and pentobarbital on the visual short-term memory trace were studied using Sperling’s method. Ss were classified as introverts or extraverts with the Maudsley Test, but this variable had no significant effect. Analysis of variance showed a significant difference among the drug treatments (p <.05). The mean numbers of correct responses for scopolamine, pentobarbital, and placebo, among which there was no significant difference, were pooled and found to differ significantly from the chlorpromazine mean (p <.01). It was concluded that chlorpromazine improved performance either by filtering poststimulus “noise” or by delaying the encoding process for the visual STM trace, thereby making the information available longer.

Trazodone-oral cocaine interactions

Depression and dysphoria can follow the long-term use of cocaine. Little is known about the interaction of antidepressant drugs with cocaine and similar stimulants in humans. The physiologic and subjective effects of an oral 2-mg/kg dose of cocaine hydrochloride were measured in eight healthy cocaine-using men after pretreatment with a single, 100-mg oral dose of the triazolopyridine antidepressant trazodone hydrochloride or placebo in a double-blind study. The cocaine-induced effects of increased BP, increased pupil size, and decreased skin temperature were diminished by trazodone pretreatment. Trazodone alone did not alter plasma epinephrine or norepinephrine levels. An increase in plasma epinephrine levels after cocaine administration was not altered by trazodone pretreatment, but the increase in the norepinephrine level was larger. Trazodone alone produced mild sleepiness. Cocaine-induced euphoria was not altered by trazodone pretreatment, although feelings of tension and shakiness after cocaine administration were diminished.