Robert L. Sack

Experimental ethanol ingestion: sleep variables and metabolites of dopamine and serotonin in the cerebrospinal fluid.

Many previous investigators have reported the effects of ethanol on sleep. Yules, et al. (1966, 1967), Knowles and Laverty (1968), and Rundell, et al. (1972) have demonstrated that acute doses of ethanol given to normal subjects cause a decrease in rapid eye movement sleep followed by a compensatory increase, or rebound, during withdrawal. Ethanol also increases the amount of beta activity (16–18 Hz) in the sleep EEG, and causes an increase in both the heart and respiration rates. In clinical observations made on alcoholics following heavy drinking periods by Gross et al. (1966), and Greenberg and Pearlman (1967), and in experimental ethanol ingestion studies done by Johnson (1971) and Gross et al. (1971), profound effects on both rapid eye movement sleep and slow wave sleep were noted. In addition, Allen et al. (1971) have noted that REM sleep is fragmented and stage three and four sleep decreased for many weeks after abstinence began.

Masochism: a clinical and theoretical overview.

This paper will review some of the theoretical and clinical features of masochism from an eclectic point of view. The topic of masochism has been taken up by authors of many perspectives because it addresses one of the anomalous, absurd, difficult-to-explain aspects of behavior for which no psychological system has an easy answer. Therefore, a wide-ranging literature on the topic of masochism is available. However, few previous reviewers have attempted to draw from a variety of disciplines and theoretical frameworks. In this review the historical development of the term and some of the psychoanalytic conceptualizations will be presented first. Since previous reviews of masochism from a strictly psychoanalytic perspective are adequate (Brenner, 1959; Eisenbud, 1967; Fenichel, 1945; Loewenstein, 1957; Panken, 1967), our discussions of masochism will be developed employing more extensively the interpersonal, social, learning theory, and biological perspectives.

The Ethics of Human Experimentation in Psychiatry: Toward a More Informed Consensus

In recent years, the expansion in medical research has been accompanied by a growing concern for human rights, and a proliferation of government regulations. These concurrent developments have generated a deepening uneasiness about the future of human experimentation in psychiatry. This troubled state of affairs points out the desirability of a moral consensus that will respect the concerns of those involved. Toward that end, we offer a method for assessing the arguments now crowding the literature and propose a set of paradigms of human experimentation--the scientific, authoritarian, market, fiduciary, collegial, and social--which appear to lie behind the clash of perspectives. It is our hope that these paradigms can contribute to a fair and sympathetic examination of the conflicting positions. While this in itself cannot guarantee a moral consensus, it can facilitate a clearer organization and understanding of priorities.

BEHAVIORAL EFFECTS OF A NEW DOPAMINE-β-HYDROXYLASE INHIBITOR (FUSARIC ACID) IN MAN

Publisher Summary This chapter discusses behavioral effects of a new dopamine-β-hydroxylase (DβH) inhibitor (fusaric acid) in man. DβH, an enzyme localized in noradrenergic neurons, converts dopamine to norepinephrine. Thus, the administration of a DBH inhibitor would be expected to decrease central norepinephrine selectively while producing either no change or an increase in central dopamine. Fusaric acid is well tolerated with a minimal effect on blood pressure and no alteration in indices of hepatic, hematologic, renal, or endocrine function. An increase in psychosis could be a nonspecific reaction to a drug-inducedorganic brain impairment rather than a direct result of DBH inhibition. Fusaric acid on the other hand, of the available DβH inhibitors, appears to be the most specific, particularly in that it does not inhibit aldehyde dehydrogenase. Also of importance is the fact that fusaric acid has not been associated with any signs of an organic brain syndromein any of its clinical trials.