The timing of clinical drug effects in depression can be estimated by a variety of methodological approaches, which might account for the heterogeneity of findings. We compared the patients' own ...ratings of the onset of antidepressant effect with onset estimations that were based on the intraindividual courses of depression as measured by the Hamilton Depression Rating Scale and a self-rating scale, the von Zerssen Adjective Mood Scale. The data of two control-group studies on brofaromine vs. imipramine were reanalyzed, the first, comprising 224 non-elderly and the second 195 elderly patients. In both studies the patients rated a significantly earlier onset of activity (means: days 12 and 16) than any other method. The means of the scale-based ratings varied between days 20 and 31 and showed a marked dependence on the response criteria selected: strict response criteria produced later onset estimations than less strict ones. Whereas the patient's own ratings indicated a significantly later onset of activity in the elderly patients, none of the scale-based measures supported this difference. The discussion focuses on the importance of methodological aspects.
This paper investigates the combination of a new block interleaver design and a noniterative decision feedback receiver/decoder for IS-95 code-division multiple-access (CDMA) uplink in additive white ...Gaussian noise and a Rayleigh fading multipath environment. The new interleaver design yields better performance than the currently used IS-95 interleaver, with E/sub b//N/sub 0/ improvements of 0.27 to 0.76 dB. At the same time, the new interleaver design improves the effectiveness of a noniterative decision feedback receiver/decoder herein presented. The performance of the proposed design is measured via computer simulation for both coherent and noncoherent detection. A mathematical justification is also given to show the reason why the performance is improved using the proposed design. Based on these results, it is concluded that the use of the new interleaver design with noniterative decision feedback decoding can improve the quality of service and/or capacity of a modified cellular IS-95 system or a system using a similar concatenation of convolutional coding, interleaving, and orthogonal Walsh modulation. Although the approach presented is applied to the uplink of IS-95, it can also be applied to similar M-ary systems.
Pramipexole, a presynaptic dopamine D2/D3 autoreceptor agonist, has been given to haloperidol-treated patients with schizophrenia (
n=15) in an effort to ameliorate residual positive and negative ...symptoms that have not been satisfactorily influenced by haloperidol alone. Total scores of the positive and negative symptom scale (PANSS) decreased by more than 20% in 9 of 15 patients (reduction of total score: 22–62%). Serious adverse events did not occur. Three of the 15 patients dropped out due to worsening of schizophrenia. Insomnia, as the most frequent side effect, occurred in 4 patients. No clinically relevant electrocardiographic and laboratory changes were reported. This study supports the safety of the treatment of schizophrenia with pramipexole and haloperidol as a combination therapy. However, further clinical studies are required to support these preliminary findings.
The antidepressant activity of monoamine oxidase inhibitors has been well established for 30 years. Nevertheless, this group of compounds was handled with great care, mainly because of the ...interaction potential with tyramine-containing foodstuff. With the discovery of reversible and selective inhibitors of monoamine oxidase type A a renaissance of these compounds has begun. In this paper one of these new substances--brofaromine--will be described in detail. Biochemical and pharmacological aspects will be reviewed, showing that brofaromine is a selective and reversible inhibitor of monoamine oxidase type A with additional serotonin reuptake inhibiting properties. Both mechanisms of action may synergize in the antidepressant effect of the compound. The main results of clinical trials in depression and other indication areas will also be covered. Special attention will be put on the side effect profile.
Six ZnSe1−xTex crystals were grown by the physical vapor transport technique. For each of the source material compositions, x=0.10, 0.20 and 0.30, two crystals were grown — one under horizontal and ...the other under vertical stabilized configurations. The axial and radial compositional uniformity were determined by precision density measurements, wavelength dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (WDS) and optical transmission mappings. The measured radial ZnTe content was quite uniform for all grown crystals except the horizontally grown crystal for x=0.30. WDS results on this crystal indicated a core with uniform ZnTe content, about 0.38, surrounded by a thin region of high ZnTe content with x=0.8. This feature was confirmed by the SEM back scattering electron images. For the three source compositions the axial compositional variations for the vertically grown crystals were more uniform than those for the horizontally grown crystals. The measured compositions in the crystals grown from source composition of x=0.10 suggest that the transport mechanism in the system cannot be interpreted by a simple one-dimensional diffusion limited model.
In an 8-week controlled double-blind clinical trial with a total of 216 patients Brofaromine was found to be superior to Imipramine with regard to efficacy (Hamilton Depression Scale, von Zerssen ...self-rating scale, global evaluation) and tolerability (adverse experiences, global evaluation). Mean daily dosages were 93.1 mg/day in the Brofaromine group and 92 mg/day in the Imipramine Group. No tyramine reduced diet had to be observed. Long-term efficacy and tolerability also proved to be good in an open follow-up in the Brofaromine group.
Subthreshold depressive disturbances and depressive episodes of mild severity are frequently associated with disability and socioeconomic burden, and often show an increase in symptomatology over ...time if untreated. Thus, there is an urgent need for antidepressant active compounds that are more readily available than those that must be obtained by prescription. To get an impression of the efficacy of the widely used phytopharmaceutical St. John's wort, the antidepressant efficacy in mild depressive disorders was compared with that of the standard antidepressant fluoxetine. The present overview includes controlled trials of fluoxetine in depression with a mean initial score on the Hamilton Rating Scale for Depression (HAM-D) ≤24, which were compared to the respective studies on St. John's wort. The mean HAM-D reduction of all St. John's wort studies was 10.2 (52.9%), and the respective figures for fluoxetine were 12.5 points and 55.5%. Thus, no relevant efficacy difference between the groups of investigations was found based on the studies included. The most important restrictions of this overview are no meta-analysis was performed, the studies were performed with heterogeneous methodological standards, and the St. John's wort extracts used were very different. However, St. John's wort might be a treatment option to reduce symptoms in patients not suffering from full-blown depressive disorder.
In the summer of 2009, several scientific teams engaged in a field program in Prince William Sound (PWS), Alaska to test an end-to-end atmosphere/ocean prediction system specially designed for this ...region. The “Sound Predictions Field Experiment” (FE) was a test of the PWS-Observing System (PWS-OS) and the culmination of a five-year program to develop an observational and prediction system for the Sound. This manuscript reports on results of an 18-day high-resolution atmospheric forecasting field project using the Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) model.
Special attention was paid to surface meteorological properties and precipitation. Upon reviewing the results of the real-time forecasts, modifications were incorporated in the PWS-WRF modeling system in an effort to improve objective forecast skill. Changes were both geometric (model grid structure) and physical (different physics parameterizations).
The weather during the summer-time FE was typical of the PWS in that it was characterized by a number of minor disturbances rotating around an anchored low, but with no major storms in the Gulf of Alaska. The basic PWS-WRF modeling system as implemented operationally for the FE performed well, especially considering the extremely complex terrain comprising the greater PWS region.
Modifications to the initial PWS-WRF modeling system showed improvement in predicting surface variables, especially where the ambient flow interacted strongly with the terrain. Prediction of precipitation on an accumulated basis was more accurate than prediction on a day-to-day basis. The 18-day period was too short to provide reliable assessment and intercomparison of the quantitative precipitation forecasting (QPF) skill of the PWS-WRF model variants.
► PWS-WRF successfully simulated most of the PWS-FE weather events. ► Terrain-driven circulations were found to dominate, especially during less stormy periods. ► Variants of the PWS-WRF showed improved predictability of winds over the base model. ► PWS-WRF model variants predicted total precipitation (QPF) relatively well. ► Day-to-day QPF showed wide variability among the variants.
The paper summarizes the concept of somatoform disorders, which was first introduced in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders in its third edition in 1980. The relevant clinical ...trials related to this concept are reviewed. On the basis of this experience, the present study discusses methodological requirements for clinical trials, including inclusion and exclusion criteria, measurements of efficacy and safety, and statistical considerations, in the hope that this will stimulate the use of this diagnostic entity in the future.
Serum concentrations of thyroxine (T
4), triiodothyronine (T
3), and thyrotropine were measured in 34 patients with nonseasonal affective disorders before and after 1 week of light treatment. ...Nineteen of these patients received bright white light (2500 lx) and 15 dim red light (50 lx) for 2 hours daily in the mornings over a 1-week period. Slight but significant reductions in the rating scores for the depressive symptomatology were found for both the bright- and dim-light groups, but there were no significant differences between the two groups. The improvement is thus most likely a placebo effect. Surprisingly, the small changes in the severity of the depressive symptoms in the group as a whole were significantly correlated to the changes in the serum levels of T
4 during the weeks of bright- and dim-light treatment, respectively. The more a patient improved, the further his or her T
4 level fell and vice versa. The fluctuations in the concentrations of T
4 during light treatment were significantly greater in the depressed patients than in a group of 12 healthy controls who also received bright or dim light, whereas the changes in T
3 were significantly smaller than those of the healthy controls. The pronounced fluctuations in T
4 levels were probably not secondary to changes in mood. Rather, they are likely to reflect changes in tissue (intracellular) metabolism of T
4, which may be involved in the mechanisms underlying the fluctuations in mood in these patients.
PDF
