Psychotropic drug

About: Psychotropic drug is a research topic. Over the lifetime, 2309 publications have been published within this topic receiving 54070 citations.

Preliminary communication Rates of flu-like infection in patients with affective illness

Abstract: Studies of immunologic profiles of depressed patients are suggestive of chronic viral infection and several investigators have found specific viral protein in some depressed patients. Moreover, several psychotropic drugs have anti-viral activity and can inhibit viral replication. In this preliminary report, we retrospectively examined the rate of reported flu-like episodes before and during psychotropic drug treatment in 236 affectively ill patients: 177 receiving lithium prophylaxis and 59 receiving chronic antidepressant medication. We observed a small but significant reduction in the mean rate of reported flu-like illness during lithium therapy ( P , 0.001), with a greater reduction in men vs. women (P , 0.05). We also found a modest reduction in reported flu-like illness during chronic treatment with antidepressants ( P 5 0.08). Although these observations are preliminary in nature, they complement earlier reports that some psychotropic drugs may have anti-viral activity. © 1998 Elsevier Science B.V.

Lessons learned from trends in psychotropic drug expenditures in a canadian province.

Abstract: Although prescription drug prices are lower in Canada than in the United States, trends indicate that there has nevertheless been a steep increase in expenditures on psychotropic drugs. Between 1992 and 1998, such expenditures increased by 216 percent; 61 percent of these expenditures were on antidepressants, 33 percent on antipsychotics, and less than 7 percent on anxiolytics. Most of the increase in costs in Canada is attributable to a greater use of newer agents and the higher prices of these agents. These trends are a reminder not only that the use of newer, more expensive psychotherapeutic agents has become a widely embraced part of care but also that lower drug prices do not necessarily insulate a health care system from rising expenditures. The authors' findings prompt the questions of whether the use of these newer agents meets practice guidelines and whether there are ways to control the increases in drug expenditures while ensuring high-quality care.

Psychotropic medication, psychiatric disorders, and higher brain functions.

Abstract: Conventional psychiatric diagnosis is founded on symptom description; this then governs the choice of psychotropic medication. This purely descriptive approach resembles a description of diphtheria from the premicrobiology era. Based on current advances in basic and clinical neuroscience, we propose inserting an intermediate level of analysis between psychiatric symptoms and pharmacologic modes of action. Paradigm 1 is to analyze psychiatric symptoms in terms of which higher brain function(s) is (are) abnormal, ie, symptoms should be analyzed as higher brain dysfunction: a case study in obsessive-compulsive disorder reveals pointers in four common symptoms to the higher functions of working memory, emotional overlay, absence of voluntary control, and the ability to evaluate personal mental phenomena. Paradigm 2 is to view psychotropic drugs as modifying normal higher brain functions, rather than merely treating symptoms, which they do only secondarily: thus depression may respond to agents that act on related aspects of mental life derived from higher brain functions, eg, the ability to enhance bonding. We advocate a strategy in which psychiatric illness is progressively reclassified through knowledge in clinical neuroscience and treatment targets are revised accordingly.

Tardive Dyskinesia and Related Neurologic Disorders

Abstract: In 1957, Schonecker (1957) described oral dyskinesia in three patients treated with chlorpromazine. This publication was brief, but the three subjects unquestionably had the condition later to be known as tardive dyskinesia. Two years later, Sigwald and associates (1959) reported in great detail the most characteristic features of the buccal-lingual-masticatory syndrome in four patients who also had received chlorpromazine. In the following years, similar case reports from different countries appeared in the literature (Druckman et al., 1962; Stern, 1960; Kruse, 1960). Even though the new syndrome was conspicuous and often disabling, it seemed to be extraordinarily infrequent, considering the several million patients being treated with neuroleptics at that time. Furthermore, it was believed that only the elderly or persons with preexisting neurological disorder were the victims of this unusual drug reaction.