Psychotropic drug

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

Abnormal correlation between serum leptin levels and body mass index may predict metabolic dysfunction irrespective of the psychopharmacological treatment.

Abstract: In an earlier study, we found a similar frequency of individuals with an abnormal correlation between serum leptin levels and body mass index (BMI) (outliers above or below the 95% confidence interval in the regression line) during treatment with antipsychotic drugs (n=301), other psychotropic drugs (n= 65 ), and drug-free individuals (n=229). In this secondary analysis, we compare the frequency of the metabolic syndrome (International Diabetes Federation), its constituting variables, obesity, (BMI>30kg/m 2 ), leptin and insulin serum levels, and an insulin-resistance index (homeostatic model assessment-insulin resistance) in outliers, nonoutliers distributed in their original treatment groups, and all the nonoutliers controlled by age, sex, and BMI. We identified 28 outliers, 24 above and four below the 95% confidence interval limits. Nine individuals were under antipsychotic treatment, four under other drug treatment, and 15 were drug-free. The outliers had a significantly higher frequency of metabolic syndrome and obesity, and higher values of waist circumference, triglycerides, insulin, and blood diastolic pressure. The outliers in the correlation between leptin and BMI may represent a population at high risk of metabolic dysfunction, irrespective of the specific psychotropic drug treatment administered.

Overprescribing of Psychotropic Drugs

Abstract: During recent years we have seen startling increases in the manufacture, distribution, prescription and cost of psychotropic drugs. Many figures have been quoted from Department of Health and Social Security and other sources (for example Trethowan, 1975) to illustrate these increases. The figures quoted are often said to be out of proportion to the prevalence of the psychiatric disorders for which they are prescribed. This, however, cannot be accepted as a statement of fact, because the prevalence of mental illness in general, let alone that of specific psychiatric disorders that call for drug treatment, is not known. The figures are, none the less, suggestive.

[General methodological problems of psychotropic drug trials (author's transl)].

Abstract: The difference between the methodological approach of the basic neuro-sciences and the descriptive clinical methods consists in the possibility of isolating the object studied in the former, and in the complexity of relevant clinical terms in the latter which can only be quantified secondarily. Psychopathological symptoms, even operationalized and quantified as items in rating scales, remain complex, whereas the values taken from the substratum, i.e. physiological or biochemical can clearly be evaluated. The complexity of measuring psychopathological symptoms is illustrated in a study in which the scores of different scales of depressive patients are correlated before and after treatment, and the step from the physiological to the psychological level is discussed by means of the results of a psychophysiological study with normal subjects who were given a sedative. These results suggest a heterogeneity of samples of psychiatric patients selected for therapeutic studies according only to clinical criteria. This heterogeneity is discussed on five levels of psychopathological states in depressive, schizophrenic and nonpsychotic anxiety syndromes. Particular interest is put on to the psychophysiological level. From this heterogeneity of samples of psychopharmacological studies, two conclusions can be drawn: 1) Double blind studies are of limited value, since so far only the general effects of whole categories of psychotropic drugs could be determined, whereas it was not possible to determine specific indications for an individual drug. 2) The object of research must be to embody psychopathological states in psychophysiological and clinical-biochemical data, in order to find more homogeneous subgroups of psychiatric patients and to optimize therapeutic procedures; in other words, to find out which patients respond best to a given drug. This strategy, however, limits the generalisation of therapeutic use of a given drug, but it permits to find more specific indications. This is, of course, a general principle in the development of psychiatric therapy.

Spectrophotometric Study of Acid-Base Equilibrium of a Thienotriazolodiazepine, Brotizolam, Determination in Pharmaceutical Formulations

Abstract: Brotizolam is a psychotropic drug, derived from the Thieno-triazolodiazepine family, which has sedative and hypnotic properties. In this work, a spectrophotometric study has been carried out to determine the acid-base equilibrium, the pka value being obtained, as well as to develop a method for the determination of this compound in pharmaceutical formulations.