Psychotropic drug

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

Psychometry in Early Psychopharmacology

Abstract: As psychotropic drugs, by definition, alter psychological functioning, it is important to know the range and the intensity of these effects. Yet psychotropic drugs are classified according to the abnormal psychological function that they affect — antidepressant, antipsychotic, antianxiety, etc. — and this compartmentalization of psychoactive compounds has led to a relative neglect of their other actions. This would not matter if the generality of psychotropic drugs were highly specific therapeutically, that is, if they ameliorated the target symptoms and did very little else. However, as we are all made aware of each day in our clinics, psychotropic agents, by and large, are unselective agents and our patients complain of a wide variety of side effects, both peripheral and central. In addition, drugs are now being sought to affect impaired psychological functioning rather than abnormal (in the qualitative sense) functioning. The best current example is the development of remedies for dementia.

An Open Label Study on Amisulpride in Augmentation with Atypical Antipsychotics in Treatment Resistant Patients of Schizophrenia and Schizoaffective Disorders.

Abstract: Delhi Psychiatry Journal 2008; 11:(1) © Delhi Psychiatric Society Introduction Despite the various treatment options for schizophrenia, about 30% of patients have partial or no response to pharmacotherapy1. Clozapine is generally drug of choice in patients who are treatment resistant, but 40-70% of patients may show an adequate response or slow clinical improvement.2 This problem of treatment resistance is a big problem. Clinicians have considered various approaches to solve this problem. Usual approaches include switching treatment resistant patients from a classic neuroleptic drug to an atypical antipsychotic or to any alternative typical agent, the use of electroconvulsive therapy, adding another psychotropic drug such as a benzodiazepine, lithium, an anticonvulsant or combining high and low potency medications.3 Antidepressants combinations as a treatment of resistant depression is widely used and effective,4-7 but regarding resistant schizophrenia, polypharmacy is still controversial. Since the development and introduction of atypical antipsychotics into routine clinical management, the use of antipsychotic drug combinations to treat schizophrenia has appeared to gain new impetus. The newer atypical antipsychotics exhibit more novel neuroreceptor profiles, which lead to the assumption that combination with either typical or atypical antipsychotic medications would provide a more efficacious profile. But despite of combination to overcome treatment resistance in patients of schizophrenia,8,9 polypharmacy is still recommended to be avoided and clinical trials are conducted in patients taking only one antipsychotic Abstract Objective: The authors report an open label study in treatment resistant patients of schizophrenia and schizoaffective disorders. The patients who were earlier being treated with atypical antipsychotics were put on combination of amisulpride and atypical antipsychotics and efficacy as well as safety of the combination was assessed. Method: A study of 6 weeks duration was conducted on 30 patients (9 women, 21 men).The mean dose of amisulpride used was from 250.00 mg/day + 91.65. SAPS, SANS, CGI-S scales were applied. 4 patients dropped out of study. 26 patients completed 6 weeks duration. Results: There was significant improvement in negative symptoms, positive symptoms, cognition especially in old chronic schizophrenics.Only two patients developed extrapyramidal symptoms.Improvement in all symptoms was remarkable. Conclusion: The combination of amisulpride with atypical antipsychotics is a promising option in patients who are resistant to treatment.

Application of Romidepsin in treatment of amphetamine drugs

Abstract: The invention provides application of Romidepsin in treatment of drug addiction of amphetamine psychotropic drugs. The pharmacology and behavioral experiments confirm that Romidepsin promotes amphetamine psychotropic drug addiction to subside, and reduces the recurrence of amphetamine psychotropic drug addiction.

Electrophysiologic Evidence of Neural Injury or Adaptation in Cocaine Dependence

Abstract: The electroencephalogram (EEG) is an emergent phenomenon of neural activity, which suggests that the EEG might reflect the apparently abnormal neurobiology observed in cocaine dependence. The EEG is noninvasive, inexpensive, and quantitative analysis of the EEG (QEEG) is based on information processing technology that is constantly growing with respect to analytic power and accessibility. Clinically, QEEG has been shown to be sensitive to psychiatric conditions, such as depression or attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) that are often comorbid with cocaine dependence (1–3). Pretreatment QEEG has been shown to be predictive of subsequent psychotropic drug response in patients with a variety of psychiatric disorders evaluated prospectively (4,5). Neural injury or adaptation in cocaine dependence resulting in changes in the underlying sources of the EEG and reflected quantitatively in the QEEG, could be relevant to “staging” the disorder with respect to the identification of reversible vs irreversible components, and could potentially provide an approach to the development or selection of treatment. This chapter focuses on data obtained from a large population of cocaine-dependent subjects in our ongoing National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) funded work on cocaine dependence. The chapter first provides a brief overview of structural and metabolic imaging studies in cocaine dependence, then reviews studies of EEG power spectral findings in chronic cocaine exposure in animals and humans, and our work on persistence of QEEG abnormality and evidence of electrophysiologic heterogeneity and its clinical correlates in cocaine dependence. Lastly, we attempt an interpretation of our QEEG findings will be considered in the context of hypothetical mechanisms of neural injury or adaptation.

The Prevalence and Patterns of Combined Psychotropic Polypharmacy among Acute Care Hospitals in Japan

Abstract: Purpose To evaluate the prescribing patterns of psychotropic polypharmacy for inpatients of acute care hospitals in Japan. Methods Administrative data on 2,639,885 patients admitted to acute care hospitals in Japan between July and December of 2008 were analyzed retrospectively. We defined psychotropic medications as antipsychotics, antidepressants, benzodiazepines, and other sedatives/hypnotics and studied their prescription patterns during the hospitalization of patients with stroke, acute cardiac infarction, cancer, and diabetes mellitus. Results At least one psychotropic drug was prescribed in 35.9% of all cases. Two-drug combinations of antipsychotic drugs were prescribed for stroke patients in 14,615 cases (1.4%), more than 2 in 3,132 cases (0.3%), and 22.4% of cases were prescribed 2 or more psychotropic drugs in addition to antipsychotic drugs. Amongst upper gastrointestinal cancer patients, 7.7% were prescribed a combination of 2 or more drugs, including benzodiazepines. Of the upper gastrointestinal cancer patients who were prescribed benzodiazepines, 20.3% were also prescribed 2 or more psychotropic drugs. Amongst stroke and upper gastrointestinal cancer patients, 36.6% and 35.6%, respectively, were treated with combination therapy using drugs of this class and others. Conclusion There is a pattern of polypharmacy that combines benzodiazepines and other sedatives/hypnotics with antidepressants or antipsychotic drugs, and this study provides a detailed analysis of this within acute care hospitals. Our results indicate the need for additional research into the efficacy of polypharmacy for inpatients in non-psychiatric settings.