Animal studies deficits

Neurological Effects. There have been no human or animal studies specifically designed to determine the neurological effects of thorium. Neurological effects, such as narcosis, ataxia, or cholinergic signs, have not been reported in any of the inhalation or oral studies in animals. It is not known whether humans would experience major neurological deficits from exposure to thorium. 

Studies of animals with central cholinergic lesions produced by either pharmacological inhibition of choline uptake or direct excitotoxic lesions of basal forebrain cholinergic neurons have shown highly specific attentional deficits (Muir et al. 1992 Robbins et al. 1989). These animals showed deficits that might be predicted from studies of humans with AD that is, they showed increased response latency and increased responsiveness to irrelevant sensory stimuli. Studies by Vidal (1994b) have shown that administration of a nicotinic antagonist into rat prefrontal cortex impairs performance on spatial... 

This ability to test drugs in contexts other than acute pain models has arisen from good communication between bench scientists, clinicians and industry. Until recently investigations into the mechanisms of clinical pain syndromes all relied on animal studies using acute stimuli. The symptoms of pain arising from nerve injury, neuropathic pain, such as allodynia, spontaneous pain, hyperalgesia, sensory deficits and in some cases a sympathetic component are simply not seen in the older acute models. There are now several animal models which mimic peripheral and central neuropathic states. The same is true for inflammation. 

The epidemiologic data, relative to dietary fiber, has been supported by animal studies but experiments with dietary fat have been conflicting and generally do not indicate a fat effect. Other dietary factors which associate with colon cancer in animal studies are deficits of lipotropes and of vitamin A. 

Based on the original large-animal studies that demonstrated ECT-induced brain damage, organized psychiatry should have banned the treatment decades ago. Even without the animal studies, Sackeim et al. s (2007) demonstration of permanent ECT-induced memory loss and other cognitive deficits consistent with dementia should have been sufficient to stop all use of the treatment. This chapter has also reviewed a mountain of additional research confirming that ECT damages both the brain and the mind. 

In PD, animal studies are underw ay with IGL-1. N-ter-minal tripeptide of IGF-1 wa.s peripherally administered to 6-OHDA mouse models of PD and results indicated that administration after the onset of nigrostriatal dopamine depletion improved long term parkinsonian motor deficits however IGF-1 administration did not prevent the loss of tyrosine hydroxylase in the substantia nigra pars compacta or the striatum (Krishnamurthi et al., 2004). Human trials of IGF have not yet been conducted in PD. 

An animal study of the histological and physiological effects of intrathecal lidocaine at varjdng concentrations from 3 to 20% showed the presence of lesions in the posterior roots and columns characterized by axonal degeneration (261). The lesions were severe at higher concentrations, but even at the lower concentration of 7.5% there were mild lesions that did not correlate with the presence of neurofunctional deficit. 

Research on the health effects of chronic, low-level lead exposure is quite extensive and has been garnered from both epidemiologic and animal studies. The most critical of these adverse health effects have occurred in children and include deficits in physical... 

Aged garlic extract has been shown in in vitro and animal studies to protect against liver toxicity from environmental substances, such as bromobenzene (72), protect against cardiotoxicity from doxorubicin (73), and improve age-related spatial memory deficits (74). A placebo-controlled human study showed that garlic may also be useful as a tick repellent (75). In addition, a double-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled human study showed that garlic supplements taken over a 12-week period in the winter significantly reduced the incidence of the common cold (p < 0.001), and reduced the duration of symptoms when they occurred (p < 0.001) (76). 

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