Kindling phenomenon

Anticonvulsants. In the 1970s, several researchers theorized that the tendency for BPAD to worsen over time with more freqnent episodes might indicate the presence of a kindling phenomenon. This model had earlier been validated in certain seiznre disorders (i.e., complex partial seiznres). Thns, stndies of anticonvnlsants in the treatment of BPAD were initiated. Althongh there remains no conclnsive evidence that kindling plays a role in the pathophysiology of BPAD, nnmerons anticonvnlsants have been demonstrated effective in the treatment of BPAD. 

Post, R.M. and Weiss, S.R. (1998) Sensitization and kindling phenomenon in mood, anxiety, and obsessive compulsive disorders the role of serotonergic mechanisms in illness progression. Biol Psychiatry 44 193—206. 

Levadopa-Induced Psychosis A Kindling Phenomenon. Am. J. Psychlat, 135 669-675. 

Moskovitz C, Moses H 3rd, Klawans HL. Levodopa-induced psychosis a kindling phenomenon. Am J Psychiatry 1978 135(6) 669-75. 

Cocaine is a psychotomimetic drug, sometimes even at system-ically nontoxic doses. A kindling phenomenon has been described with cocaine in which neuronal function becomes altered with each dose of the drug. This causes a type of reverse tolerance with increased receptor sensitivity to cocaine, and psychosis may be caused by doses that formerly did not cause psychosis. The toxic psychosis is characterized by auditory, visual, and frequently tactile hallucinations, paranoid thinking, and looseness of associations. The psychosis is qualitatively very similar to a paranoid schizophrenic psychosis. ... 

When black powder burns, the first portion to receive the fire undergoes a chemical reaction which results in the production of hot gas. The gas, tending to expand in all directions from the place where it is produced, warms the next portion of black powder to the kindling temperature. This then takes fire and burns with the production of more hot gas which raises the temperature of the next adjacent material. If the black powder is confined, the pressure rises, and the heat, since it cannot escape, is communicated more rapidly through the mass. Further, the gas- and heat-producing chemical reaction, like any other chemical reaction, doubles its rate for every 10° (approximate) rise of temperature. In a confined space the combustion becomes extremely rapid, but it is still believed to be combustion in the sense that it is a phenomenon dependent upon the transmission of heat. 

Kindling may account for the lowered seizure threshold following chronic cocaine abuse. This phenomenon has been described elsewhere (e.g. in the use of carbamazepine in the treatment of mania), and occurs when small, subconvulsive doses eventually give rise to spontaneous seizures. 

This phenomenon was stumbled upon in the quest of electrochemists for techniques which will allow identification of molecular species in the interphase and which will yield structural information on the molecular level. " The initial pioneering work was quickly followed by the realization that some unexpected behavior was being observed. Imaginations were immediately kindled and much work has been done and reported, most of which was directed to attempts to understand the mechanism (or mechanisms) responsible for the giant enhancements of the scattering seen. 

Glial cell activation and proliferation with upregulation of glial-fibrillary acidic protein is seen with kindled seizures in the hippocampus. This phenomenon is time-dependent and even reversible (Torre et al., 1993 Adams et al, 1998). 

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