Psychiatric therapy

The readiness to experiment displayed by several biologically interested psychiatrists trying out pharmacological remedies to more effective psychiatric therapy. 

Stanga C, Preskorn SH. Use of the laboratory in psychiatry. In DunnerDL, ed. Current Psychiatric Therapy II. Philadelphia Saunders, 1997 2 59-74. 

Sheehan DV, Paji BA. Panic disorder. In DunnerDL, ed. Current psychiatric therapy. Philadelphia WB Saunders, 1992 275-282. 

A 33-year-old nurse with unexplained hypoglycemia had only small increases in insulin and C-peptide, and glibenclamide was found in her serum (47). However, she denied using it and did not want psychiatric therapy. 

Love-In in honor of LSD was staged at Golden Gate Park in San Francisco, California. Prior to being made illegal, more than 40,000 patients had been treated with LSD as part of psychiatric therapy. 

LSD can dramatically reduce people s inhibitions, making it easier for them to talk about their problems and remember past traumatic events. The drug was therefore tested as a possible way of enhancing psychotherapy in people with conditions such as anxiety, depression, and alcohol dependence. It was also used to help alleviate the fear of death in people dying of cancer and other incurable diseases. By 1965, more than 40,000 patients had been treated with LSD as part of psychiatric therapy. 

Crane, G. (1977). Prevention of tardive dyskinesia. In J. Masserman (Ed.), Current psychiatric therapies (Vol. 17). New York Grune and Stratton. 

Davis, J., Jamcak, P., Khan, A. (1991). Neuroleptic malignant syndrome. In D. Dunner (Ed.), Current psychiatric therapy (pp. 170-175). Philadelphia Saunders. 

The degradative pathway. Inhibitors of MAO were among the first drugs used in both anti-h5 ertensive and psychiatric therapy. Though effective, they are not used very much today, for reasons that will become apparent below. Inhibitors of COMT are used in combination with L-DOPA in the therapy of Parkinson s disease (see below). 

Soskin, R. A. 1975. Dipropyltryptamine in psychotherapy. Current Psychiatric Therapies 15 147-56. 

During the years that Shulgin was using MDMA as part of psychiatric therapy, many people began to use the drug recreationally. Concerned about the potential dangers of the drug when used without medical supervision, the United States banned MDMA in 1985. Nevertheless,... 

ScHOu M (1968) Lithium in psychiatric therapy and prophylaxis. J Psychiatr Res 6 67—95. 

Interest in the measurement of intracellular activities centres on transmembrane potentials and on the transport of ions across membranes. For example, lithium salts feature in the treatment of mania, but owing to the analytical problems little has been known of lithium accumulation or about its transport by nerve cell membranes. However, a recently developed microlithium electrode based on a liquid membrane sensor has established [280] an active transport of lithium ions out of Helix aspersa pallial ganglia and that at low external levels there is even less intracellular than extracellular lithium ions. It is therefore difficult to appreciate how lithium could function in an intracellular capacity to alter the neuronal properties in lithium psychiatric therapy [280]. 

Orthomolecular psychiatric therapy is the treatment of mental disease by the provision of the optimum molecular environment for the mind, especially the optimum concentrations of substances normally present in the human body ). An example is the treatment of phenyl-ketonuric children by use of a diet containing a smaller than normal amount of the amino acid phenylalanine. Phenylketonuria (2) results from a genetic defect that leads to a decreased amount or effectiveness of the enzyme catalyzing the oxidation of phenylalanine to tyrosine. The patients on a normal diet have in their tissues abnormally high concentrations of phenylalanine and some of its reaction products, which, possibly in conjunction with the decreased concentration of tyrosine, cause the mental and physical manifestations of the disease (mental deficiency, severe eczema, and others). A decrease in the amount of phenylalanine ingested results in an approximation to the normal or optimum concentrations and to the... 

The next few years were not the happiest in Pauling s life. Not only did he sever his connection with Caltech, he resigned from the American Chemical Society as well. The move to Santa Barbara was not a success. He turned to theoretical physics, but his close-packed spheron theory of the atomic nucleus met with little acceptance. He became engaged in actual and threatened libel suits. He moved briefly to the University of California at San Diego (1967-69) and then on to Stanford University (1969-72), where he was closer to his ranch at Big Sur, but he had no stable position in which to continue his planned research into orthomolecular psychiatric therapy. Meanwhile, he was deeply unhappy about the American involvement in Vietnam and about American politics in general. 

Pauling recently introduced the concept of orthomolecular psychiatry in an attempt to redefine the basis of mental disease and the treatment thereof. He suggests that aberrant mental function and behavior may be due to inadequate brain levels of essential nutrients (e.g., vitamins, amino acids, fatty acids, etc.). Orthomolecular psychiatric therapy, therefore, would provide optimum concentrations of these vital substances in order to correct alleged cerebral deficiencies. Diagnostic methods for determining optimum levels of a pertinent nutrient for individual patients are not yet available. One critic has already taken issue with these views. Other investigators have independently considered the possibility that abnormal plasma levels of free fatty acids may influence the erratic dietary intake of schizophrenic children. 

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