Comparative efficacy of behavioral despair models in depicting antidepressant-like effect of tramadol.

Background: Experimental evaluation of antidepressants (ADs) in diverse animal models is the need of time. There is a constant search for newer models with ease and rapid screening of AD activity. As earlier studies highlight AD effect of tramadol in animal models, the study was undertaken to compare antidepressant-like effect of tramadol in two models of behavioural despair in mice. Methods: Tramadol was administered intraperitoneally (i.p.) at two different doses of 20 and 40 mg/kg, once daily for 7 days to Swiss albino mice. The immobility period of control and drug-treated mice was recorded in tail suspension test (TST) and forced swim test (FST). The antidepressant (AD) effect of tramadol was compared with control (NS) and reference drug imipramine (10 mg/kg, p.o.), administered orally (p.o.) for seven successive days. Results: Tramadol in tail suspension test (TST) produced significant antidepressant effect at 20 and 40 mg/kg doses, as depicted by reduction in immobility period of drug-treated mice compared to control group. The efficacy of tramadol at dose of 40 mg/kg was comparable to that of imipramine treated group (p<0.001). Tramadol in forced swim test (FST) produced significant antidepressant effect only at the dose of 40 mg/kg as compared to control, while the results were insignificant as compared to imipramine treated group (p>0.05). Conclusion: The results of the present study depict antidepressant-like activity of tramadol in both the models of depression TST and FST. But TST in mice seems to be more efficacious in appraising the antidepressant like effect of tramadol.

Vitamin B12 deficiency in India: Mean corpuscular volume is an unreliable screening parameter.

Background. Vitamin B12 deficiency is thought to be more common than was previously believed, but there are little data from India on this. It has protean clinical manifestations, and raised mean corpuscular volume (MCV) is commonly used by physicians as an indicator for megaloblastic anaemia caused by vitamin B12 deficiency. We evaluated the clinical profiles of our patients with vitamin B12 deficiency and tried to ascertain how useful MCV and the peripheral smear were in diagnosis. Methods. We evaluated the clinical picture, haematology indices and peripheral smear findings of 117 patients with low vitamin B12 levels. Serum folic acid, ferritin values and biopsy findings of some patients were also assessed. Results. Patients were commonly detected to have reduced levels of serum vitamin B12 during the work-up for anaemia (n=45) or for neurological symptoms (n=31). Of the 94 cases in which smears were examined, 26 showed macrocytes and hypersegmented neutrophils were present in 24. Twentysix patients showed a raised MCV, 50 patients had an MCV within the reference range and 28 had low MCV. Pancytopenia was present in 5 patients. Concomitant iron deficiency, as judged by serum ferritin levels, was present in 18 patients. Conclusion. Vitamin B12 deficiency is not uncommon in India. It is often diagnosed during the work-up for a haematological disorder or for neurological symptoms. MCV is unreliable as a screening parameter for the presumed diagnosis of macrocytic anaemia, which is associated with vitamin B12 deficiency.

Making blood transfusion safe.

Multiple medical and paramedical professionals, right from blood transfusion technicians to staff nurses to doctors, play a vital role in making blood transfusion a safe procedure. The role of the donor is equally important because untruthful declaration on any point in the questionnaire will lead to unsafe blood donation. Biomedical ethics and medical law in blood transfusion practice has been written to bring about more awareness of safety in transfusion medicine among medical practitioners and other healthcare professionals and thus avoid litigation. Prof Tay and Prof Tien, being in the field of law and transfusion medicine respectively, are the most eligible persons to write such a book and have done a commendable job.