ABSTRACT
The ever growing volume of medical literature on adverse drug reactions in pediatric medicine and the lack of a thorough pharmacological screening of drugs in children, deserve particular attention from clinicians. A word of caution is given to keep adverse drugs reactions into perspective and a word of advise is also given to encourage clinicians to report adverse drug reactions in children. Various aspects of this old and yet actual problem are given pointing out new examples as introductory remarks to forthcoming reviews.
Subject(s)
Drug-Related Side Effects and Adverse Reactions , Child , Dose-Response Relationship, Drug , Drug Interactions , Humans , Pharmaceutical Preparations/administration & dosage , PharmacokineticsABSTRACT
The lethality of d-amphetamine was studied in isolated and aggregated mice with and without previous habituation to the physical or to the physical and social environment of chronically aggregated social condition under which the toxic effects of d-amphetamine were tested. In animals without previous habituation to such environments, d-amphetamine's toxicity was greatly enhanced by social aggregation, as reported by several authors in the literature. It was found that mortality in the dose range from 5 to 90 mg/kg is mainly determined by the stimulation due to aggregation. Above 90 mg/kg, the mortalities in single and aggregated mice vary in parallel. Up from this dose, lethality is independent of the external stimulation. Previous experience with house sharing in aggregated conditions reduces aggregation mortality in proportion to the duration of the previous house sharing period.
Subject(s)
Crowding/physiopathology , Dextroamphetamine/toxicity , Adaptation, Psychological , Animals , Dose-Response Relationship, Drug , Housing, Animal , Male , Mice , Mice, Inbred BALB C , Stress, Psychological/physiopathologyABSTRACT
It has been mentioned that herpes simplex antibodies are increased in depressed patients. In the present study, serums from 21 patients with reactive depressions, nine with psychotic depression, 33 schizophrenic and 15 normal controls were studied, and herpes simplex antibodies were measured. Neither was statistically significant difference found between any of the groups nor could antibody titres be correlated with severity of depression measured by a psychiatric rating scale. The authors review the pertinent literature, and state that although antibody tires do not correlated with psychiatric diagnosis, there still exists the possibility that latent brain viral infections might trigger depressive episodes in some cases.
