Reliability and clinical utility of DSM-IV substance-induced psychiatric disorders in acute psychiatric inpatients.

The goal of his study was to evaluate in 1,951 acute psychiatric inpatients the reliability, construct, convergent, and predictive validity of substance-induced psychiatric syndrome ratings made by clinical attending pschiatrists. The primary admitting condition for each subject was categorically rated by clinical attendings as not, mildly, moderately, or mostly substance-induced at both admission and discharge. Individual substance categories were associated with characteristic demographic, clinical treatment response, and length of stay, findings indicating good construct, predictive validity, and clinical utility. A linear dimensional approach to rating substance-induced syndromes in acute clinical populations may be preferable to the simple dichotomous approach used in DSM-IV.

Pulmonary surfactant in cystic fibrosis.

Cystic fibrosis (CF) leads to a chronic inflammation of the airways with significant air flow limitations developing early in the course of the disease. As a well-functioning pulmonary surfactant is necessary to keep the alveoli and the small conducting airways open during expiration, we hypothesized that the biochemical and biophysical properties of surfactant may be impaired in CF. Bronchoalveolar lavage fluid obtained during a clinically stable period was analysed from 20 CF patients (5.9-20 yrs) and 17 healthy children and adults. CF patients had significantly elevated total and polymorphonuclear neutrophil cell counts, whereas the concentrations of total protein and phospholipids did not differ from controls. The percentage of surface active phospholipids, phosphatidylcholine and phosphatidylglycerol, and the concentration of surfactant protein A were significantly reduced in CF patients. Surfactant protein B was unchanged. Although the relative proportion of large aggregates was higher in CF, their surface active properties were inferior, as assessed in the pulsating bubble surfactometer. Because the capacity of CF lavage fractions to inhibit surfactant function was the same as that of controls, impaired minimal surface tension was more likely to be due to the biochemical alterations detected, than to inhibition of a well-functioning surfactant. The impaired pulmonary surfactant system in clinically stable patients with cystic fibrosis is in agreement with the view that surfactant dysfunction may contribute to lung disease in cystic fibrosis.