Priapism: What cause: mental illness, psychotropic medications or poly-substance abuse?

We present a case of priapism in a homeless patient with a psychiatric history of major depression, PTSD, polysubstance abuse (alcohol and cocaine) and past psychotropic medication use who was admitted to a local hospital for suicidal ideation. Priapism is a serious urological and a medical emergency which has often been associated with psychotropic medications (including the antidepressant trazodone), use of marijuana and alcohol, and other factors. This clinical case highlights the additive risks of medications and comorbid conditions in contributing to onset of priapism, emphasizing the importance of any pre-existing medical illness, diagnoses, and comorbid mental illnesses. Moreover, clinicians should consider potential side effects of all medications used and their drug interactions as they manage patients who develop this condition.

Surface electrical stimulation perturbation context determines the presence of error reduction in swallowing hyolaryngeal kinematics.

PURPOSE: Error-based learning (EBL) involves gradually reducing movement errors caused by a perturbation. When the perturbation has been unexpectedly removed, exaggerated movements occur in the opposite direction of a perturbation effect, known as aftereffects. Our goal was to determine whether the perturbation type impacts error reduction or aftereffects in swallowing hyolaryngeal kinematics. METHOD: We perturbed peak hyolaryngeal elevation during swallowing in 16 healthy adults with surface electrical stimulation (SES) in 2 different ways during videofluoroscopy: intermittent SES (I-SES) was applied only during swallowing, and continuous SES (C-SES) was applied during swallowing and during interswallow intervals. In C-SES and I-SES, the onset and offset of the perturbation were unmasked. RESULTS: Only the C-SES perturbation caused error reduction (gradually increasing peak elevation). Aftereffects were absent in both perturbations, unlike findings from our previous study with masked perturbation. Furthermore, the duration of laryngeal vestibule closure (dLVC) increased during the I-SES perturbation but was unchanged during C-SES perturbation. CONCLUSION: EBL of swallowing airway protection events was strongly influenced by the context of the perturbation. These findings also elucidate how the relationship among critical swallowing airway protection events (hyoid peak, laryngeal peak, and dLVC) can be modified during EBL.

Human hyolaryngeal movements show adaptive motor learning during swallowing.

The hyoid bone and larynx elevate to protect the airway during swallowing. However, it is unknown whether hyolaryngeal movements during swallowing can adjust and adapt to predict the presence of a persistent perturbation in a feed-forward manner (adaptive motor learning). We investigated adaptive motor learning in nine healthy adults. Electrical stimulation was administered to the anterior neck to reduce hyolaryngeal elevation, requiring more strength to swallow during the perturbation period of this study. We assessed peak hyoid bone and laryngeal movements using videofluoroscopy across thirty-five 5-ml water swallows. Evidence of adaptive motor learning of hyolaryngeal movements was found when (1) participants showed systematic gradual increases in elevation against the force of electrical stimulation and (2) hyolaryngeal elevation overshot the baseline (preperturbation) range of motion, showing behavioral aftereffects, when the perturbation was unexpectedly removed. Hyolaryngeal kinematics demonstrates adaptive, error-reducing movements in the presence of changing and unexpected demands. This is significant because individuals with dysphagia often aspirate due to disordered hyolaryngeal movements. Thus, if rapid motor learning is accessible during swallowing in healthy adults, patients may be taught to predict the presence of perturbations and reduce errors in swallowing before they occur.

Adaptation of swallowing hyo-laryngeal kinematics is distinct in oral vs. pharyngeal sensory processing.

Before a bolus is pushed into the pharynx, oral sensory processing is critical for planning movements of the subsequent pharyngeal swallow, including hyoid bone and laryngeal (hyo-laryngeal) kinematics. However, oral and pharyngeal sensory processing for hyo-laryngeal kinematics is not fully understood. In 11 healthy adults, we examined changes in kinematics with sensory adaptation, sensitivity shifting, with oropharyngeal swallows vs. pharyngeal swallows (no oral processing), and with various bolus volumes and tastes. Only pharyngeal swallows showed sensory adaptation (gradual changes in kinematics with repeated exposure to the same bolus). Conversely, only oropharyngeal swallows distinguished volume differences, whereas pharyngeal swallows did not. No taste effects were observed for either swallow type. The hyo-laryngeal kinematics were very similar between oropharyngeal swallows and pharyngeal swallows with a comparable bolus. Sensitivity shifting (changing sensory threshold for a small bolus when it immediately follows several very large boluses) was not observed in pharyngeal or oropharyngeal swallowing. These findings indicate that once oral sensory processing has set a motor program for a specific kind of bolus (i.e., 5 ml water), hyo-laryngeal movements are already highly standardized and optimized, showing no shifting or adaptation regardless of repeated exposure (sensory adaptation) or previous sensory experiences (sensitivity shifting). Also, the oral cavity is highly specialized for differentiating certain properties of a bolus (volume) that might require a specific motor plan to ensure swallowing safety, whereas the pharyngeal cavity does not make the same distinctions. Pharyngeal sensory processing might not be able to adjust motor plans created by the oral cavity once the swallow has already been triggered.