[The lithium concentration of the blood plasma in combined therapy with lithium carbonate and carbamazepine]. / Kontsentratsiia litiia v plazme krovi pri kombinirovannoi terapii karbonatom litiia i karbamazepinom.

In view of the fact that therapy of affective psychoses with the combination of lithium carbonate with carbamazepine has been becoming ever common, the question arises about the influence of carbamazepine on plasma lithium concentration. On the material of 125 blood samples by using the method of dispersion analysis it was shown that carbamazepine exerts no effect on this parameter. Therefore when carbamazepine is added to lithium therapy it is not advisable to decrease lithium dose as it can result in a reduction of the therapeutic effect.

[Mechanisms of development of recurrences in endogenous psychoses. Duration of remission in affective psychoses]. / O mekhanizmakh razvitiia retsidivov pri éndogennykh psikhozakh. Dlitel'nost' remissii pri affektivnykh psikhozakh.

A study was made of 755 remissions in 171 patients suffering from affective psychoses. It has been established that distributions of the duration of complete remissions designed according to small (week and two-week) intervals are of periodic nature. This attests to rhythmical fluctuations of the risk of a relapse. Mathematic methods of analysis of the time series enable one to establish the polyrhythmic structure of the fluctuations, in which the leading rhythms are those with the intervals lengths of the order of 2, 5, 9, 12-13 and 22 weeks. These data well agree on the whole with the findings obtained earlier for schizophrenia remissions.

[Mechanisms of the development of recurrences of endogenous psychoses. The duration of remission in schizophrenia]. / O mekhanizmakh razvitiia retsidivov pri éndogennykh psikhozakh. Dlitel'nost' remissii pri shizofrenii.

The distribution of the period of schizophrenia remissions is depicted by the exponential law. Having carried out an expensive epidemiological study, the authors have shown that such a depiction may turn adequate only in the design of the distribution in time intervals of the order of one year. In minor time intervals (weekly or approximating ones), the distribution acquires a wavy appearance indicating periodic fluctuations of relapse risk at the basis of which there lies a certain rhythmical process. The data are provided in favour of polyrhythmic pattern of that process, with the rhythms having a period of 5-6, 8-9, 12-13 and 21-22 weeks being the most permanent ones. The correlation between the exponential and polyrhythmic models of schizophrenia relapsing is discussed.

[Effectiveness of finlepsin in the prophylactic therapy of phasic affective psychoses]. / Effektivnost' finlepsina pri profilakticheskoi terapii fazno protekaiushchikh affektivnykh psikhozov.

The article presents new, specified results of the use of finlepsin (carbamazepine) for the secondary prophylaxis in patients with endogenic affective psychoses. The data have emanated from a 5-year observation of the course of therapy of 73 patients. A positive effect was observed in 83% of cases, including 27.7% of cases with complete disappearance of circulation. No significant differences in the drug efficacy have been found in patients with manic-depressive psychosis versus schizophrenia. Yet, in most of the schizophrenics the phases have disappeared, while patients with manic-depressive psychosis have presented only partial improvement. The authors recommend that doses at the initial stages of treatment be increased in a gradual manner. Variants of a positive therapeutic time-course are described. They have also determined a period of time (3.5-4 months) after which the continuation of the therapy should be considered inadvisable in case of no favourable effect.

[Preventive treatment of affective psychoses with finlepsin]. / Profilakticheskoe lechenie affektivnykh psikhozov finlepsinom.

The prolonged (up to two years) use of finlepsin in manic-depressive and schizoaffective psychoses in 35 patients has shown this drug to possess a prophylactic effect comparable with the prophylactic action of lithium. In the course of treatment, the average cumulative duration of the morbid state considered in proportion to the observation period reduced from 87% to 37%. The dose of finlepsin reached as high as 1400 mg daily, with the average maintenance dose being 821 mg/day. Both critical and lytic variants of phasic reduction are traced.

[Intensive therapy of endogenous psychoses]. / Ob intensivnoi terapii éndogennykh psikhozakh.

A reduction of hospital stay facilitates the readaptation of mental patients. One of the conditions for implementing short hospitalization is the intensity of biological treatment: intravenous drip administration of drugs with a rapid increase of doses, rapid neuroleptization, and combination of psychotropic drugs with methods of a general biological influence. A study of 100 patients treated by the routine way demonstrated that intensive therapy significantly reduces the time of hospitalization and promotes remissions. The studies showed that intensive therapy is desirable only in acute psychoses and during the early stages of its development.