EEG alterations during treatment with olanzapine

The aim of this naturalistic observational study was to investigate EEG alterations in patients under olanzapine treatment with a special regard to olanzapine dose and plasma concentration. Twenty-two in-patients of a psychiatric university ward with the monodiagnosis of paranoid schizophrenia (ICD-10: F20.0), who received a monotherapy of olanzapine were included in this study. All patients had a normal alpha-EEG before drug therapy, and did not suffer from brain-organic dysfunctions, as verified by clinical examination and cMRI scans. EEG and olanzapine plasma levels were determined under steady-state conditions (between 18 and 22 days after begin of treatment). In 9 patients (40.9%), pathological EEG changes (one with spike-waves) consecutive to olanzapine treatment were observed. The dose of olanzapine was significantly higher in patients with changes of the EEG than in patients without changes (24.4 mg/day (SD: 8.1) vs. 12.7 mg/day (SD: 4.8); T = −4.3, df = 21, P < 0.001). In patients with EEG changes, the blood plasma concentration of olanzapine (45.6 μg/l (SD: 30.9) vs. 26.3 μg/l (SD: 21.6) tended to be also higher. The sensitivity of olanzapine dosage to predict EEG changes was 66.7%, the specificity 100% (Youden-index: 0.67). EEG abnormalities during olanzapine treatment are common. These are significantly dose dependent. Thus, EEG control recordings should be mandatory during olanzapine treatment with special emphasis on dosages exceeding 20 mg per day, although keeping in mind that EEGs have only a limited predictive power regarding future epileptic seizures

Internal Transcribed Spacer 2 (nu ITS2 rRNA) Sequence-Structure Phylogenetics: Towards an Automated Reconstruction of the Green Algal Tree of Life

L). Some have advocated the use of the nuclear-encoded, internal transcribed spacer two (ITS2) as an alternative to the traditional chloroplast markers. However, the ITS2 is broadly perceived to be insufficiently conserved or to be confounded by introgression or biparental inheritance patterns, precluding its broad use in phylogenetic reconstruction or as a DNA barcode. A growing body of evidence has shown that simultaneous analysis of nucleotide data with secondary structure information can overcome at least some of the limitations of ITS2. The goal of this investigation was to assess the feasibility of an automated, sequence-structure approach for analysis of IT2 data from a large sampling of phylum Chlorophyta.Sequences and secondary structures from 591 chlorophycean, 741 trebouxiophycean and 938 ulvophycean algae, all obtained from the ITS2 Database, were aligned using a sequence structure-specific scoring matrix. Phylogenetic relationships were reconstructed by Profile Neighbor-Joining coupled with a sequence structure-specific, general time reversible substitution model. Results from analyses of the ITS2 data were robust at multiple nodes and showed considerable congruence with results from published phylogenetic analyses.Our observations on the power of automated, sequence-structure analyses of ITS2 to reconstruct phylum-level phylogenies of the green algae validate this approach to assessing diversity for large sets of chlorophytan taxa. Moreover, our results indicate that objections to the use of ITS2 for DNA barcoding should be weighed against the utility of an automated, data analysis approach with demonstrated power to reconstruct evolutionary patterns for highly divergent lineages

Predicting genes in closely related species with Scipio and WebScipio.

Scipio and WebScipio are homology-based gene prediction software designed for annotating multigenic families and for transferring annotations from one species to closely related species. The strengths include the power to cope with sequencing-related problems such as sequencing errors and assemblies with short contigs but also the ability to correctly predict genes with unusually long introns and/or rather short exons. WebScipio is connected to diArk, the largest collection of eukaryotic genome assemblies, and thereby offers a very convenient way to correct existing annotations and to extend protein family datasets. WebScipio is also a key resource for researchers interested in mutually exclusive splicing, allowing to search for alternative exons not only in introns but also in up- and downstream regions in case of incompleteness of the search sequence. In this chapter, I describe how to use Scipio and WebScipio keeping a first-time user in mind

Continuing cognitive impairment after isolated transient global amnesia

Kessler J, Markowitsch HJ, Rudolf J, Heiss WD. Continuing cognitive impairment after isolated transient global amnesia. INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF NEUROSCIENCE. 2001;106(3-4):159-168.Fourteen patients were investigated 3-4 days after end of their transient global amnesia (TGA) with a number of neuropsychological tests. Their performance was compared with that of a control group. marched For ape, education. and profession. II was found that in spits of the common definition of TGA. impairments in both verbal and nonverbal long term memory and verbal fluency persisted and were in fact impaired to such a degree that it seemed unlikely that full recovery would have occurred within the next few days. We propose a major role of stress in the etiology and the recovery process of TGA and consider it likely that stress hormones are of major influence both in the triggering of TGA and the subsequent continuation of cognitive impairments

'Psychogenic Psychoses' by August Wimmer (1936): Part 1

Among others inspired by Magnan’s doctrine of délires des dégénérés , bouffées délirantes, etc., in 1916 the Danish psychiatrist August Wimmer (1872—1937) authored the first comprehensive monograph on the psychogenic psychoses. Written in Danish only, this classic work did not become directly accessible to international psychiatry until it appeared in English translation in 2003 (Schioldann, 2003a). In the opinion of Strömgren, these psychosis forms became one of the most important stumbling blocks in achieving agreement on international psychiatric nomenclature. The introduction to the Classic Text below — translated from Wimmer’s textbook of psychiatry (1936) — also discusses the possible relationship between Wimmer’s concept and Ey’s bouffées délirantes réactionnelles. Emphasizing that the question of psychogenesis has not yet been answered by modern psychiatry, Berrios urges today’s psychiatrists to study Wimmer’s ‘magnificent’ book, and Bertelsen, deploring that the psychogenic psychoses seem to have disappeared almost completely from current psychiatric classification, urges these illness forms be included in the coming revision of ICD.Johan Schioldan