10 research outputs found
Excessive weight gain after remission of depression in a schizophrenic patient treated with risperidone: case report
BACKGROUND: The use of atypical antipsychotics in schizophrenic patients has been associated with a risk of weight gain. Similarly, recovery from depression is often followed by improved appetite, greater food intake and potential increase in weight. CASE PRESENTATION: A Caucasian 33-year-old schizophrenic female patient was being treated with 6 mg/day of risperidone and 15 mg/day of clorazepate. She developed depressive symptomatology and 40 mg/day of fluoxetine was gradually added to her treatment regimen for about 9 months. After the remission of depression, and the discontinuation of fluoxetine, she experienced an increase in appetite and subsequently excessive weight gain of 52 kg. Re-administration of fluoxetine did not reverse the situation. The patient developed diabetes mellitus, which was successfully controlled with metformin 1700 mg/day. The addition at first of orlistat 360 mg/day and later of topiramate 200 mg/day has helped her to lose a significant part of the weight gained (30 kg). CONCLUSION: The case suggests a probable association between the remission of depressive symptomatology and weight gain in a schizophrenic patient
Periodic Catatonia: Long-term Treatment With Lamotrigine: A Case Report
Periodic catatonia is a rare form of catatonia, characterized by
episodes occurring in a cyclic pattern with clinical features of
combined stupor and excitement, with intervals of remission. Although
periodic catatonia is not common, it is an urgent condition, requiring
hospitalization for evaluation and treatment. The management of periodic
catatonia is quite challenging, mainly because of the unknown
pathophysiological mechanisms involved in the onset of this clinical
entity, which are less clear than in other forms of catatonia. Although
positive trials of several medications in the acute phase of periodic
catatonia have been published, available literature concerning the
prevention of recurrent catatonic episodes is scarce. Here, we present
the case of a patient with periodic catatonia in which long-term
treatment with lamotrigine appears to have acted prophylactically in
reducing the occurrence and severity of new catatonic episodes. A better
understanding of the mechanisms involved in the pathophysiology of
periodic catatonia and increasing psychiatrists' and physicians'
awareness of the presentation of this clinical entity could be of
benefit in shedding light on the most appropriate treatment approach.
However, further clinical studies are needed before any firm
recommendations can be made
Complexity analysis of the brain activity in Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) and Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) due to cognitive loads/demands induced by Aristotle's type of syllogism/reasoning. A Power Spectral Density and multiscale entropy (MSE) analysis
Objective: We aim to investigate whether EEG dynamics differ in adults
with ASD (Autism Spectrum Disorders), ADHD
(attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder), compared with healthy
subjects during the performance of an innovative cognitive task:
Aristotle’s valid and invalid syllogisms. We follow the Neuroanatomical
differences type of criterion in assessing the results of our study in
supporting or not the dual-process theory of Kahneman, 2011) (Systems I
& II of thinking).
Method: We recorded EEGs from 14 scalp electrodes in 30 adults with
ADHD, 30 with ASD and 24 healthy, normal subjects. The subjects were
exposed in a set of innovative cognitive tasks (inducing varying
cognitive loads), the Aristotle’s four types of syllogism mentioned
above. The multiscale entropy (MSE), a nonlinear informationtheoretic
measure or tool was computed to extract features that quantify the
complexity of the EEG.
Results: The dynamics of the curves of the grand average of MSE values
of the ADHD and ASD participants was significantly in higher levels for
the majority of time scales, than the healthy subjects over a number of
brain regions (electrodes locations), during the performance of both
valid and invalid types of syllogism. This result is seemingly not in
accordance of the broadly accepted ‘theory’ of complexity loss in
‘pathological’ subjects, but actually this is not the case as explained
in the text. ADHD subjects are engaged in System II of thinking, for
both Valid and Invalid syllogism, ASD and Control in System I for valid
and invalid syllogism, respectively. A surprising and ‘provocative’
result of this paper, as shown in the next sections, is that the
Complexity-variability of ASD and ADHD subjects, when they face
Aristotle’s types of syllogisms, is higher than that of the control
subjects. An explanation is suggested as described in the text. Also, in
the case of invalid type of Aristotelian syllogisms, the linguistic and
visuo-spatial systems are both engaged ONLY in the temporal and
occipital regions of the brain, respectively, of ADHD subjects. In the
case of valid type, both above systems are engaged in the temporal and
occipital regions of the brain, respectively, of both ASD and ADHD
subjects, while in the control subjects only the visuo-spatial type is
engaged (Goel et al., 2000; Knauff, 2007).
Conclusion: Based on the results of the analysis described in this work,
the differences in the EEG complexity between the three groups of
participants lead to the conclusion that cortical information processing
is changed in ASD and ADHD adults, therefore their level of cortical
activation may be insufficient to meet the peculiar cognitive demand of
Aristotle’s reasoning.
Significance: The present paper suggest that MSE, is a powerful and
efficient nonlinear measure in detecting neural dysfunctions in adults
with ASD and ADHD characteristics, when they are called on to perform in
a very demanding as well as innovative set of cognitive tasks, that can
be considered as a new diagnostic ‘benchmark’ in helping detecting more
effectively such type of disorders. A linear measure alone, as the
typical PSD, is not capable in making such a distinction. The work
contributes in shedding light on the neural mechanisms of
syllogism/reasoning of Aristotelian type, as well as toward
understanding how humans reason logically and why ‘pathological’
subjects deviate from the norms of formal logic
Cointegration of event-related potential (ERP) signals in experiments with different electromagnetic field (EMF) conditions
The association of the metabolic profile in diabetes mellitus type 2 patients with obsessive-compulsive symptomatology and depressive symptomatology: New insights
Objective. The aim of the present study was to explore the relationship
between diabetes mellitus type 2, Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD)
symptomatology and depressive symptomatology with the metabolic profile
of diabetic patients. Methods. One hundred and thirty-one diabetic
patients were randomly selected. In the first assessment all
participants completed the Zung Self Rating Scale (ZUNG) and the
Maudsley O-C Inventory Questionnaire (MOCI). After 1 year, diabetic
patients that were initially uncontrolled (n = 31) (HbA1c > 7) were
re-evaluated by the same psychometric tools. From those 31 patients, 10
had managed to control their metabolic profile. Results. In the first
evaluation MOCI and the sub-scale of slowness were statistically related
with the diabetic profile (controlled, HbA1c > 7; uncontrolled, HbA1c >
7), with uncontrolled patients scoring significantly higher on the
overall MOCI score and the factor of slowness of MOCI scale (P = 0.028).
The analysis revealed a positive association between depressive
symptomatology (P = 0.004) and obsessive-compulsive disorder
symptomatology (P < 0.001) and the metabolic profile of the patients. In
the second evaluation the patients that managed to control their
metabolic profile scored lower in both ZDRS and MOCI, although these
differences in scores failed to reach significance levels were
indicative of a tendency. Conclusions. The present results provide
initial evidence that diabetes mellitus type 2 is associated with
obsessive-compulsive disorder symptomatology and depressive
symptomatology
Excessive weight gain after remission of depression in a schizophrenic patient treated with risperidone: case report
Abstract Background The use of atypical antipsychotics in schizophrenic patients has been associated with a risk of weight gain. Similarly, recovery from depression is often followed by improved appetite, greater food intake and potential increase in weight. Case presentation A Caucasian 33-year-old schizophrenic female patient was being treated with 6 mg/day of risperidone and 15 mg/day of clorazepate. She developed depressive symptomatology and 40 mg/day of fluoxetine was gradually added to her treatment regimen for about 9 months. After the remission of depression, and the discontinuation of fluoxetine, she experienced an increase in appetite and subsequently excessive weight gain of 52 kg. Re-administration of fluoxetine did not reverse the situation. The patient developed diabetes mellitus, which was successfully controlled with metformin 1700 mg/day. The addition at first of orlistat 360 mg/day and later of topiramate 200 mg/day has helped her to lose a significant part of the weight gained (30 kg). Conclusion The case suggests a probable association between the remission of depressive symptomatology and weight gain in a schizophrenic patient.</p
Excessive weight gain after remission of depression in a schizophrenic patient treated with risperidone: case report
Background: The use of atypical antipsychotics in schizophrenic patients
has been associated with a risk of weight gain. Similarly, recovery from
depression is often followed by improved appetite, greater food intake
and potential increase in weight.
Case presentation: A Caucasian 33-year-old schizophrenic female patient
was being treated with 6 mg/day of risperidone and 15 mg/day of
clorazepate. She developed depressive symptomatology and 40 mg/day of
fluoxetine was gradually added to her treatment regimen for about 9
months. After the remission of depression, and the discontinuation of
fluoxetine, she experienced an increase in appetite and subsequently
excessive weight gain of 52 kg. Re-administration of fluoxetine did not
reverse the situation. The patient developed diabetes mellitus, which
was successfully controlled with metformin 1700 mg/day. The addition at
first of orlistat 360 mg/day and later of topiramate 200 mg/day has
helped her to lose a significant part of the weight gained (30 kg).
Conclusion: The case suggests a probable association between the
remission of depressive symptomatology and weight gain in a
schizophrenic patient