The incidence of unpleasant dreams after sub-anaesthetic ketamine

Ketamine is an N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA)receptor antagonist with psychotogenic effects and for whichthere are diverse reports of whether pleasant or unpleasantdreams result during anaesthesia, post-operatively or aftersub-anaesthetic use. The aim was to assess in healthy volunteers the incidence ofunpleasant dreams over the three nights after receiving asub-anaesthetic dose of ketamine, in comparison to placebo,and with retrospective home nightmare frequency as acovariate.Thirty healthy volunteers completed questionnairesabout retrospective home dream recall and were then giveneither ketamine or placebo. Ketamine resulted in significantly more meandream unpleasantness relative to placebo and caused athreefold increase in the odds ratio for the incidence of anunpleasant dream. The number of dreams reported over thethree nights did not differ between the groups. Theincidence of unpleasant dreams after ketamine use waspredicted by retrospectively assessed nightmare frequencyat home.Ketamine causes unpleasant dreams over thethree post-administration nights. This may be evidence of aresidual psychotogenic effect that is not found on standardself-report symptomatology measures or a result of disturbedsleep electrophysiology. The results have theoretical implications for the relationship between nightmares and schizotypy

Prominent Adam’s apple and laryngoscopic view: a study on 535 cases

"n Normal 0 false false false EN-GB X-NONE AR-SA MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-priority:99; mso-style-qformat:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0cm; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:11.0pt; font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast; mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family:Arial; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;} Background: The prediction of the probability of difficult intubation and the associated problems before Induction of anesthesia could be lifesaving. The aim of this study was the investigation of association between the stage of thyroid cartilage prominency and laryngoscopic view for predicting the difficult intubation."n"nMethods: Five hundred and thirty five patients aged 18-60 years old, with prominent thyroid cartilage, "Adam's apple", enrolled in a cross -sectional study based on the stage of "Adam's apple" and the relationship with laryngoscopic view. After induction of anesthesia, laryngoscopy performed and laryngoscopic view of larynx was recorded, and analyzed according to Modified Cormack and Lehane's Scoring. "n"nResults: No significant association between laryngoscopic view and thyroid cartilage prominency staging was observed. There was no significant relationship in females and aged under 50 y.o. The relationship in males with poor correlation coefficient was significant. The results are as follows: [male :(p=0.028, r=-0.096), Female: (p=0.821, r=0.082), <50 yrs: (p=0.87, r=0.007) no significant association for age decades and thyroid cartilage prominency stages, were observed. In ages above 50 y.o, difference was significant. Thirty patients had a laryngoscopic view in which the tracheal rings were visible just bellow the vocal cords."n"nConclusions: As the increased age was related to laryngoscopic view and thyroid cartilage prominency stage it seems that there is relationship between ages over 50 y.o and difficulty of laryngoscopic view or intubation. With the observation of a view different from the grade I Cormack and Lehane's scoring, we named it the "stage Ia" that the tracheal rings are visible bellow the vocal cords during laryngoscopy