Effects of Psychoactive Massage in Outpatients with Depressive Disorders: A Randomized Controlled Mixed-Methods Study

The clinical picture of depressive disorders is characterized by a plethora of somatic symptoms, psychomotor retardation, and, particularly, anhedonia. The number of patients with residual symptoms or treatment resistance is high. Touch is the basic communication among humans and animals. Its application professionally in the form of, e.g., psychoactive massage therapy, has been shown in the past to reduce the somatic and mental symptoms of depression and anxiety. Here, we investigated the effects of a specially developed affect-regulating massage therapy (ARMT) vs. individual treatment with a standardized relaxation procedure, progressive muscle relaxation (PMR), in 57 outpatients with depression. Patients were given one ARMT or PMR session weekly over 4 weeks. Changes in somatic and cognitive symptoms were assessed by standard psychiatric instruments (Hamilton Depression Scale (HAMD) and the Bech–Rafaelsen–Melancholia–Scale (BRMS)) as well as a visual analogue scale. Furthermore, oral statements from all participants were obtained in semi-structured interviews. The findings show clear and statistically significant superiority of ARMT over PMR. The results might be interpreted within various models. The concept of interoception, as well as the principles of body psychotherapy and phenomenological aspects, offers cues for understanding the mechanisms involved. Within a neurobiological context, the significance of C-tactile afferents activated by special touch techniques and humoral changes such as increased oxytocin levels open additional ways of interpreting our findings

Serum levels of BDNF are associated with craving in opiate-dependent patients

Preclinical study results suggest that brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) and glial cell line-derived neurotrophic factor (GDNF) are involved in the modulation of addictive behaviour. We investigated alterations in serum levels of BDNF and GDNF in opiate-dependent patients (28 males) who received diacetylmorphine treatment within a structured opiate maintenance programme. BDNF (T = 2.735, p = 0.009) serum levels were significantly increased in the opiate-dependent patients as compared with healthy controls (21 males), whereas GDNF serum levels (T = 1.425, p = 0.162) did not differ significantly from GDNF serum levels of the healthy controls. BDNF serum levels were significantly associated with craving for heroin (measured by the Heroin Craving Questionnaire (r = 0.420, p = 0.029) and by the General Craving Scale (r = 0.457, p = 0.016), whereas GDNF serum levels were not associated with psychometric dimensions of heroin craving. In conclusion, our results show a positive association between BDNF serum levels and opiate craving in opiate-dependent patients

Atrial Natriuretic Peptide, Arginine Vasopressin Peptide and Cortisol Serum Levels in Opiate-Dependent Patients

Preclinical studies suggest that chronic drug abuse profoundly alters stress-responsive systems. The best studied of the stress-responsive systems in humans is the hypothalamic- pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis. Apart from cortisol, arginine vasopressin peptide (AVP), and atrial natriuretic peptide (ANP) are known to directly impact upon the HPA axis in addictive behavior. We investigated alterations in ANP, AVP and cortisol serum levels in opiate-dependent patients who received diacetylmorphine treatment within a structured opiate maintenance program. ANP serum levels were significantly increased in opiate-dependent patients as compared to healthy controls, whereas AVP and cortisol serum levels were reduced. The ANP, AVP and cortisol serum levels were not significantly associated with the psychometric dimensions of heroin craving. In conclusion, chronic drug abuse profoundly alters stress-responsive systems like the HPA axis. Alterations of AVP, ANP and cortisol appear to constitute an important component in the neurobiology of opiate-dependent patients

Antidepressant drugs modulate growth factors in cultured cells

© 2008 Henkel et al; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Licens

Association of nerve growth factor and vascular endothelial growth factor A with psychometric measurements of opiate dependence: results of a pilot study in patients participating in a structured diamorphine maintenance program

Preclinical study results suggest that neurotrophic peptides like nerve growth factor (NGF) and vascular endothelial growth factor A (VEGF-A) may be associated with symptoms of addictive behavior like withdrawal symptoms and rewarding effects. We investigated alterations in NGF and VEGF-A serum levels in opiate-dependent patients (25 male patients), who received diamorphine (DAM, heroin) treatment within a structured opiate maintenance program, and compared the results with the NGF and VEGF-A serum levels of healthy controls (23 male controls). NGF and VEGF-A serum levels were assessed before and after DAM administration twice a day (in the morning (16 h after last application--t1) and in the afternoon (7 h after last application--t3)) in order to detect a possible immediate or summative (in the afternoon) heroin effect on these two neuropeptides. Moreover, we investigated possible associations between the serum levels of these neurotrophic growth factors and psychometric dimensions of addictive behavior, e.g. craving, withdrawal, depression. Whereas there was no direct effect of DAM application on the serum levels of both neurotrophic growth factors neither in the morning nor in the afternoon, the NGF serum levels of the patient group were found to be significantly increased at all four time points of investigation compared with the healthy controls. In contrast, VEGF-A serum levels did not differ significantly in the patient and control groups. We found a significant positive association between the NGF serum levels and several items of the short opiate withdrawal scale as well as a negative association between self-reported mood (measured by visual analogue scale) and mood before heroin application (in the morning as in the afternoon). Moreover, we found a significant positive association between the NGF serum levels (t1 and t3) and the self-reported craving for methadone. In contrast, we found a negative association between the VEGF-A serum levels and avoidance, anxiety, suicide intentions of the SCL-90 as well as a positive association between the VEGF-A serum levels and the subscales of the heroin craving questionnaire measuring the rewarding effects of heroin. In conclusion, the results of this pilot study show that there might be an association between symptoms of opiate dependence and withdrawal and serum levels of VEGF-A and NGF