Effects of dietary aluminum on chicks Gallus gallus domesticus with different dietary intake of calcium and phosphorus

Birds that feed in acidified areas may be exposed to an increased intake of aluminum, while their intake of calcium and phosphorus may simultaneously be low. In particular, juvenile birds foraging in acidified areas may suffer from increased effects of aluminum due to high demands of calcium. Day old chicks were fed six different diets where aluminum was combined with normal and low concentrations of dietary calcium and phosphorus for 14 days. The normal calcium-available phosphorus (Ca-P) level was 1.05%–0.45%, and the low dietary Ca-P level was 0.49%–0.21%. Aluminum was given in dietary levels of 0%, 0.13%, and 0.31%. Aluminum had no effects on growth, mortality, or hematocrit, but induced hypocalcemia.Bones accumulated more aluminum than kidneys. A high dietary concentration of aluminum (0.31%) increased the accumulation of aluminum twofold in bones and threefold in kidneys when the dietary concentration of calcium and phosphorus was halved. Opposed to the predictions, bone mineralisation was stimulated by an intermediate increase in dietary aluminum (0.13%) at both levels of dietary calcium and phosphorus. Bone stiffness was also stimulated at this dietary aluminum concentration, but only at the diet low in calcium and phosphorus. A high dietary aluminum concentration did not have any effect on bone stiffness or calcium concentration. Bone stiffness correlated positively with the calcium concentration in bone, and negatively with the aluminum concentration in bone. The effect of dietary aluminum on bone stiffness is probably caused by an alteration in bone mineralization, rather than by the presence of aluminum in bones.     

Smooth pursuit eye tracking, neuropsychological test performance, and computed tomography in schizophrenia

Smooth pursuit eye movements (SPEM) were measured in 18 patients who met Research Diagnostic Criteria for schizophrenia. Some degree of SPEM impairment was present in most patients. Deviant eye tracking was not related to ratings of severity of illness, but was related to recurrent episodes of hospitalization, antipsychotic medication, and lower ratings in anxiety and delusions. Worse SPEM tended to be associated with larger lateral ventricles as assessed on computed tomography. Three patients with reversed occipital asymmetry had more deviant eye tracking than the remaining patients. Eye movement impairment was related to worse performance in Finger Tapping and in the Trail-Making Test, and to fewer perceived alternations of a Necker cube, suggesting that frontoparietal disturbances are related to poor pursuit eye tracking in schizophrenia.     

Tobacco use in schizophrenia: a study of cotinine concentrations in the saliva of patients and controls.

Nicotine has been proposed to provide anxiety relief, oral gratification and self-medication of psychotic symptoms in psychiatric patients. In order to investigate the relations between psychopathology and tobacco use we measured the concentration of cotinine, the major metabolite of nicotine, in the saliva of psychiatric patients and healthy volunteers. In a sample of 42 schizophrenic patients we correlated smoking status, cotinine levels, symptom profiles (PANSS), and neuroleptic side effects (Simpson-Angus). Despite reporting the same amount of cigarettes consumed per day the saliva concentration of cotinine was significantly higher in patients with schizophrenia than in the controls. There were no significant differences in clinical characteristics between smoking and non-smoking schizophrenic patients, but smokers tended to be on higher drug doses. High cotinine concentrations correlated significantly with the negative symptoms Passive withdrawal and Social avoidance. The results indicate that the schizophrenic patients smoke cigarettes more intensely than other patients and healthy subjects. The correlation between high cotinine levels and negative symptomatology may reflect an attempt by schizophrenic patients to overcome the emotional withdrawal and thus the results may lend support to a self-medication hypothesis.     

Adaptive changes in central and peripheral noradrenergic neurons in rats following chronic exercise

The turnover rate of endogenous¹⁴C-dopamine and¹⁴C-noradrenaline after administration of¹⁴C-tyrosine was studied in brain, heart and spleen of chronically exercised (trained) rats, while the animals were at rest. In the brains of trained animals the half lives of¹⁴C-dopamine and¹⁴C-noradrenaline were unchanged. However, the noradrenaline concentration of the brain was 26% greater in trained animals and so the calculated total amount of noradrenaline turning over per gram of brain tissue per hour was about one-third greater than in brains of untrained control rats. In peripheral organs there was a striking difference between trained and control rats in the half life of¹⁴C-noradrenaline stores. In the hearts of trained rats, the apparent half life of¹⁴C-noradrenaline was 79 h (statistically not significantly different from infinity), compared with 8.1 h in the heart of control rats. In the spleens, the corresponding apparent half lives of¹⁴C-noradrenaline were infinity and 5.5 h, respectively.The results indicate firstly, that some noradrenergic neurons in the brain react to chronic increases in their impulse flow by increasing their stores of transmitter, just as do noradrenergic neurons in the heart and chromaffin cells in the adrenal medulla; secondly that chronically exercised animals display marked Adaptive changes in the functioning of peripheral sympathetic neurons, there being little if any sympathetic activity in heart and spleen during rest; and thirdly, that there is an inverse relationship between the changes in activity in central compared with peripheral noradrenergic neurons as a result of Adaptation to chronic exercise.     

PET studies of the uptake of (S)- and (R)-[11C]nicotine in the human brain: difficulties in visualizing specific receptor binding in vivo

(S)- and (R)-[¹¹C]nicotine were synthesized by methylation of (S)- and (R)-nornicotine using [¹¹C]methyl iodide. Following their intravenous injection in tracer doses to smoking and nonsmoking healthy males the radioactivity in arterial blood showed a sharp peak at about 1 min followed by a plateau level for the remaining 50 min of recording. Uptake in the brain, as measured by positron emission tomography (PET), was rapid with a peak at 5 min followed by a steady decline towards the end of the measurement. The regional distribution of radioactivity followed essentially the distribution of gray matter with high uptake in the cortex, the thalamus and the basal ganglia and low uptake in the pons, cerebellum and white matter. Levels of the labelled natural enantiomer, (S)-[¹¹C]nicotine, were higher than those of the synthetic enantiomer, (R)-[¹¹C]nicotine, particularly in the smokers. The time-activity curves of (S)-[¹¹C]nicotine uptake were not changed by co-administration of 1.0 mg of unlabelled nicotine with the labelled nicotine. Similarly administration of unlabelled nicotine at the peak of radioactivity, 6 min following (S)-[¹¹C]nicotine, had no effect on the time-activity curves. Thus essential criteria for visualizing receptor binding with the PET technique could not be fulfilled. Calculation of kinetic constants using a two-compartment model gave values indicating that the brain uptake of [¹¹C]nicotine is mainly determined by the cerebral blood flow, extraction of the tracer over the blood-brain barrier and unspecific binding. Thus¹¹C-labelled nicotine does not seem to be a suitable tracer for PET studies of nicotinic cholinergic receptors in the human brain.     

Effect of chlorpromazine and some of its metabolites on synthesis and turnover of catecholamines formed from 14C-tyrosine in mouse brain

Rates of accumulation and disappearance of labelled catecholamines formed from ¹⁴C-tyrosine in mouse brain in vivo were determined. The effects of chlorpromazine (CPZ) and the following metabolites were studied: desmethyl-CPZ, didesmethyl-CPZ, 7-hydroxy-CPZ, CPZ-sulphoxide and CPZ-N-oxide. As we have found previously CPZ accelerated both accumulation and disappearance of ¹⁴C-dopamine indicating that synthesis and turnover of brain dopamine are accelerated. All the metabolites, with the exception of CPZ-sulphoxide, accelerated accumulation and disappearance of ¹⁴C-dopamine to about the same extent as did the parent compound. Neither CPZ nor the metabolites significantly affected the accumulation and disappearance of ¹⁴C-noradrenaline. The accelerated turnover of brain dopamine is probably a consequence of a central receptor blockade, which by a compensatory feed-back mechanism activates the presynaptic neurons. The results indicate that sulphoxidation of CPZ interferes with the action of CPZ on brain dopamine receptors, and that the clinical effects of CPZ may be mediated at least partly by its metabolites.     

Cerebroventricular size and cerebrospinal fluid monoamine metabolites in schizophrenic patients and healthy volunteers

Computed tomography (CT) measures and cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) levels of the monoamine metabolites homovanillic acid (HVA), 3-methoxy-4-hydroxyphenylglycol (MHPG), and 5-hydroxyindoleacetic acid (5-HIAA) were determined in 43 healthy volunteers and in 26 patients with an acute psychosis of the schizophrenic type. There were no differences in the mean CSF levels of monoamine metabolites between the two groups. However, the patients had significantly wider lateral and third ventricles as compared to the volunteers. In the volunteers there were no significant correlations between ventricular sizes and monoamine metabolite levels, whereas in the patients a significant negative correlation was obtained between the size of the lateral ventricles and the levels of HVA and 5-HIAA in the CSF. These results may indicate that the enlargements of the brain ventricles found in a subgroup of schizophrenic patients may be associated with deficiencies in central monoamine transmission mechanisms.     

Creative arts groups in psychiatric care Development and evaluation of a therapeutic alternative

Creative arts and non-verbal psychotherapy methods have been introduced as an alternative or a complement to conventional verbal therapies and pharmacotherapy for patients with various psychiatric disorders. The application of a structured creative arts group program for 4 weeks was tested in 58 markedly impaired patients with different diagnoses. The program included body awareness, receptive music therapy (GIM), art therapy, occupational therapy, and verbal group therapy. Outcome of symptoms, interpersonal difficulties, and health potential were assessed with self-rating scales and internal and external evaluations. Eighty-eight per cent of the patients completed the program with significant improvements in all instruments and most subscales. The study design with a uniform treatment for a heterogeneous patient population gave useful information about indications and contraindications for subgroups of patients and for development of creative arts techniques for different patient requirements. Thus patients with an anamnesis of trauma had significantly better treatment results than those without trauma. The results indicate that creative arts therapy may be used as a treatment alternative in cases in which pharmacotherapy and conventional verbal psychotherapy have failed.