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Ohne Zusammenfassung     

Increased automatic spreading activation in healthy subjects with elevated scores in a scale assessing schizophrenic language disturbances

BACKGROUND: Previous studies on semantic priming have suggested that schizophrenic patients with language disturbances demonstrate enhanced semantic and indirect semantic priming effects relative to controls. However, the interpretation of semantic priming studies in schizophrenic patients is obscured by methological problems and several artefacts (such as length of illness). We, therefore, used a psychometric high-risk approach to test whether healthy subjects reporting language disturbances resembling those of schizophrenics (as measured by the Frankfurt Complaint Questionnaire subscale 'language') display increased priming effects. In addition, the Schizotypal Personality Questionnaire was used to cover symptoms of schizotypal personality. Enhanced priming was expected to occur under conditions favouring automatic processes. METHODS: One hundred and sixty healthy subjects performed a lexical decision semantic priming task containing two different stimulus onset asynchronicities (200 ms and 700 ms) with two experimental conditions (semantic priming and indirect semantic priming) each. RESULTS: Analyses of variance revealed that the Frankfurt Complaint Questionnaire-' language' high scorers significantly differed from low scorers in three of the four priming conditions indicating increased automatic spreading activation. No significant results were obtained for the Schizotypal Personality Questionnaire total and subscales scores. CONCLUSIONS: In line with Maher and Spitzer it is suggested that increased automatic spreading activation underlies schizophrenia-typical language disturbances which in our study cannot be attributed to confounding variables such as different reaction time baselines, medication or length of illness. Finally, results confirm that the psychometric high-risk approach is an important tool for investigating issues relevant to schizophrenia.     

Louder than words. A multi-institutional system sets ethical standards for corporate action

After establishing its Resource Center for Ethical concerns, Wheaton Franciscan Services, Inc. (WFSI), Wheaton, IL, set out to develop corporate ethics standards. The standards were to manifest a vision that acknowledged the mutuality of relationships among providers and those they serve, and among local and global communities. To establish "ownership" of the standards, WFSI wanted to involve as many people as possible in the planning process. Center staff established a 25-member working task force with broad representation of disciplines and system institutions, then prepared a position paper to serve as a basis for the formulation of the standards. The paper examined current issues in corporate ethics, the theoretical basis of corporate ethics, the appropriateness of corporate ethics for Catholic-sponsored institutions, and the role ethics standards play in an institutional setting. Staff then prepared the first draft of corporate standards. At the first workshop in October 1988, task force members critiqued the draft and modified the proposed corporate standards. Staff sent the draft for critique to a total of 157 persons throughout the system and encouraged them to pass it around to get the advice of others. From the feedback, staff compiled a third draft, which was ultimately approved. WFSI's Corporate Ethics Standards addresses provision of services, relationship with employees, social responsibility, confidentiality, and conflict of interest.     

Perirhinal cortex input to the hippocampus in the rat: evidence for parallel pathways, both direct and indirect. A combined physiological and anatomical study

The possibility of a direct projection from the perirhinal cortex (PER) to areas CA1 and subiculum (SUB) in the hippocampus has been suggested on the basis of tracer studies, but this projection has not unequivocally been supported by physiological studies. The demonstration of such a functional pathway might be important to understand the functioning of the hippocampal memory system. Here we present physiological and further anatomical evidence for such a connection between PER and the hippocampus. Electrical stimulation of PER in vivo evoked field potentials (EFPs) at the border area of CA1/SUB, consisting of a short latency and a longer latency component. Current source density analysis revealed that the sink of the short latency component was situated in the molecular layer of area CA1/SUB, while the longer latency component had its sink in the outer molecular layer of the dentate gyrus (DG). Anterograde tracer injections in PER showed labelled fibres in the border area of CA1/SUB, but anatomical evidence for a projection of PER to DG was not found. When synaptic transmission in the entorhinal cortex was partly blocked, the amplitude of the longer latency component of the recorded EFPs in the hippocampus was decreased while the short latency component was not affected, which suggests that the indirect pathway originating in PER is mediated through a synaptic relay in the entorhinal cortex. From the present results we conclude that information originating in PER reaches area CA1/SUB by parallel, direct and indirect, routes. The existence of this parallel organization appears to form an essential feature for the proper function of the medial temporal lobe memory system.     

Lomefloxacin versus norfloxacin versus ciprofloxacin in the treatment of complicated urinary tract infections

The safety and efficacy of lomefloxacin 400 mg once daily in the treatment of complicated urinary tract infections (UTIs) were assessed in one open, non-comparative study (n = 101) and three comparative, multicenter studies - two versus norfloxacin 400 mg b.i.d. (n = 326) and one versus ciprofloxacin 500 mg b.i.d. (n = 150). The antibiotics were administered orally for 7-14 days. Safety was assessed by physical examination, laboratory tests and questioning of patients. Patients had initial counts of - 10(5) colony-forming units/ml (CFU/ml) of pathogens which were susceptible to the study drugs. Clinical and bacteriologic outcome were assessed 5-9 days post-treatment. Success (cure or improvement of presenting signs and symptoms) was achieved in approximately 90% of the patients, irrespective of the drug therapy used. Eradication of baseline pathogens was achieved with lomefloxacin in 79.4% (50 63 ) of evaluable patients in the open study, in 91.3% (84 92 ) of patients in the norfloxacin comparative studies and in 97.2% (70 72 ) of evaluable patients in the ciprofloxacin comparative study. Eradication was achieved in 78.4% (76 97 ) of norfloxacin-treated evaluable patients and in 95.7% (67 70 ) of evaluable patiens treated with ciprofloxacin. The results obtained with lomefloxacin were statistically significantly better than those obtained with norfloxacin (p = 0.015), but equivalent to those with ciprofloxacin (p = 0.626). Superinfections occurred in 5.3% (12 227 ) of evaluable patients treated with lomefloxacin and in 9.3% (9 97 ) treated with norfloxacin. There were no superinfections in the 70 evaluable patients treated with ciprofloxacin. Adverse events (mainly gastrointestinal) which were probably drug-related occurred in 6.7% (23 341 ) of patients treated with lomefloxacin, in 3.1% (5 160 ) pateints treated with norfloxacin and in 6.7% (5 75 ) of patients treated with ciprofloxacin. A once-daily regimen of lomefloxacin 400 mg was found to be safe and produced superior or equivalent eradication rates of norfloxacin and ciprofloxacin, respectively.     

Chronic fluphenazine treatment modifies circadian rhythms of neurotransmitter receptor binding in rat brain

Summary Binding to rat brain- and-adrenergic, muscarinic cholinergic, dopamine and opiate receptors was measured at 4-hour intervals throughout a 24-hour period in animals, chronically treated with fluphenazine, and in controls. Drug treatment significantly changed characteristics of the circadian rhythms in all 5 receptors. In the presence of the drug the 24-hour mean binding to the dopamine receptor was decreased; to the other 4 receptors it was increased. Moreover, there were changes in the timing of the maximal receptor binding (phase-position) and in the amplitude of the rhythms. These results extend previous studies, showing that chronic neuroleptic treatment not only affects the dopamine receptors, but also other neurotransmitter receptors, profoundly modifying their temporal organisation.