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The article investigates the arousal levels and therapeutic effects of diazepam-assisted flooding among agoraphobic patients. Four treatment conditions were prepared wherein two contained a tranquilizing drug and the other two comprised of an indistinguishable dummy syrup. These conditions were drug with placebo, drug with no placebo, placebo with no drug and no placebo and drug. Patients were treated with a combination of imaginal flooding and exposure to phobic situations in practice. There was no indication that the therapeutic changes induced were smaller or more transient if the patient attributed them to the drug rather than to the behavioral treatment. Instead, there appeared to be a placebo-like effect as well as the drug effect.

The article presents a study on the psychological and physiological effects of intravenous diazepam. A control group experiment to the fifteen anxious psychiatric in-patients at the Atkinson Morley's Hospital in London, England was performed. To evaluate the effects of the drug, 10 mg. of intravenous diazepam was slowly infused to the fifteen subjects over ten minutes. The procedure had been preceded by a placebo procedure in which the solution had been injected. At the end of the procedure, the patients rated themselves by the use of Clyde Mood Scale as less unhappy and less dizzy. This effect was accompanied by a significant decrease in physiological arousal. It is believed that the changes were probably due to diazepam.

The article focuses on the nature of the disease called Schizophrenias and how it is being classified as nervous types. Although intensive studies have been conducted on the behavior of the schizophrenic, yet, there is still not a specific science that explains such disordered behavior. Explanations can either be based in the biochemistry of the organism, in the interpersonal relationships or psychophysiology or neurophysiology. However, psychophysiology stresses on the data collected at the interface between the brain and behavior of which such techniques include the study of autonomic response and electroencephalograph. In addition, it is concluded that there is little support for the traditional view of the schizophrenias as distinct diseases.

A double-blind controlled clinical trial of crossover design was conducted in 26 volunteers suffering from migraine. Of 20 subjects who completed the trial, 16 had fewer attacks on amitriptyline than on placebo. Amitriptyline was found to have the greatest effect in reducing attacks with a short warning and in which no specific cause could be recognized. It had least effect in attacks with a long warning and recognized as due to fatigue. The drug was effective only in reducing those attacks with shorter duration and its effect was irrespective of severity. A dosage of between 10 and 60 mg, usually taken at night, was found to be adequate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents a study on the validity of fenfluramine for the treatment of obese psychiatric out-patients. It was conducted under double-blind cross-over controlled trial conditions of fenfluramine that strongly support previous studies, which indicated that fenfluramine was a useful weight loss preparation. Fenfluramine showed to assist obese psychiatric out-patients to lose a significant amount of weight, as the patients is more resistant to simple dietary treatment than psychiatrically normal patients. The study concludes that fenfluramine appears to be an effective appetite suppressant among obese patients attending a psychiatric clinic and obese patients who are tense and anxious.

The narcoleptic syndrome is a life-long and sometimes familial disorder in which there is a disturbance of the rapid eye movement phase of sleep. Patients with periodic sleep in the daytime but no other symptoms seldom develop the narcoleptic syndrome and have a separate unrelated disorder. Twelve patients with the narcoleptic syndrome were treated separately with l(−) amphetamine and d(+) amphetamine. Both drugs abolished narcolepsy, d(+) amphetamine being slightly more potent than l(−) amphetamine. In equipotent doses, unwanted effects of nervousness and insomnia were equal in frequency. No tolerance to either preparation developed during a six month period. Cataplexy was not affected by amphetamine treatment, but was abolished in two patients when clomipramine was given together with either amphetamine. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The static and dynamic components of the tonic stretch reflex and shortening reactions have been studied in 10 patients with athetosis. EMG activity could be recorded only from the biceps muscle when the patient was at rest. The dynamic stretch reflex increased with the velocity of stretching in all muscles examined except the biceps. The biceps stretch reflex was found to be inhibited by increasing muscle length, whereas the stretch reflexes of triceps, hamstrings, and quadriceps muscles were facilitated by increasing muscle length. Reinforcement increased resting activity in the biceps and the dynamic shortening reaction of the triceps muscle. Both these effects were suppressed by the action of phenoxybenzamine. Although phenoxybenzamine was shown to reduce muscle tone in a double-blind controlled trial, no corresponding improvement was detected in involuntary movements or the patients' performance in a tracking test. The differences between the pattern of hypertonus in athetosis, Parkinson's disease, spasticity, and activated normal subjects are presented in discussion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]