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The dexamethasone suppression test (DST) was performed on 21 patients with dementia of the Alzheimer type (DAT), 11 patients with multi-infarct dementia (MI) and 14 healthy controls. Twelve of the DAT patients and eight of the MI patients showed abnormal lack of suppression, compared with just one member of the control group. Abnormal DST was related to dementia as such and not to age or depression, or to levels of CSF monoamine metabolites. Basal serum prolactin concentrations were not increased. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Forty-six mentally ill women with radiologically verified hyperostosis frontalis interna (HFI) were compared with 46 matched mentally ill women without HFI in respect of mental morbidity among the full siblings of the two groups. It was found that mental morbidity was lower among the siblings on mentally ill women with HFI than among those of similar mentally ill women without HFI. A reasonable interpretation of these findings is that the combination mental illness-HFI is more often exogenously determined than other forms of mental illness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Fifty-three psychiatric patients who had been receiving treatment with lithium continuously for more than two years were examined to estimate the prevalence of lithium-induced hypothyroidism. It was found to be 20 per cent among women. No men were affected among these patients. In order to study the characteristics of the disorder further cases were drawn from another population. One third of the patients developed hypothyroidism during their first year of treatment, others not until after 9 years. About two thirds of the female patients with hypothyroidism had thyroid antibodies. All cases with lithium-induced hypothyroidism showed elevated levels of serum thyrotropin, which in our experience is the laboratory examination of choice in these as well as other cases of "primary" hypothyroidism. Since the probability of detecting these cases at a given control visit was found to be low, we feel that such visits need not include extensive laboratory investigations. Hypothyroid patients responding well to lithium treatment should continue their medication combined with appropriate thyroxine substitution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The antipsychotic effect of α-methyltyrosine ( α-MT) in combination with thioridazine was investigated by means of rating scales for 'social behaviour' and 'mental symptoms' The clinical effect was also evaluated in relation to the serum concentrations of α-MT and thioridazine and to the increase in prolactin secretion in response to the interaction with hypothalamic dopaminergic mechanisms. The interactions between the serum levels of α-MT and those of the transmitter precursors phenylalanine and tyrosine were analysed. The results confirmed the ability of α-MT (2g/day) to potentiate the antipsychotic effect of thioridazine, whereby the dose of neuroleptic drug required to control psychotic symptoms may be markedly reduced. None of the four patients who completed the trial showed side effects that could be ascribed to α-MT. The antipsychotic effect of thioridazine, alone or in combination with α-MT, correlated well with the prolactin response in the individual patient. No important interference with serum phenylalanine or tyrosine levels was noted during treatment with α-MT. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Five patients, suffering from chronic schizophrenia with stationary symptomatology were treated with a combination of a phenothiazine and the tyrosine hydroxylase inhibitor α-methyltyrosine. The antipsychotic action of the neuroleptic agent was markedly potentiated, permitting a considerable reduction of the neuroleptic dosage required for controlling the condition. The observations support experimental data indicating that neuroleptics act by interfering with central synaptic catecholamine transmission. The possible usefulness of an inhibitor of catecholamine synthesis in combination with a neuroleptic for controlling mental disorders is discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]