BACKGROUND : Cholinergic urticaria is uncommon and accounts for 10% of all young adults. To date, there is no effective therapy for cholinergic urticaria. OBJECTIVE : To determine the therapeutic efficacy of different drug combinations in the treatment of cholinergic urticaria. PATIENTS AND METHODS : The participants included in the study are in the age range of 16 to 29 years, with choline...

The major drug binding site of sodium channels is inaccessible from the extracellular side, drug molecules can only access it either from the membrane phase, or from the intracellular aqueous phase. For this reason, ligand-membrane interactions are as important determinants of inhibitor properties, as ligand-protein interactions. One-way to probe this is to modify the pH of the extracellular fl...

Almost 50 years of clinical investigation has resulted in a large amount of literature regarding pain and antidepressants, one of the first categories of drugs found effective for chronic noncancer pain (CNCP) by randomized controlled trials (RCTs). These RCTs first examined tricyclic antidepressants (TCAs) based on published observational data and the rationale that their actions potentiated d...

Antidepressants inhibit many membrane receptors and ionic channels, including the L-type calcium channel. Here, we investigated the inhibition of calcium current (I(Ca)) by antidepressants in enzymatically isolated rat ventricular myocytes using whole-cell patch clamp. The molecular mechanism of inhibition was studied by comparing the voltage and state dependence of antidepressant inhibition of...

A 16-year-old boy in a coma (Glasgow scale 3) with general seizures was admitted to the intensive care unit. No palpable pulse necessitated cardiac massage. A blood specimen submitted to this laboratory tested positive for tricyclic antidepressants (TCA) by EMIT (Behring, Cupertino, CA) and negative by FPIA (Abbott, Wiesbaden, Germany). A number of antidepressants were screened for in blood by ...

Recent clinical studies have suggested a risk of adverse gastric reactions from the concomitant use of selective serotonin (5-HT) reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) with nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs). We examined the adverse effects of SSRIs on antral lesions produced by indomethacin in rats. Rats fasted for 24 h were refed for 1 h, then administered indomethacin (30 mg/kg s.c.) 1 h af...

A meta-analysis of the efficacy and tolerability of selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) against nonselective and noradrenergic reuptake inhibitors (mainly tricyclic antidepressants, TCAs) in depressed inpatients was carried out. Twenty-five double-blind studies provided data on relative efficacy which was determined by a summary variance-weighted mean effect size calculated from the...

BACKGROUND/AIM Antidepressants are a widely used class of drugs. The aim of this study was to investigate different aspects of antidepressant prescribing practice at University Psychiatric Clinic in Belgrade. METHODS This cross-sectional study was carried out by retrospective analysis of the patient's medical charts. The study included all patients with antidepressant prescribed at discharge ...

Antidepressant drugs have been in extensive use for over 20 years. Initially 2 groups of compounds, the monoamine oxidase inhibitors (MAOI) and tricyclic compounds based on the imipramine configuration were widely used. In the early 1960's after a few years ofwide use, interest in the MAOI group fell following the recognition of a serious adverse effect. Blackwell (1963) described the occurrenc...