P OTASSIUM is ani effective agent for the control of arrhythmias assoeiate(I with digitalis aiid lhvl)opotassennia and of manyA arrlhythmias of obscure etiology.1The thera)eutic effect of potassium in cardiac irregularities caused by digitalis has been ascribed to a digitalis anld )otassium "'anitagonlism." For a demonstration of this antagonism, potassium was administered intravenously to pati...

Herbal Medicine, sometimes referred to as Herbalism or Botanical Medicine, is the use of herbs for their therapeutic or medicinal value. An herb is a plant or plant part valued for its medicinal, aromatic or savory qualities. Herb plants produce and contain a variety of chemical substances that act upon the body. The term digitalis or digitalis compounds are all used to refer to the entire grou...

Data in animals indicate that large amounts of digitalis potentiate arterial baroreflexes and that this factor may be important for the cardiovascular effects of the drug. To determine if arterial baroreflex potentiation also exists after administration of therapeutic doses of digitalis in man, we studied how stimulation and deactivation of arterial baroreceptors by phenylephrine and nitroglyce...

The administration of digitalis glycosides causes a variety of extracardiac effects. In both normal human subjects and in other species, digitalis increases smooth muscle tone of resistance and capacitance vessels. The vasoconstriction is mediated, in part, by a direct action of these glycosides on smooth muscle and, in part, by an increase in alpha-adrenergic tone. Constriction of coronary and...

CONTEXT Few prospective studies to date have investigated the role of obstetric complications in anorexia nervosa, and no study to our knowledge exists for this in bulimia nervosa. OBJECTIVE To explore the role of obstetric complications in the development of eating disorders. DESIGN A blind analysis of the obstetric records of a sample of subjects with anorexia nervosa, with bulimia nervos...

BACKGROUND Anorexia nervosa, but not bulimia nervosa, has one of the highest mortality rates among psychiatric disorders. However, potential predictors of mortality, such as comorbid psychiatric illnesses, remain unclear. We sought to determine mortality ratios and predictors of fatal outcome in women diagnosed as having anorexia or bulimia nervosa. METHODS Women (N = 246) diagnosed as having...

Inherent to anorexia nervosa and bulimia nervosa are a plethora of medical complications which correlate with the severity of weight loss or the frequency and mode of purging. Yet, the encouraging fact is that most of these medical complications are treatable and reversible with definitive care and cessation of the eating-disordered behaviours. Herein, these treatments are described for both th...

This chapter describes the major eating disorders encountered during adolescence including anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa, and eating disorders not otherwise specified (EDNOS). The latter group accounts for most adolescents seeking treatment for an eating disorder and refers to those patients not meeting full Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fourth Edition (DSM-IV) crit...

UNLABELLED Anorexia nervosa still qualifies for the designation as an enigma, with an unclear aetiology and a psychopathology poorly understood. A striking clinical feature is the concreteness of symptoms. The concept 'concretised metaphor' refers to instances where there is a psychic equivalence between physical and psychic reality. Emotions are concretised. OBJECTIVE To contribute in a more...