BACKGROUND Delirium is a highly prevalent disorder among older patients in intensive care units (ICUs). Although antipsychotic drugs are the medications most frequently used to treat this syndrome, these drugs are associated with a variety of adverse events, including sedation, extrapyramidal side effects, and cardiac arrhythmias. Drug treatment for delirium requires careful consideration of th...

Rats undergoing extinction of lever-pressing for food after the attenuation of an external feedback for this behavior, exhibit excessive lever-pressing unaccompanied by an attempt to collect a reward, which may be analogous to the excessive and unreasonable behavior seen in obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). Given that one of the most salient features of OCD is its selective response to treat...

A column-switching system with high-performance liquid-chromatographic separation and ultraviolet detection is described for automated determination of fluvoxamine in human plasma or serum. Samples were injected and the drug was retained in a clean-up column [20 x 4.6 mm (i.d.)] filled with C8 reversed-phase material (10-micron particles). After unwanted material was washed out, the drug was el...

Objectives. To describe a case of fluvoxamine-induced severe hyponatremia, most likely due to abnormal antidiuretic hormone excretion (SIADH), and to discuss the implication for maintenance treatments for these patients. Clinical Observations. Although this syndrome had its incidence most commonly among the elderly, we report a case of severe hyponatremia (serum sodium <114 mmol/L), in a relati...

BACKGROUND Although several studies have directly explored serotonin (5-HT) transmission in patients with obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), their results have been inconsistent and their clinical relevance is doubtful. METHOD According to a double-blind placebo-controlled design, plasma prolactin (PRL) response to a specific serotonergic probe, d-fenfluramine, was measured in 20 drug-free ...

Legalized gambling is a growing industry, and is probably a factor in the presently increasing prevalence of pathological gambling. We present a case of a 36-year-old pathological gambler who was treated with fluvoxamine, a selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor, and who was assessed by functional MRI before and after drug administration. During activation periods, the pathological gambler was ...