[Melatonin: ulcer disease and seasons of the year]. / Melatonin: iazvennaia bolezn' i sezony.

Melatonin produces a great variety of effects in human organism and plays an essential role in normal function of the body. This explains growing interest of medical researchers to this substance. The paper provides the results of 3-year studies of seasonal rhythm of melatonin production in patients with duodenal ulcer. Acute disorders of circadian and seasonal melatonin production in summer and autumn were discovered in patients with duodenal ulcer. These findings suggest involvement of abnormal melatonin production in pathological mechanisms of autumn exacerbations of duodenal ulcer.

[Visceral neuroses: clinical approaches to the problem]. / Organnye nevrozy: klinicheskii podkhod k analizu problemy.

Visceral neuroses are regarded as psychosomatic pathology represented by functional symptom complexes common for both psychic (personality, psychopathologic disorders of anxietyphobic, affective, hypochondriac spectrum) and somatic pathology. Two hundreds fourteen patients: 67 with hyperventilation syndrome (HVS), 77 with Da Costa syndrome (DCS), 70 with irritable bowl syndrome (IBS) have been studied. The study suggest that visceral neuroses represent a group of independent diseases. In contrast to converse neuroses, a topical projection (respiratory, cardiovascular system, gastrointestinal tract, etc.) of visceral neuroses reflects not only a psychosomatic disorder's specificity but also the course and prognosis regularities inherent to them. HVS course is wavy with periodic exacerbations and incomplete remissions, DCS one is phased (remissive), IBS is chronic without distinct phases and intervals. HVS and DCS are comorbid to milder psychic (personality and anxiety phobic disorders) and somatic pathology. IBS is associated with not only more severe mental disorders (overvalued, hypochondriac, affective) but also with chronic somatic diseases (alimentary system).