ABSTRACT
This study investigated the relationship between hypnotic susceptibility and the endogenous eyeblink with 27 subjects who were assigned to groups of high susceptibles, low susceptibles and simulators on the basis of cutoff scores from the Harvard Group Scales of Hypnotic Susceptibility: Form A and the Stanford Hypnotic Susceptibility Scales: Form C. Using a repeated-measures design, oculomotor data were collected during two separate conditions, waking and hypnotized, while subjects performed a visual task requiring the discrimination of short light flashes (200 ms) from long light flashes (400 ms). Although results partially replicated previous studies, with high susceptibles blinking significantly less than low susceptibles across both conditions, no effect was found for the hypnotic state. Failure of the simulating group to meet assumptions in the waking condition allowed no conclusions regarding impact of task demands on the endogenous eyeblink.
Subject(s)
Attention/physiology , Blinking/physiology , Hypnosis , Discrimination, Psychological/physiology , Evoked Potentials, Visual/physiology , Humans , Photic StimulationABSTRACT
alpha-Amyrin palmitate, present in a Ghanaian antiarthritic herbal preparation of Alstonia boonei, Elaies guineensis and Rauvolfia vomitoria, was synthesised and tested on complete Freund's adjuvant-induced arthritic rats. Administered orally at 56 mg/kg body weight (BW) daily for 8 days from days 11 to 18 post adjuvant (acute) or at 66 mg/kg BW every 48 h for 5 days from days 32 to 40 (chronic), the drug returned the increases in serum hyaluronate and blood granulocytes towards non-arthritic levels and corrected the moderate anaemia of adjuvant arthritis. Histological examinations of the proximal interphalangeal foot joints showed reduced synovial proliferation and invasion of joints and reduced leucocyte infiltration of bone marrow and periarticular tissue in treated rats. The results suggest that alpha-amyrin palmitate contributes to the previously shown antiarthritic effect of the herbal preparation.
Subject(s)
Antirheumatic Agents/therapeutic use , Arthritis, Experimental/drug therapy , Plant Extracts/therapeutic use , Triterpenes/therapeutic use , Acute Disease , Administration, Oral , Anemia/drug therapy , Animals , Antirheumatic Agents/administration & dosage , Antirheumatic Agents/pharmacology , Arthritis, Experimental/chemically induced , Biomarkers/blood , Bone Marrow/drug effects , Bone Marrow Cells , Cartilage, Articular/drug effects , Cartilage, Articular/pathology , Cell Division/drug effects , Chronic Disease , Disease Models, Animal , Ghana , Granulocytes/drug effects , Hyaluronic Acid/classification , Leukocytes/drug effects , Leukocytes/pathology , Oleanolic Acid/analogs & derivatives , Plant Extracts/administration & dosage , Plant Extracts/pharmacology , Plants, Medicinal , Rats , Rats, Wistar , Synovial Fluid/cytology , Synovial Membrane/drug effects , Synovial Membrane/pathology , Tarsal Joints/drug effects , Tarsal Joints/pathology , Triterpenes/administration & dosage , Triterpenes/pharmacologyABSTRACT
alpha-amyrin palmitate was synthesized and tested on adult male Wistar rats made arthritic by subplantar injection of complete Freund's adjuvant. When administered orally at 66 mg/kg BW every 48 h for 5 days from days 32 to 40 post-adjuvant and assessed on day 50, alpha-amyrin palmitate returned the increases in serum hyaluronate and blood granulocytes toward non-arthritic levels and corrected the moderate anaemia of adjuvant arthritis. Histological examinations of the second and third proximal foot interphalangeal joints showed reduced synovial proliferation and invasion of joints and reduced leucocyte infiltration of bone marrow in alpha-amyrin palmitate-treated rats. In addition, the drug prevented or reduced bone (subchondral or cortical) and cartilage (articular) destruction in arthritic rats. The results suggest that alpha-amyrin palmitate is antiarthritic in the adjuvant model of arthritis in rats.