Omega-3 fatty acids as a psychotherapeutic agent for a pregnant schizophrenic patient.

Because of the potential adverse events and teratogenesis of antipsychotic drugs, it is important to find a safe and effective treatment for pregnant women with severe mental illness. The membrane hypothesis of schizophrenia provides a rationale to treat symptoms of schizophrenia with omega-3 PUFAs. We report a 30-year-old married woman with chronic schizophrenia, who experienced an episode of acute exacerbation of psychotic symptoms during pregnancy. After entering into an open trial of omega-3 PUFAs monotherapy, she showed a dramatic improvement in both positive and negative symptoms of schizophrenia and a significant increase of omega-3 PUFA composition in erythrocyte membrane. There were no adverse effects in this treatment. Thus, omega-3 PUFAs could be both beneficial and therapeutic to pregnant schizophrenic women.

Soy isoflavone supplementation in postmenopausal women. Effects on plasma lipids, antioxidant enzyme activities and bone density.

OBJECTIVE: To investigate isoflavone supplementation on plasma lipids, erythrocyte antioxidant enzyme activities and bone mineral density in postmenopausal women. STUDY DESIGN: Thirty-seven postmenopausal women were given 150 mg/d of isoflavone supplements twice daily for six months. Blood was sampled before and after supplementation, at three and six months. RESULTS: There were no significant differences in plasma total cholesterol, high-density lipoprotein cholesterol, low-density lipoprotein cholesterol, triglyceride concentrations or erythrocyte antioxidant enzyme activities after three and six months of supplementation when compared with the baseline. No significant changes were noted in calcaneus bone mineral density after supplementing isoflavones for six months. CONCLUSION: The antioxidant effect of isoflavones in normal postmenopausal women is not obvious, and supplementation with isoflavone alone may not have a hypocholesterolemic effect. Since the duration of this study was too short with respect to bone density, longer studies are needed to clarify the bone-sparing effect of isoflavone supplementation.

Pharmacotherapy for southeast Asian psychiatric patients.

Refugees have been demonstrated to be at high risk for developing major depressive and posttraumatic stress disorders, but are often not able to benefit from modern advances in psychopharmacology. Besides difficulties in cross-cultural psychiatric diagnosis, problems also arise from cultural differences in the expectation of drug effects and in compliance. Recent evidence has suggested that pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamic profiles of various psychotropic medications may be different in Asians than in non-Asian patients, leading to differences in dosage requirements and side effect profiles. These issues and their relevance to the care of refugee patients are reviewed.