[Psychotherapeutic treatment of traumatic stress with the EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing) method]. / Traumatherapie mit der Fingerspitze. Die überraschenden Erfolge der EMDR-Methode.

EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing) is a method, developed at the end of the nineteen-eighties, for the treatment of the post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). The patient is asked to concentrate on certain aspect of the traumatic memory while keeping his eyes fixed on the movements of the therapist's finger. Apparently, this triggers information processing that results in appreciable relief for the patient. The method has proven to be equally as effective as behavioral-therapeutic techniques, and, has in the meantime, been included in national and international guidelines for the treatment of PTSD. The indications for EMDR treatment include not only PTSD, but, increasingly, also other, sometimes more severely chronic, it trauma sequelae. Within the framework of basic care, EMDR must be embedded within a treatment plan and should, where applicable, be combined with other methods.

The effect of raising gastric pH with ranitidine on the absorption and elimination of theophylline from a sustained-release theophylline tablet.

Prior to evaluating the effect of ranitidine on theophylline absorption from a sustained-release theophylline tablet, the effect of ranitidine on the time course of gastric pH in 12 healthy subjects was evaluated with an encapsulated radio-telemetry device (Heidelberg capsule). Gastric pH was measured hourly from 7 AM to 1 PM prior to beginning ranitidine treatment at 2 PM (150 mg every 4 hr for eight doses). The next day, pH was again measured hourly from 7 AM to 7 PM. Subjects fasted overnight and remained fasted until lunch at 11 AM. Prior to ranitidine treatment, the mean morning gastric pH remained between 1.5 and 2.2. After lunch, the pH increased to 2.2-2.3. During ranitidine treatment the mean morning gastric pH measurements were 5.5 to 5.8, decreasing after lunch to 3.1 by 4 PM and increasing to 3.9 at 7 PM. One week later the subjects participated in a three-way crossover theophylline bioavailability study receiving at weekly intervals, single doses at 7 AM of (a) 5 x 100-mg immediate-release tablets, (b) 2 x 300-mg sustained-release theophylline tablets, and (c) 2 x 300-mg sustained-release theophylline tablets after ranitidine pretreatment of 150 mg every 4 hr beginning at 2 PM the previous day. The increase in gastric pH with ranitidine had no effect (P greater than 0.05) on the rate and extent of absorption or on the elimination rate of theophylline.