ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND: We investigated whether variation in the dopamine D2 receptor gene (DRD2) and tri-dimensional personality questionnaire (TPQ) scores could be used to aid adjustment of daily methadone requirements of heroin addicts. DRD2 TaqI B polymorphisms and TPQ scores were determined in 138 male Taiwanese heroin addicts who were receiving methadone treatment. Borderline index (harm avoidance + novelty seeking-reward dependence) was calculated for each subject, and three groups were defined: high (mean from all subjects plus 1 standard deviation, or greater), low (half of the calculated high score, or lower) and medium (all values between the high and low scores). RESULTS: No significant differences in age (p = 0.60), mean methadone dose (p = 0.75) or borderline index group (p = 0.25) were observed between subjects bearing the B1/B1, B1/B2 and B2/B2 DRD2 TaqI genotypes. Among the individuals with low (≤10), medium (11-20) and high (≥21) borderline index scores, there was a significant difference in mean methadone dose (p = 0.04), but not age (p = 0.90). Further analysis showed that mean methadone dose was significantly higher in subjects with low borderline index scores than in those with high scores (62.5 vs. 47.0 mg/day, p = 0.03). The odds ratio for a daily methadone requirement ≥60 mg (median dose across the 138 subjects) was 2.64-fold greater in the low borderline index group than in the high group (p = 0.04). CONCLUSIONS: Although the DRD2 TaqI B genotype was not associated with methadone use requirements, borderline index was revealed as a potential predictive marker for the adjustment of methadone dosage requirements in heroin addicts.
Subject(s)
Methadone/metabolism , Receptors, Dopamine D2/genetics , Adult , Dose-Response Relationship, Drug , Gene Frequency , Genotype , Heroin , Heroin Dependence/genetics , Humans , Male , Methadone/pharmacology , Middle Aged , Personality , Personality Assessment , Polymorphism, Genetic/genetics , Receptors, Dopamine D2/drug effects , Substance-Related Disorders , Surveys and Questionnaires , TaiwanABSTRACT
BACKGROUND: The electrical signals measuring method is recommended to examine the relationship between neuronal activities and measure with the event related potentials (ERPs) during an auditory and a visual oddball paradigm between schizophrenic patients and normal subjects. The aim of this study is to discriminate the activation changes of different stimulations evoked by auditory and visual ERPs between schizophrenic patients and normal subjects. METHODS: Forty-three schizophrenic patients were selected as experimental group patients, and 40 healthy subjects with no medical history of any kind of psychiatric diseases, neurological diseases, or drug abuse, were recruited as a control group. Auditory and visual ERPs were studied with an oddball paradigm. All the data were analyzed by SPSS statistical software version 10.0. RESULTS: In the comparative study of auditory and visual ERPs between the schizophrenic and healthy patients, P300 amplitude at Fz, Cz, and Pz and N100, N200, and P200 latencies at Fz, Cz, and Pz were shown significantly different. The cognitive processing reflected by the auditory and the visual P300 latency to rare target stimuli was probably an indicator of the cognitive function in schizophrenic patients. CONCLUSIONS: This study shows the methodology of application of auditory and visual oddball paradigm identifies task-relevant sources of activity and allows separation of regions that have different response properties. Our study indicates that there may be slowness of automatic cognitive processing and controlled cognitive processing of visual ERPs compared to auditory ERPs in schizophrenic patients. The activation changes of visual evoked potentials are more regionally specific than auditory evoked potentials.
Subject(s)
Evoked Potentials, Auditory/physiology , Evoked Potentials, Visual/physiology , Schizophrenia/physiopathology , Adolescent , Adult , Female , Humans , Male , Middle Aged , Psychomotor Performance/physiologySubject(s)
Betamethasone/analogs & derivatives , Calcitriol/analogs & derivatives , Dermatologic Agents/therapeutic use , Glucocorticoids/therapeutic use , Nail Diseases/drug therapy , Psoriasis/drug therapy , Betamethasone/therapeutic use , Calcitriol/therapeutic use , Drug Therapy, Combination , Female , Humans , Male , Middle Aged , Severity of Illness Index , Single-Blind MethodABSTRACT
The purpose of this study is to characterize the cognitive functions of schizophrenic patients using different auditory and visual event-related potentials (ERPs) based on Wisconsin card sorting test (WCST). From the experimental results, it is indicated that there is a slowness of automatic cognitive processing and controlled cognitive processing during WCST in comparison with ERPs for schizophrenic patients.
