Electrolytic lesions of the ventral subiculum weakly alter spatial memory but potentiate amphetamine-induced locomotion.

Adult Long-Evans male rats were subjected to electrolytic lesions of the ventral subiculum, and tested for locomotor activity in the home cage, reference and working memory in the water maze, working memory in the radial maze, and D-amphetamine-induced locomotion (1mg/kg, i.p.). When compared to their sham-operated counterparts, lesioned rats showed nocturnal hyperactivity, no reference memory deficit, but working memory was impaired in the water maze and during the initial stage of radial-maze testing. Their locomotor responsiveness to D-amphetamine was exaggerated. Histological verifications confirmed lesions in the ventral subiculum. Material stained for acetylcholinesterase activity indicated septohippocampal and commissural/associational sprouting, accounting for partial damage to the perforant paths. These results showed that ventral subiculum lesions (i) do not alter the capability of rats to learn repeatedly presented spatial information, and (ii) impair, but do not prevent, spatial working memory, suggesting that the ventral subiculum is preferentially involved in short-term memory for spatial locations. Given the electrolytic nature of the lesion, the lesion-induced potentiation of the locomotor response to amphetamine is probably easier explained by partial disruption of the perforant paths than by damage to neurons of the ventral subiculum.

Physician-hastened death. Advisory guidelines for the San Francisco Bay area from the Bay Area Network of Ethics Committees.

Recent high court opinions and pending Supreme Court rulings on the legality of physician-hastened death necessitate a pragmatic response from the medical profession. Adopting a "harm reduction" perspective on this contentious topic, the Bay Area Network of Ethics Committees developed practice guidelines for responding to a patient request for hastened death. The guidelines will be offered to the local medical community for use by individuals and health care institutions if the practice of physician-hastened death becomes legal. A multidisciplinary consensus process was used in developing the guidelines, which address clinical, ethical, and procedural concerns.

RU 486: what physicians know, think and (might) do--a survey of California obstetrician/gynecologists.

The results of this informal survey indicate that a solid majority of California obstetricians and gynecologists are very interested in RU 486 and are following its story closely; that this majority is confident in the research already conducted on the drug, and feel that RU 486 should be made available at this time for both clinical practice and additional research; that many physicians already performing abortions would utilize RU 486 in their practices; and that a significant number of physicians not currently performing abortions would do so using RU 486, thus potentially increasing access to early abortion services in this country. However, strong support for RU 486 among American physicians has not yet had an appreciable impact on hastening the eventual availability of RU 486 in the United States.