No seasonal effect on culturable pseudomonads in fresh milks from cattle herds.

Freshly drawn raw milk from 37 single herds on farms manufacturing raw cow cheese under the Protected Designation of Origin (PDO) label were sampled over 13 mo for pseudomonad counts. Coliforms, somatic cells, and coagulase-positive staphylococci were counted and total fat and protein contents measured. For pseudomonad counts, the overall mean value was 3.60×10(3) cfu/mL. We observed very high variation between different producers and within the same producers (average standard deviation 1.30×10(4) cfu/mL), but we did not detect a seasonal effect. The only statistical correlation with other milk quality parameters was with coliforms. A survey of milking practices and milking machine sanitation together with environmental and milk sampling for pseudomonad counts in 7 cheese workshops showed that no real negligence or error could be imputed to producers. The main problems were the presence of non-aeruginosa pseudomonads in potable water and a few isolated failures during the cleaning and rinsing phases of sanitation.

Depression and cognitive impairment in the elderly: a multicentre study.

The present study, conducted in collaboration between the Departments of Psychiatry in Swiss Universities and the World Health Organization, had two main goals: to develop assessment methods which could subsequently be used in the Swiss centres in a standard manner; and to make arrangements for continuing collaboration between the centres in Switzerland and the acquisition of new knowledge about the distinctions between depression and cognitive impairment. For this aim, three different groups of elderly patients of either sex were selected during the period of November 1989 to July 1991 for inclusion in the study. The first two groups included the first ten patients of either sex over 60 years of age consecutively contacting the participating institutions and showing depression with or without clinically significant symptoms of cognitive impairment; the control group included patients showing no depression or clinically significant symptoms of cognitive impairment. A total of 125 patients were included in the initial evaluation, 69 of which were reassessed at a seven-month follow up (on average). Each patient was administered a number of clinician-rated or self-report instruments for the assessment of depression, cognitive impairment, disabilities, physical status and onset of disorders. The study has shown that a variety of instruments can be used for the reliable assessment of depression or cognitive impairment in the elderly; but the instruments for the assessment of depression differentiate only poorly between patients with or without cognitive impairment. Because of the importance of identifying both depressed and cognitively impaired patients among the elderly, different assessment instruments targeted at the different symptom clusters need to be administered simultaneously.

DSIP in the treatment of withdrawal syndromes from alcohol and opiates.

The hypothesis for this therapeutic use of delta sleep-inducing peptide (DSIP) was based on several animal studies conducted by Tissot. He showed that morphine, alcohol, pentobarbital as well as DSIP, when injected directly into the bulbo-mesencephalo-thalamic recruiting system, induced slow-wave sleep with numerous spindles. In all cases, this effect was reversed by Naloxone. Thus, it has been postulated that DSIP possesses an agonistic activity on opiate receptors and might be of value in the treatment of withdrawal syndromes. Therefore, DSIP was administered intravenously to 107 inpatients presenting with symptoms of alcohol (n = 47) or opiate (n = 60) withdrawal. The assessment of effect was based on the clinical evaluation by the physician and the nursing staff. Approximately 13% of the patients from the first and 22% from the second group did not fulfil the requirements for the evaluation of treatment. In, respectively, 97 and 87% of opiate and alcohol addicts, the clinical symptoms and signs disappeared after DSIP administration or improved markedly and rapidly. Anxiety, however, was slower to decrease. On the average, the clinical symptomatology had a more prolonged course and a higher number of DSIP injections were required for opiate addicts than for alcoholics. Tolerance to the DSIP treatment was good, aside from headaches reported by a few patients.