Behavioural and endocrine reactions in boys scoring high on Sennton neurotic scale viewing an exciting and partly violent movie and the importance of social support.

Psychoendocrine and behavioural effects elicited by viewing an exciting and partly violent movie were studied in 12-year-old boys (n = 42). The boys were divided into three groups. Group A (n = 13) consisted of boys scoring below the median value on the Sennton neurotic scale for vegetative and anxiety symptoms. Group B (n = 13) consisted of boys scoring above the median value on the Sennton neurotic scale. None of these boys had ever visited a psychiatric treatment centre, and they all came from the same school. A third group, Group C (n = 16), consisted of boys who, at least once, had visited an out-patient clinic at a child psychiatric treatment centre for neurotic problems. These boys attended different schools in the hospital catchment area. Group C had the same mean score on the Sennton neurotic scale as did Group B. By having two groups of boys scoring both high on the Sennton neurotic scale, one of which knew the other boys and one that did not, we were able to study possible effects of social support on psychobiologic reactions in neurotic boys. The boys' reactions to the movie were assessed by: self-ratings; direct observations of the boys by a team of trained child psychologists; and by analysis of urinary output of adrenaline, noradrenaline and cortisol. Group B rated their experience the strongest, viewing the movie, while Groups A and C rated themselves as rather unaffected by it. Group C was rated less verbally active, both during the control and the film periods, than were the other two groups.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)

[Circadian rhythm of catecholamine excretion, effect of L-DOPA and Nacom in various diseases of the nervous system]. / Sutochnyi ritm ékskretsii katekholaminov, vliianie L-DOFA i nakoma pri nekotorykh zabolevaniiakh nervnoi sistemy.

The activity of the sympathoadrenal system (SAS) was studied in 132 patients with central nervous system diseases such as parkinsonism, deforming muscular dystonia (DMD), Huntington's chorea, myopathy and asthenic neurosis. The estimation was based on determinations of urine catecholamine (CA) excretion with the help of the fluorometric method developed by E. Sh. Matlina et. al. (1965). The control group included 50 healthy subjects. The findings obtained confirmed the reported data concerning the role of CA in the pathogenesis of the studied forms of nervous pathology. The study showed a decrease in dopamine excretion (DA) in parkinsonism, its increase in Huntington's chorea and DMD, and insufficiency of SAS activity in myopathy. Furthermore, additional criteria pointing to alterations in the diurnal SAS activity in the patients were revealed. These changes manifested themselves in the disruption of the diurnal rhythm of CA excretion as well as in the deficiency of DOPA and DA synthesis and deposition following a single dose of L-DOPA and nacome.

[Types of adrenograms in neuroses]. / Tipy adrenogramm pri nevrozakh.

A total of 714 adrenograms (graphic depiction of adrenalin and noradrenalin excretion in relation to the circadian rhythm) obtained from neurotic patients were analyzed. The authors succeeded in ascertaining the differences of their types in patients suffering from hysterical neurosis, neurasthenia and obsessive neurosis. The adrenographic method is believed to be capable of serving as an additional diagnostic criterion in the differential diagnosis of these pathological forms.

[Catecholamine metabolism in men with neuroses]. / Obmen katekholaminov u muzhchin pri nevrozakh.

Impairments in sympathoadrenal system were detected in men with sexual disorders (dissimilar in explosive and asthenic persons) by means of a combined methodology monitoring the activity and response of sympathoadrenal system, synthesis of neurotransmitters determined by a circadian rhythm. In the patients urinary excretion of catecholamines and DOPA was impaired at night and in the morning hours. As compared with healthy persons of the same age a decrease in the rate of synthesis of sympathoadrenal neurotransmitters was found in explosive patients (contrary to asthenic persons) after loading with 0.1 g of 1-DOPA (DOPA-test). Combined study of sympathoadrenal system is an important approach for diagnostics and treatment of men with sexual disorders.

Increased excretion of dimethyltryptamine and certain features of psychosis: a possible association.

The excretion of the hallucinogen dimethyltryptamine (DMT) and its precursor N-methyltryptamine (NMT) was studied among 74 recently admitted psychiatric patients and 19 normal persons. Both compounds were detected in 24-hour urine samples from all subjects. Dimethyltryptamine excretion was greatest in schizophrenia, mania, and "other psychosis" and tended to decline as clinical state improved. Psychotic depressives excreted smaller amounts of DMT more akin to those excreted by neurotic and normal subjects. Urinary NMT excretion was unrelated to psychiatric diagnosis. Ratings on the Present State Examination (PSE) also indicated that increased excretion of DMT was associated with psychotic rather than neurotic psychopathology. Forty-three percent of the variance in urinary DMT levels could be explained in terms of six of the 38 PSE syndromes. Syndromes suggesting elation, perceptual abnormalities, and difficulty in thinking and communicating were most correlated with raised urinary DMT excretion.

[Blood levels of testosterone and its urinary excretion in women of reproductive age both neurosis-free during the climacteric period and with climacteric neuroses]. / Soderzhanie testosterona v krovi i ékskretsii ego s mochoi u zhenshchin reproduktivnogo vozrasta i v period klimakteriia bez nevroza i s klimaktericheskim nevrozom.

Blood testosterone content was studied by the radioimmunological method in 12 healthy women (5 of reproductive age, and 7 with climacteric age changes) and in 4 patients at the postmenopause suffering from climateric neurosis. Urinary excretion of testosterone glucuronide was studied by means of fluorometry in 11 healthy women (4 of reproductive age, and 7 at the climacteric) and in 6 patients at the postmenopause with climacteric neurosis. Healthy women of reproductive age displayed marked individual variations in the blood testosterone content both during the folliculin and the lutein cycle phases. The indices of urinary testosterone excretion varied in this group lees. As to healthy women with age climacteric changes and a regular cycle and those during the postmenopause--they showed marked variations both in blood testosterone content and in urinary testosterone excretion. There were no significant differences in the indices studied in healthy women of reproductive age and in healthy women with age climacteric changes. But in 8 of 11 women with climacteric neurosis blood testosterone content and urinary testosterone excretion were much greater than the upper borders of its variations in healthy women.

Urinary dimethyltryptamine and psychiatric symptomatology and classification.

The excretion of dimethyltryptamine (DMT) was studied amongst 122 recently admitted psychiatric patients and 20 normal subjects. DMT was detected in the urine of 47% of those diagnosed by their psychiatrists as schizophrenic, 38% of those with other non-affective psychoses, 13% of those with affective psychoses, 19% of those with neurotic and personality disorders and 5% of normal subjects. Ninety-nine patients were interviewed in a semi-standardized fashion, and also categorized according to a variety of operational definitions of the psychoses. The operational definitions failed to reveal any group significantly more correlated with urinary DMT than a hospital diagnosis of schizophrenia, but a discriminant function analysis of symptomatology could be used to define a group of 21 patients of whom 15 (71%) excreted detectable DMT. There was a general relationship between psychotic symptoms and urinary DMT, but specifically schizophrenic symptoms did not appear to be major determinants of DMT excretion.

[Excretion in the urine of glucuronides of testosterone and androstenedione in women with climacteric neurosis and without neurosis]. / Vydelenie s mochoi gliukuronidov testosterona i androstendiona u zhenshchin s klimaktericheskim nevrozom i bez nevroza

The author elaborated a method of study of the urinary excretion of the testosterone and androstendione glucoronides and applied it in 20 women (4 healthy women of reproductive age, 10 women at the postmenopause with a climacteric neurosis, and 7 healthy women during the climacteric). In healthy women the mean values of testosterone and androstendione urinary excretion showed no significant difference from those in women of the reproductive age and during the climacteric. It is supposed that the level of urinary excretion of these hormones showed but little change with the progress of age. As to women with a climacteric neurosis, there was no significant change of the mean values of urinary excretion to testosterone and androstendione in comparison with healthy women of the same age. This suggests that the androgenic function of the adrenal glands in this neurosis showed no significant change. Patients with a climacteric neurosis displayed higher variations in the values of the urinary excretion of testosterone and androstendione glucoronides, which was possibly associated with disturbances of regulation of the production of the androgens by the hypothalamic centres.

[Excretion of some metabolites of catecholamine, serotonin and steroid hormones following neurosensory loading]. / Ekskretsiia na niakoi metaboliti na katekholaminite, serotonina i steroidnite khormoni sled nervno-senzorno natovarvane

The values of 17-ketosteroids (according toe Drekter, Pearson, Bartezak, modification of Kukuskina and Gurjeva), 5-hydroxyindole acetic acid (according to Sjoerdsma, Weisbach and Udenfriend) and 3-methoxy, 4-hydroxyvanillyl mandelic acid (according to Pisano et al, modification of Georges) were followed up in the 24-hour urine of 37 female-weavers (subdivided into two groups--healthy and neurotics) and 15 males--operators of control boards from the Chemical Combinate--Vratza. The urine was tested also according to the method of Wisser and Stamm, 1970, in mgr/2 hours. The comparison of the metabolite values before and after work revealed an increase of 17-ketosteroids and vanillyl-mandelic acid after neuro-sensory loading, especially in neurotics. Lower values, at the end of the working shift, were found for the 5-hydroyindole acetic acid, with the exception of those of the neurotics, that were elevated--an increased utilization of serotonin is relied on.