In a randomized, controlled trial, the authors studied an adjunctive, individual psychotherapy, interpersonal and social rhythm therapy (IPSRT) for bipolar disorder. After stabilizing participants with episode appropriate pharmacotherapy and either IPSRT or intensive clinical management (CM), participants were reassigned to IPSRT or CM in conjunction with pharmacotherapy for 2 years of preventative treatment. Early results (n = 82) suggest that altering participants' treatment assignment at entry to the preventative phase is related to risk of recurrence. Participants remaining in the same treatment for both acute and preventative phases had lower rates of recurrence (<20% vs. >40%) and levels of symptomatology over the subsequent 52 weeks than those reassigned to the alternate modality. This finding, consistent with the authors' philosophy that bipolar patients benefit from stable routines, suggests that disruptions in the psychosocial treatment plan contribute to worse outcomes.

R788 promoted a spectrum of developmental toxicity, including renal and ureteric agenesis and a specific major vessel abnormality, retroesophageal right subclavian artery, in two different species. These effects are likely the result of inhibition of Ret kinase given its importance in the normal ontogeny of the urogenital and cardiovascular systems across species.

Major depression and anxiety frequently co‐occur, but the implications for psychological treatments have rarely been studied. We examined predictors of acute response to interpersonal psychotherapy in 134 consecutively treated female outpatients with recurrent unipolar depression. Women who failed to remit with interpersonal psychotherapy alone experienced higher levels of somatic anxiety, were more likely to meet criteria for lifetime panic disorder, were more likely to meet criteria for nonendogenous or nonmelancholic depression, and reported greater vocational impairment, higher levels of global severity, a longer duration of the index episode, and, somewhat surprisingly, lower levels of social impairment at pretreatment evaluation. A series of backwards stepping logistic regression analyses showed higher levels of baseline somatic anxiety and social functioning to be the most consistent predictors of nonresponse. Our findings strengthen existing evidence that concomitant anxiety can adversely affect the outcome of interpersonal therapy for depression. Depression and Anxiety 8:135–141, 1998. © 1998 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.

The Fischer 344 rat is being used increasingly in toxicology studies. There have been few reports in which rats of this strain were used in teratology and reproduction studies, but comparison of teratologic data with other toxic and points and kinetic information would be greatly facilitated by using the same strain. Therefore, the embryotoxic effects of two positive teratogens, aspirin and hydroxyurea, were compared in Fischer rats and in the commonly used Wistar rats. Aspirin was administered in single oral doses of 500 and 625 mg/kg on d 10; hydroxyurea was injected ip at 500 mg/kg on d 11. Dams were sacrificed on d 20 and fetuses examined for skeletal and visceral defects. Male and female fetal weights and lengths were significantly reduced in treated groups in both strains. Both teratogens caused a significant increase in resorptions in Wistar and Fischer rats. A wide variety of skeletal alterations were induced by both teratogens in both strains. These included extra ribs, fused or missing ribs, extra thoracic and lumbar vertebrae, split vertebral centra, and missing vertebrae. Only a small number of Fischer fetuses exhibited visceral malformations such as hydrocephaly and cleft palate. The frequency of soft-tissue malformations, including cleft palate and severe cardiac anomalies, was much higher in Wistar fetuses.

Suppression of plaque former cell (PFC) response to sheep red blood cells (SRBC) following Rauscher leukemia virus (RLV) or Friend leukemia virus (FLV) infection has been well documented in several mouse strains sensitive to these viruses (1-3). Likewise, a transient suppression of PFC response has been reported for the virus-resistant C57B1/6 mouse during the first week after FLV infection (4). Ceglowski and Friedman (5) compared PFC immunosuppression by FLV in several strains 8 days after infection and reported that the degree of immunosuppression roughly paralleled that of virus susceptibility, with the only hybrid tested (the B6D2F 1 of the C57B 1/6 and the DBA) showing even more immunosuppression than its sensitive DBA parent. However, in that study as in most of the previous studies the prime concern was with the immune response of strains known to be sensitive to the virus. Further, many of these studies have been limited in their observation periods to the rather short duration after infection in which confirmation of immunosuppression is usually obtained. On the other hand, recent data of at least one study (4) suggest that stimulation of PFC response by leukemia virus might also be demonstrable in resistant strains if the observation period is sufficiently long. In the present study we have compared the level of PFC response as affected by RLV in the sensitive SJL/J mouse, the resistant C57B 1/10 mouse and their resistant hybrid-(SJL/JxC57B l/lO)Fl. Evidence for stimulation of PFC response in the resistant mice between the second and fourth week after ~~