CO2 inhalation has been reported to induce panic attacks in panic disorder patients. State anxiety, somatic symptoms of anxiety, physiological changes, and cerebral blood flow (CBF) were monitored in panic disorder patients before and after intravenous injections of 1 g of acetazolamide (13 patients) and saline (10 patients), given under double-blind conditions. In spite of significant hypercarbia, as evidenced by increased CBF in the former group, only one subject reported panic and even that attack did not meet DSM-III-R criteria. There was only one significant difference between the drug and placebo groups; the acetazolamide group experienced significantly more dizziness.
This investigation was designed to test the hypothesis that ear advantage on a dichotic listening (DL) task of pitch discrimination reflects asymmetries in the metabolic activities of the temporal lobes. Fourteen normal subjects, with either a left-ear advantage (LEA) (n = 9) or a right-ear advantage (REA) (n = 5) on the DL task, underwent measurements of regional cerebral blood flow (rCBF) during a resting baseline condition and during performance on the DL task. For both groups, the DL task was associated with selective and significant increases in rCBF to the contralateral posterior temporal lobe. Our finding of selective rCBF activation with dichotic stimulation may have potential implications for an understanding of the functional organization of the cerebral hemispheres.
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