The relative toxicities of amantadine and rimantadine were compared in a double-blind, placebo-controlled study involving healthy adults. In separate studies, drugs were administered at a dosage of 200 mg/day (52 volunteers) or 300 mg/day (196 volunteers) Clinical trials have documented that amantadine hydrochloride (7,11,14,17,18,22 483, 1978) and rimantadine hydrochloride (6,11,26,33) are effective prophylactic and therapeutic drugs in influenza A virus infections. Several in vitro (10, 31) and animal (1, 28, 31) models have suggested that rimantadine has greater antiviral activity than amantadine against influenza A viruses. However, the relative effectiveness of the two compounds in human infections has not been fully defined.Available information regarding the relative toxicities of the two compounds in humans is also inconclusive. Most studies of amantadine prophylaxis with a dose of 200 mg/day have described few side effects (14,22,25 484, 1978). However, recent work found substantial rates of subjective central nervous system (CNS) complaints and possible adverse effects on objective measures of psychomotor performance at this dosage (4). Rimantadine has been considered to be better tolerated in humans (11), but several studies (25; Noble et al., 18th ICAAC, abstr. no. 484) have not confirmed this observation. Optimal antiviral and therapeutic effects in treatment of influenza A virus infections would likely be achieved with administration of higher drug dosages. If lower drug toxicity were confirmed for rimantadine, then it would be an appropriate candidate for future chemotherapy studies in which higher dosages are used.The present study was undertaken to compare the relative toxicities of equivalent doses of amantadine and rimantadine. Both subjective and objective measures of potential drug side effects were studied at conventional (200 mg/ day) and higher (300 mg/day) dosages in healthy adults. Our results indicated that both drugs were well tolerated at the lower dosage, but that rimantadine was significantly better tolerated than amantadine at a dosage of 300 mg/day.

Emotional change during pregnancy and the postpartum period is very common (37, 42); mental illness of psychotic proportions occurs more frequently in the postpartum period than in the period of pregnancy (33). These psychotic illnesses occurring in the postpartum period have remained an area of controversy for several reasons. The clinical phenomenology of these psychotic reactions seems unusually rich in confusional and delirious features (19), even when reported by those who contend they are no different from the usual run of psychotic illness (41). The fact that 80 per cent. of these serious reactions occur in the first 30 days postpartum (33) has raised doubt in the minds of some that these reactions merely represent the stress of pregnancy falling on a predisposed personality. An alternative hypothesis might be that the interaction of psychological and endocrine factors at the end of pregnancy makes this a particularly stressful period. The delirious and confusional symptoms might also be better explained as being related to endocrine dysfunction of some kind.

Calvin Hall's contributions have not always been properly appreciated. Hall set forth a cognitive theory of dreams as early as 1953.To Hall, dreaming is a cognitive process and the images of a dream are "the embodiment of thoughts." Hall felt that dreams illuminate the basic conflicts and predicaments conceptualized by the dreamer.

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To test the hypothesis that young depressed patients have prolonged rather than shortened sleep, 14 depressed patients aged 17-25 and age-matched normal control subjects were allowed to sleep as long as they wanted. All subjects increased their sleep over baseline values, but the extended sleep period of the depressed patients was almost twice as long as that of the control subjects. The distribution of sleep stages in the extended period did not differ. The depressed patients had changes in the length of REM periods similar to those of older subjects. The findings suggest an interaction between age, sleep, and depression.