Ketamine is an N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA) receptor antagonist with prominent psychoactive effects in humans. This study evaluated whether the oral administration of haloperidol 5 mg would block the effects of an intravenous ketamine infusion (bolus of 0.26 mg/kg followed by 0.65 mg/kg per hour). Twenty healthy subjects completed 4 test days involving the oral administration of haloperidol or matched placebo 2 h prior to the intravenous infusion of ketamine or saline. Ketamine produced cognitive, behavioral, neuroendocrine, and physiologic effects in the healthy subjects that were similar to previous reports. Haloperidol pretreatment reduced impairments in executive cognitive functions produced by ketamine as measured by proverb interpretations and the Wisconsin Card Sorting Test. However, it failed to block the capacity of ketamine to produce psychosis, perceptual changes, negative symptoms, or euphoria in healthy subjects. These data outline an important, but functionally delineated modulation of ketamine effects by dopamine2 receptors and other sites of haloperidol action.

Relatives frequently accommodate patients' obsessive-compulsive symptoms and clinicians hypothesize that such accommodations adversely affect patient outcome. This study's purpose was to develop a valid and reliable measure, the Family Accommodation Scale for Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (FAS), and to investigate the family accommodation construct. We administered the FAS and additional family and patient measures to 36 adult obsessive-compulsive patients and their primary caregivers. The FAS demonstrated excellent interrater reliability and good internal consistency and performed well on assessment of its convergent and discriminant validity. Family accommodation was significantly associated with patient symptom severity and functioning, and with relatives' own obsessive-compulsive symptoms. Although most relatives accommodated patient symptoms, many did not believe that such accommodations improved the patient's clinical status. The FAS will provide researchers and clinicians with a useful tool for assessing family accommodation and for identifying families who may benefit from interventions aimed at developing more adaptive coping strategies.

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The objective of the study was to determine if female workers in a heavy manufacturing environment have a higher risk of injury compared with males when performing the same job and to evaluate sex differences in type or severity of injury. By use of human resources and incident surveillance data for the hourly population at 6 US aluminum smelters, injuries that occurred from January 1, 1996, through December 21, 2005, were analyzed. Multivariate logistic regression, adjusted for job, tenure, and age category, was used to calculate odds ratios and 95% confidence intervals for female versus male injury risk for all injuries, recordable injuries, and lost work time injuries. The analysis was repeated for acute injuries and musculoskeletal disorder-related injuries separately. Female workers in this industry have a greater risk for sustaining all forms of injury after adjustment for age, tenure, and standardized job category (odds ratio = 1.365, 95% confidence interval: 1.290, 1.445). This excess risk for female workers persisted when injuries were dichotomized into acute injuries (odds ratio = 1.2) and musculoskeletal disorder-related injuries (odds ratio = 1.1). This study provides evidence of a sex disparity in occupational injury with female workers at higher risk compared with their male counterparts in a heavy manufacturing environment.

Employer administrative files are a useful source of data, as they permit the exploration of risk factors and potential confounders that are not included in many population-based surveys. The ability to link employer administrative files with injury surveillance data is a valuable analysis strategy for comprehensively studying workplace injuries, identifying salient risk factors, and targeting workforce populations disproportionately affected.