Repeated Exposure of Rats to the Convulsant Agent Flurothyl Enhances 5‐hydroxytryptamine‐ and Dopamine‐mediated Behavioural Responses

Green, A.R.

doi:10.1111/j.1476-5381.1978.tb08464.x

Cited by 23 publications

(4 citation statements)

References 19 publications

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“…These data, taken with previous work with the inhalant convulsant flurothyl (Green, 1978) suggest that altered monoamine-mediated behavioural re-sponses may be a consequence of tonic-clonic seizures produced by various different convulsant agents.…”

Section: Number Ofsupporting

confidence: 68%

PROCEEDINGS OF THE Briish Pharmacological Society: 9–11th April, 1980 UNIVERSITY OF BRISTOL COMMUNICATIONS

1980

British J Pharmacology

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Section: Number Ofsupporting

confidence: 68%

PROCEEDINGS OF THE Briish Pharmacological Society: 9–11th April, 1980 UNIVERSITY OF BRISTOL COMMUNICATIONS

1980

British J Pharmacology

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“…These experimentally induced changes resemble the therapeutic effect in that they occur only following a succession of spaced shocks, and also in that they do not occur with peripheral electrical stimulation or with a series of shocks at hourly intervals (Costain et al 1978). Similar changes are seen following convulsions induced by flurothyl (Green, 1978).…”

Section: Animal Experimentssupporting

confidence: 67%

The scientific status of electro-convulsive therapy

Crow¹

1979

Psychol. Med.

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Electro-convulsive therapy (ECT) has been available for just over 40 years, whereas neuroleptic drugs have recently celebrated their 25th anniversary. Yet much more is known of the magnitude and scope of effectiveness, the mechanism of action, and even the adverse effects, of neuroleptic drugs in the treatment of schizophrenia than of electro-convulsive therapy in depression. Research on drug therapy of schizophrenia has advanced rapidly in the past 15 years while clinical research on ECT has progressed little. Until recently, basic research on possible mechanisms of action was also very limited.It seems unlikely that this state of affairs presages the demise of convulsant therapy as a major treatment modality. Despite criticisms from a number of sources, most psychiatrists remain convinced that ECT has a unique place in the treatment of depression. Yet it is an entirely empirical treatment. In this respect it is far from unique in medicine; but it must be unusual for a treatment to remain widely used and so little understood for so long a period.Advances in understanding mechanisms of action are desirable but many purely clinical questions remain unanswered. The Department of Health and Social Security and the Royal College of Psychiatrists are ascertaining the extent to which ECT is now used in British hospitals. It seems possible that a number of smaller projects, if properly designed, could provide answers to some outstanding questions concerning the scope and indications for this treatment. Such answers might substantially influence current practice, based as it is on information from trials carried out when antidepressant medications were relatively new, and to a large extent upon the individual clinician's intuition. EFFECTIVENESS IN DEPRESSIONIn an attempt to obtain an overall view of the effectiveness of ECT in comparison with other therapies, Wechsler et al. (1965) summarized 153 studies published between 1958 and 1963 in American, British and Canadian journals, involving a total of 5864 patients. They present the figures shown in Table 1.Since many studies were uncontrolled, and these studies showed higher rates of improvement than those with a control group, these figures almost certainly exaggerate the effectiveness of antidepressant treatments, including ECT. More cogent perhaps is the contrast which these authors were able to demonstrate in the findings of studies dealing with depressions of recent onset and those which included mainly chronic depressions (but also some schizophrenic patients) (see Table 2). The superiority of both drugs and ECT over placebo is much less in the latter group.No firm conclusions can be drawn from a literature survey. Patient selection is uncontrolled and many studies in which ECT was compared directly with other treatments included small numbers of patients. The soundest basis for an assessment of the efficacy of ECT are 2 major controlled trials completed in the early 1960s. The first (Greenblatt et al. 1962(Greenblatt et al. , 1964, in the United States, included ...

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“…Both dopamine and noradrenaline mediated behavioural responses are also enhanced by ECS pretreatment and experiments with agonists indicated that these enhanced responses are due to increased catecholamine post-synaptic responses (GREEN rt a/., 1977: MODIGH, 1975. Such changes are not produced by sub-convulsive shocks (GREEN rt a/., 1977) but can be elicited by flurothyl, an inhalant convulsant (GREEN, 1978) demonstrating the importance of the convulsion.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Alterations in Gaba Metabolism and Met‐enkephalin Content in Rat Brain Following Repeated Electroconvulsive Shocks

Green

Peralta

Hong

et al. 1978

Journal of Neurochemistry

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The effects of electroconvulsive shock (ECS; 120 V for 1 s through ear‐clip electrodes) or sub‐convulsive shocks (70 V for 1 s) on rat brain GABA and met‐enkephalin concentration and GABA turnover has been examined 24 h after a single treatment (×1) or once daily for 10 days (×10). ECS × 10 increased GABA concentrations in the N. caudatus and N. accumbens and decreased the synthesis rate of GABA by 40% and 50% respectively in these regions. Sub‐convulsive shocks (× 10 × 10) or ECS × 1 had no effect. No consistent changes were seen in the substantia nigra. Met‐enkephalin concentrations increased by 50% in the N. caudatus after ECS × 10 but were unchanged in the cortex and pons/medulla. No other shock regimen had any effect on the concentration of this peptide. The results are discussed in relation to the enhanced monoamine‐induced responses seen only after ECS × 10.

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Repeated Exposure of Rats to the Convulsant Agent Flurothyl Enhances 5‐hydroxytryptamine‐ and Dopamine‐mediated Behavioural Responses

Cited by 23 publications

References 19 publications

PROCEEDINGS OF THE Briish Pharmacological Society: 9–11th April, 1980 UNIVERSITY OF BRISTOL COMMUNICATIONS

PROCEEDINGS OF THE Briish Pharmacological Society: 9–11th April, 1980 UNIVERSITY OF BRISTOL COMMUNICATIONS

The scientific status of electro-convulsive therapy

Alterations in Gaba Metabolism and Met‐enkephalin Content in Rat Brain Following Repeated Electroconvulsive Shocks

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