The Sedation Threshold as a Method of Evaluating Anti‐depressive Treatments

Abstract

Sun11sva11 R E ICE R E N C E S Durernan, I. el a f (1960): Psychological studies of dose-response charactcristics of a new barbiturate. Unpublished paper. Univ. of Uppala. Erikssoit, I<. H . (1959): Inslruktion fdr hIhlPI. Stockholm. J e n s m , A . I ( . (l!W): The Maudslcy Personalily Invcntory. Acta Psyrhol. 14, 314--323. Kurd, A . A . (1958): The sedation threshold. A.M.A. Arch. Keurol. Psychiat. 80, 232-236. Rbberg, G. (1960): Subjektiv skattning av depressived tillstSnd och effekter av olika anti-Shagass, Ch. (1955): Anxiety, depression and the photically driven electroencephalogram. Shugass, Ch. (1958): Neurophysiological studies of anxiety and depression. Psychiatric Shugass, Ch. (1960): Drug thresholds as indicators of personality and affect. In L. Uhr depressiva behandlingar. Unpublished paper. Univ. of Uppsala. A.M.A. Arch. Keurol. Psychiat. 74, .%-lo. research reports 8. Am. Psychiat. Assoc.

VIII: Clinical‐Electroencephalographic investigation

“…The most sceptical about the usefulness of the method have been A c k n e r and Pampiglione who on the one hand regarded the method as ))very tedious)), and on the other, questioned the correlation with anxiety since they had not been able to find any correlation between the ST and other measurements of the peripheral vasolability which in Ackner's (1 956) investigations proved to discriminate between patients with low and high anxiety. On the other hand, other workers seem to have been able to confirm most of Shagass's observations, jarticylarly the occurence of a high ST in patients with marked anxiety and a low ST in patients with psychotic depressions (Boudreau: 1958), Pinelli (1957), Kawi (1958), Seager (1959), N y mguard (1959), Perris et al (1959), Perris & Brattemo (1963). The reliability has been confirmed by Nymgaard.…”

“…The validity of this hypothesis has been confirmed by Cluridge & Herrington (discussion and literature 1960). The fact that the ST is dependent on the function of the AARS (ascending activating reticular system) can be considered sufficiently proved by investigations concerning the effect of various psychiatric drugs, particularly chlorpromazine and reserpine Bradley & Jeuvons (19571, Nymguard (1959), Perris et al (1959Perris et al ( , 1963, Shagass et al (1962), which are known to act at the AARS level: Terzian (1952, 19543, Rinaldi & Himwich (1955, and especially affect the structure ())adrenergic? n) ))influencing cerebral circulation)) Ingvar & Soderberg (1957).…”

“…The series comprises in the first place a group of 50 depressed patients (10 bipolar, 22 unipolar, 18 neurotico-depressive) who were subjected to EEG investigation during the period November 1960-July 1961 in connection with another investigation with a different aim Perris & Brattemo (1963). These patients were now catamnestically regrouped inte the diagnostic groups decided upon.…”

“…T o summarize: the results confirmed the possibility to differentiate between various types of depression with the aid of the ST. The possibilities of differentiation seem to hold good, not only for a differential diagnosis between so-called ))endogenous)) and ))exogenous)) depressive conditions (c. f. Perris & Brattemo 1963) but also between various types of psychotic depressive conditions (unipolar and bipolar). The results of the ST investigation can also explain some of the discrepancies to be found in the literature, for example, among research workers, who investigated ))endogenous depressions)) without any closer specification, and did not find any significant differences in relation to various neurotic groups (Achner, Pampiglione 1958).…”

Psychological test performance and sedation thresholds of elderly dements, depressives and depressives with incipient brain change

“…It might seem unprofitable to spend much effort on discovering reasons for obtaining discrepant results in a replication study, but it was fairly easy to investigate failure to obtain significant overall increases of sedation threshold values in depressives after treatment, which had been found by Perris & Brattemo (1963) and in both the 1973 investigation and its pilot study. In the present research, depressives improved their mean threshold only insignificantly from 6-74 to 7-39 mg sodium-amytal/kg of body weight.…”