No Effects of Pulsed High-Frequency Electromagnetic Fields on Heart Rate Variability during Human Sleep<sup>1</sup>
The influence of pulsed high-frequency electromagnetic fields emitted by digital mobile radio telephones on heart rate during sleep in healthy humans was investigated. Beside mean RR interval and total variability of RR intervals based on calculation of the standard deviation, heart rate variability was assessed in the frequency domain by spectral power analysis providing information about the balance between the two branches of the autonomic nervous system. For most parameters, significant differences between different sleep stages were found. In particular, slow-wave sleep was characterized by a low ratio of low- and high-frequency components, indicating a predominance of the parasympathe…
Latency and amplitude variability in serial median nerve SEP recordings
Abstract Objectives : Intra-individual variability of SEP parameters was investigated by serial SEP recordings. Methods : Median nerve SEP of 53 normal subjects (mean age 25.5±2.7 years) were evaluated. Recordings were repeated 1 week, 2 weeks, and 6 months after the initial recording. Results : Mean values of latencies from right median nerve stimulation were slightly longer (+0.1 ms) as compared to the left. The intra-individual (within stimulation side) variance did not depend on the time interval between recordings. The total within-stimulation-side variance of latencies was 0.056 ms 2 for N20 (C 3/4 ′ vs. F z ), 0.070 ms 2 for N13 (C 7 vs. F z ), 0.048 ms 2 for N10 (Erb's point vs. F z…
Anterior limbic alpha-like activity: a low resolution electromagnetic tomography study with lorazepam challenge
Summary Objective To verify findings of an independently regulated anterior limbic alpha band source. Methods In a randomised cross-over study, the spontaneous EEG was recorded in nine healthy subjects after i.v. lorazepam or placebo. Intracerebral current densities within classical frequency bands were estimated with low resolution electromagnetic tomography [LORETA] and compared between groups with t -statistical parametric mapping [SPM{ t }]. A region-of-interest [ROI] based method was used to compare frontal and occipital alpha band activity changes. Results Irrespective of treatment group, local maxima of alpha band power were localised both in the occipital lobe, Brodman area [BA] 18,…
Risk of bleeding related to selective and non-selective serotonergic antidepressants: a case/non-case approach using data from two pharmacovigilance databases.
There is increasing evidence for an association between treatment with selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRI) and an increased risk of bleeding events. The most important underlying mechanism appears to be inhibition of serotonin uptake in platelets, an effect that is also present in antidepressants with non-selective serotonin-reuptake inhibition (NSRI). Accordingly, also NSRI may be associated with an increased risk of bleeding. However, there is little data in this regard.Based on data (spontaneous reports of adverse drug reactions) from 2 pharmacovigilance databases (WHO-database/Vigibase™; BfArM/AkdÄ-database in Germany) we used a case/non-case approach and calculated reporting…
Temporal relationship between nocturnal erections and rapid eye movement episodes in healthy men.
The exact temporal relationship between spontaneous nocturnal erections and rapid eye movement (REM) sleep was studied in healthy men with the aim of creating a basis for a more sophisticated analysis of nocturnal erection measurements in physiological research and clinical applications. The vast majority of erectile events was coupled to REM episodes, where the latency between the beginning of erections and REM episodes showed a large variability. Moreover, a correlation analysis revealed a highly significant decrease of the latency over the course of the night. The time variant properties of the coupling between erections and REM sleep point to more complex dynamics of the central control…
“Krokodil”—Revival of an Old Drug with New Problems
In order to summarize current knowledge about the drug "Krokodil" a systematic review including a literature search of the databases PubMed, Embase, Scopus, and Google was conducted in December 2011. According to information acquired, "Krokodil" is a mixture of several substances and was first reported to have been used in Russia in 2003. The core agent of "Krokodil" is desomorphine, an opioid-analogue that can be easily and cheaply manufactured by oneself. Self-production results in a contaminated suspension that is injected intravenously. Due to its pharmacologic features, desomorphine shows a high potential to cause dependence. Against the background of first possible cases of "Krokodil"…
Drug-Induced Liver Injury Associated With Antidepressive Psychopharmacotherapy: An Explorative Assessment Based on Quantitative Signal Detection Using Different MedDRA Terms.
Drug-induced liver injury is a major problem of pharmacotherapy and is also frequent with antidepressive psychopharmacotherapy. However, there are only few studies using a consistent methodologic approach to study hepatotoxicity of a larger group of antidepress ants. We performed a quantitative signal detection analysis using data from the Uppsala Monitoring Centre from the WHO that records adverse drug reaction (ADR) data from worldwide sources; we retrieved substance- and country-specific (Australia, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, the United Kingdom, and the United States) ADR data and calculated reporting odds ratios as measures for disproportionality within a case/noncase approach. To a…
Liver failure under valproic acid
Valproic acid (VPA, 2-propylvaleric acid) is originally an antiepileptic drug, which has been in use for more than 30 years in over 100 countries. The clinical application of VPA has expanded in the last years. Approval has been granted by the FDA for treatment of migraine and cluster headache in 1996, and for treatment of mania and long-term prophylaxis of bipolar affective disorder in 1995. In ongoing studies, VPA has been reported to inhibit growth of several types of cancer cells; in addition, effects on neurodegeneration, and on virus replication in HIV infection have been demonstrated potentially expanding the application of VPA in the future. Despite a good tolerability of the drug, …
Limbic activity in slow wave sleep in a healthy subject with alpha–delta sleep
All-night electroencephalographic (EEG) activity was recorded in a healthy subject with known alpha-delta sleep. Recordings were made from all 19 of the 10/20 system electrode sites, and low resolution electromagnetic tomography (LORETA) was used to estimate intracerebral current densities. Sleep stages were compared within classical frequency bands by statistical parametric mapping (SPM). With the onset of sleep, occipital alpha abated. With increasing depth of sleep, alpha power increased in a region comprising the left frontal lobe, the anterior and parietal cingulum, and the anterior and medial right front lobe. In slow wave sleep (SWS), frontal alpha power was much greater than in wake…
Sleep investigations in erectile dysfunction
Abstract Regarding the aetiology of erectile dysfunction, beside numerous organic causes in many cases psychological factors play an important role. The pathophysiological mechanisms underlying the so-called psychogenic erectile dysfunction are not yet understood. Based on a neurobiological approach to psychogenic erectile dysfunction, polysomnographic investigations were carried out with the aim of identifying possible alterations of the sleep EEG. 24 male patients with psychogenic erectile dysfunction without detectable organic factors or other mental disorders were studied in the sleep laboratory, as well as an age-matched control group without sexual dysfunctions. Beside a reduction of …
Cardiac Autonomic Activity during Sleep under the Influence of Radiofrequency Electromagnetic Fields. Autonome Herzaktivitat im Schlaf unter dem Einfluss hochfrequenter elektromagnetischer Felder
Question of the study We investigated the influence of radiofrequency electromagnetic fields emitted by digital mobile telephones on heart rate variability (HRV) during sleep in healthy young men.
Drug safety related to agents used for opioid maintenance therapy
IntroductionThere is only little data regarding drug safety related to agents used for opioid maintenance therapy (OMT).Objectives/aimsTo study drug safety and the reporting behaviour of adverse drug reactions (ADR) related to OMT.MethodsA cross-sectional questionnaire-based telephone survey among physicians providing outpatient OMT in a federal state of Germany (n = 176; response rate = 55.7%) was conducted.ResultsMost of the respondents (n = 97/55.1%) reported that they observe ADR related to buprenorphine, [dihydro]codein and [levo]methdone rarely (n = 38/21.6%), very rarely (n = 39/22.2%) or never (n = 20/11.4%). Methadone was reported to be most frequently associated with the occurrenc…
Agomelatine and Hepatotoxicity: Implications of Cumulated Data Derived from Spontaneous Reports of Adverse Drug Reactions
Considering the antidepressant agomelatine (AGM) there is a discrepancy between the widespread knowledge of the potential of AGM to cause hepatotoxic adverse drug reactions (ADR) and the availability of corresponding published data. This impedes an adequate assessment of the hepatotoxicity profile of AGM. We conducted a query of the database of a German Medical Regulatory Body (BfArM) and analyzed spontaneous reports of hepatotoxic ADR. We identified n=58 cases of AGM-related hepatotoxic ADR. Most frequent ADR was asymptomatic increase of liver enzymes (79%); n=6 patients (10%) with AGM-related toxic hepatitis were reported. Characteristics of patients: female sex (69%), age > 50 years (mea…
A fully automated system for the evaluation of masseter silent periods.
Exteroceptive suppression of masseter muscle activity, 'masseter inhibitory reflex', comprises one or 2 silent periods (SP1 and SP2) interrupting the voluntary activation. The main problem when evaluating exteroceptive suppression is the lack of an objective and precise measure for the onset and end of the silent period which so far has not been overcome by various automated systems. We describe a new fully automated system for determining the onset and end of the masseter silent period. The decision approach is essentially based upon deterministic properties of median filters which are used to partition the local variances of the EMG traces into constant segments and edges between them. Th…
Non-fatal and fatal liver failure associated with valproic acid.
Little is known about hepatotoxicity associated with valproic acid (VPA), a widely used substance in neuropsychiatry.All reported cases to the German Federal Institute for Drugs and Medical Devices between 1993 and 2009 of VPA-induced serious hepatic side effects were evaluated.A total of 132 cases of serious VPA-associated liver failure were identified. Approximately one third (34.8%) occurred under VPA monotherapy, while the majority was seen with VPA plus co-medication, most frequently antiepileptics (34.8%) and benzodiazepines (16.7%). A subgroup of 34 cases (25.8%) had a fatal outcome, the largest number reported to date. Of these, 32.4% were under VPA monotherapy and 67.6% under VPA p…