AIM The Nordic Quality of Life Study was undertaken to assess the relationship between psoriasis and the quality of life in Nordic countries. The intention was also to determine whether there was a relationship between drinking, smoking, and the use of psychotherapeutic agents on the one hand, and psoriasis severity and quality of life on the other. MATERIALS AND METHODS A questionnaire was m...

Benzodiazepines are the most widely prescribed class of psychoactive drugs in current therapeutic use, despite the important unwanted side effects that they produce, such as sedation, myorelaxation, ataxia, amnesia, and ethanol and barbiturate potentiation and tolerance. They exert their therapeutic effects via binding to the benzodiazepine binding site of gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA) type A ...

INTRODUCTION Sexual dysfunction is a potential side effect of mood stabilizers and anxiolytic drugs: this article presents a critical review of the current literature. Although many studies have been published on sexual side effects of psychopharmacological treatment, only a minority relate to mood stabilizers and anxiolytic drugs. Most of these studies are not methodologically robust, few are ...

OBJECTIVE To study the clinical characteristics of children who were diagnosed as ADHD. MATERIAL AND METHOD A retrospective chart review was conducted on 202 children who came to a child mental health clinic and were diagnosed as ADHD. RESULTS Most cases were in the 6-12 years age group and came from small families with 1-2 children. Males outnumbered females (M:F = 3.4:1). One-fifth of the...

EMERGENCY nurse 17 Antipsychotic drugs (or neuroleptics) are a large class of drugs which can be divided into three groups: phenothiazine, miscellaneous and atypical (Box 1). They are used to tranquillise patients without impairing consciousness and without causing paradoxical excitement. They are often referred to as major tranquillisers but this is misleading since these drugs also relieve fl...

The nonmedical use of prescription or over-the-counter (OTC) medications implies that the user is using them for reasons other than those indicated in the prescribing literature or on the box label. The abuse of these medications is a national issue. Intentional drug abuse of prescribed and OTC medicines has climbed steadily. Data from the 2005 National Survey on Drug Use and Health demonstrate...

Therapeutic opioid use and abuse coupled with the nonmedical use of other psychotherapeutic drugs has shown an explosive growth in recent years and has been a topic of great concern and controversy. Americans, constituting only 4.6% of the world's population, have been consuming 80% of the global opioid supply, and 99% of the global hydrocodone supply, as well as two-thirds of the world's illeg...

Since the advent of use of phenothiazine derivatives as "tranquilizing" drugs, physicians have become aware of the occurrence of severe contact dermatitis in response to administration or handling of certain members of this chemical group (1—3). In addition, clinical observations (4) of the course of jaundice in patients taking oral doses of tranquilizers of this group strongly suggest that oth...

Modern Drug Treatment during Psychotherapy oj Schizophrenia. ALEXANDRA ADLER, New York. During the last years new drugs have been offered to the medical profession, which have decided advantages inasmuch as, although they do not induce sleep in the patient, they still have a definite influence on the symptomatology of the mental disease process. For the treatment of schizophrenia, chlorpromazin...