Objective. Patients with multiple sclerosis (MS) are often suffering from neuropathic pain. Antiepileptic drugs (AEDs) and tricyclic antidepressants (TCAs) are commonly used and are susceptible to be involved in drug interactions. The aim of this retrospective study was to investigate the prevalence of use of antiepileptic and antidepressive drugs in MS patients and to discuss the theoretical p...

Twelve patients acted successfully as subjects to study what effect if any the benzodiazepines nitrazepam, diazepam, oxazepam, and chlordiazepoxide might have on steady-state plasma levels of nortriptyline and amitriptyline. No significant detectable effect was discovered. In view of the known interaction effects of other alternative tranquillizing drugs and hypnotics it seems reasonable to cho...

Most of the literature on the alliance-outcome association is based exclusively on differences between patient reports on alliance. Much less is known about the unique contribution of the therapist's report to this association across treatment, that is, the association between therapist-reported alliance and outcome over the course of treatment, after controlling for the patient's contribution....

Increasing serotonin decreases quarrelsome behaviours and enhances agreeable behaviours in humans. Antidepressants, even those whose primary action is not on serotonin, seem to increase serotonin function. We suggest that antidepressants act in part by effects on social behaviour, which leads to a gradual improvement in mood. We review the evidence supporting the idea that antidepressants may b...

To the Editor: I read with great interest the article by Merlo-Pich and colleagues titled “A New Population-Enrichment Strategy to Improve Efficiency of Placebo-Controlled Clinical Trials of Antidepressant Drugs.”1 Because one in two clinical trials of US Food and Drug Administration–approved antidepressants fails,2 the authors suggest that the efficiency and accuracy of studies should be impro...

Hyperprolactinemia has a number of etiologies, including physiological, pathological and pharmacological causes. Hyperprolactinemia is frequently associated with the use of certain medications. Patients using medications known to cause hyperprolactinemia generally develop a mild form of the condition, and the prolactin level rarely exceeds 100 ng/mL in these cases. We report a case of a 43-year...

This gas-chromatographic method for assay of fluoxetine and norfluoxetine in human plasma involves extraction of the drugs and use of a 63Ni electron-capture detector. The linear range of detection is 25 to 800 micrograms/L for each drug. Overall precision (CV) in the concentration range of 10 to 100 micrograms/L for both drugs was approximately 10%. Accuracy (relative error) in the same concen...