British journal of clinical pharmacology
-
Br J Clin Pharmacol · Jul 1986
Comparative Study Clinical Trial Controlled Clinical TrialAcute treatment with desipramine stimulates melatonin and 6-sulphatoxy melatonin production in man.
Acute administration of the antidepressant drug desipramine (DMI) in man, increased evening melatonin secretion, which reached peak plasma levels 2-4 h earlier than after placebo administration. The increase at set time points 21.00 h-22.00 h was directly proportional to an individual's integrated night-time secretion of melatonin. We have shown that this stimulation was not an effect of DMI inhibition on the hepatic metabolism of melatonin to 6-sulphatoxy melatonin (aMT6s), indeed aMT6s is in itself a good index of the evening melatonin rise. The stimulation of early evening melatonin by DMI might be exploited as a simple pineal function test.
-
Br J Clin Pharmacol · Jul 1986
Comparative StudyComparative disposition of codeine and pholcodine in man after single oral doses.
Four healthy male subjects received single oral doses of 15, 30 and 60 mg of codeine and pholcodine according to a balanced cross-over design with an interval of 7 days between the six treatments. Blood samples were collected for 8 h after each drug administration. In phase 2 of the study six different male volunteers received single oral doses of 60 mg of codeine and pholcodine with a 14 day interval between successive drug treatments. ⋯ By contrast, pholcodine appeared to undergo little conjugation. Biotransformation of codeine to morphine was evident in all subjects, although the extent of this metabolic conversion varied considerably between subjects. Morphine was not detectable in the plasma of any subject after pholcodine administration.
-
Br J Clin Pharmacol · Jan 1986
Randomized Controlled Trial Comparative Study Clinical TrialExperimental pain induced by electrical and thermal stimulation of the skin in healthy man: sensitivity to 75 and 150 mg diclofenac sodium in comparison with 60 mg codeine and placebo.
Models with experimentally induced pain in healthy man might be useful for the screening for analgesic effects of new drugs. Experimental pain models have been shown to discriminate reliably between the effects of opioid analgesics and placebo but their sensitivity to nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory agents is disputed. This study investigated whether it would be possible by using electrically and thermally induced cutaneous pain to discriminate reliably the effects of single oral doses of 75 and 150 mg diclofenac sodium on the one hand and 60 mg codeine on the other from those of placebo. ⋯ Neither 150 mg nor 75 mg diclofenac caused more side effects than placebo, whereas codeine 60 mg elicited a high frequency of side effects. No severe adverse effects occurred after any one treatment. The results suggest that both electrically and thermally induced cutaneous pain are well suited to evaluate analgesic effects not only of opioids but also of nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs.
-
Br J Clin Pharmacol · Mar 1985
Randomized Controlled Trial Clinical TrialThe evaluation of domperidone and metoclopramide as antiemetics in day care abortion patients.
A randomised double-blind investigation was undertaken to assess the value of domperidone and metoclopramide as prophylactic anti-emetics in unpremedicated patients undergoing general anaesthesia for therapeutic abortion on a day care basis. Sixty patients were divided into three groups, and received, at induction, one of three drugs intravenously. The incidences of postoperative nausea and vomiting were 35% in the group receiving normal saline as placebo, 30% in the group receiving 10 mg domperidone and 25% in the group receiving 10 mg metoclopramide; these were not statistically significantly different. Furthermore, there was no statistically significant difference in the incidence of postoperative nausea and vomiting as influenced by age, weight, length of gestation, anaesthetic time and a history of nausea and vomiting during the pregnancy.
-
Br J Clin Pharmacol · Jan 1985
Comparative Study Clinical Trial Controlled Clinical TrialA double-blind comparison of alprazolam, diazepam and placebo in the treatment of anxious out-patients.
In a double-blind 28-day comparison of alprazolam, diazepam and placebo, alprazolam 1.5-3 mg/day was of equivalent anxiolytic effect to 15-30 mg diazepam/day and there was some evidence of antidepressant activity by alprazolam, but not diazepam, in neurotic depression. No serious side-effects or laboratory abnormalities were encountered.