Neuropsychopharmacologia Hungarica : a Magyar Pszichofarmakológiai Egyesület lapja = official journal of the Hungarian Association of Psychopharmacology
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Neuropsychopharmacol Hung · Jun 2012
Review[The European Psychiatric Association (EPA) guidance on suicide treatment and prevention].
Suicide is a major public health problem in the WHO European Region accounting for over 150,000 deaths per year. Suicidal crisis: Acute intervention should start immediately in order to keep the patient alive. ⋯ A secure home, public and hospital environment, without access to suicidal means is a necessary strategy in suicide prevention. Each treatment option, prescription of medication and discharge of the patient from hospital should be carefully evaluated against the involved risks. Training of personnel: Training of general practitioners (GPs) is effective in the prevention of suicide. It improves treatment of depression and anxiety, quality of the provided care and attitudes towards suicide. Continuous training including discussions about ethical and legal issues is necessary for psychiatrists and other mental health professionals.
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Neuropsychopharmacol Hung · Dec 2010
Review[Trazodone--its multifunctional mechanism of action and clinical use].
Trazodone is an antidepressant of the serotonin (5-HT2) antagonist and reuptake inhibitor class, and has been considered to act as a multifunctional drug. It is generally approved for the treatment of major depression, its efficacy is well-documented in elderly patients, and it has been widely used for replacement of benzodiazepines or benzodiazepine-type sleeping drugs due to its anxiolytic efficacy and sleep normalizing effect in depression. ⋯ It is weight neutral and does not decrease sexual function. The introduction of trazodone to the Hungarian market may decrease the widespread use of benzodiazepines in antidepressive treatment.
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Neuropsychopharmacol Hung · Dec 2010
Barriers to antiviral treatment in hepatitis C infected intravenous drug users.
Nowadays intravenous drug use is the main source of hepatitis C transmission, but only a small proportion of those who acquired infection via intravenous drug use receive antiviral treatment. ⋯ The low proportion of patients entering antiviral treatment calls the attention to further improving the pretreatment management of this patient population. Special attention should be paid to the maintenance of abstinence.
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Neuropsychopharmacol Hung · Sep 2010
Long-term neuronal damage and recovery after a single dose of MDMA: expression and distribution of serotonin transporter in the rat brain.
"Ecstasy", 3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA), an amphetamine analogue is one of the most widely used recreational drugs. In spite of the fact that neurotoxic effects of MDMA has been found in several species from rodents to non-human primates, and results increasingly point to damage also in human MDMA users, data about the sensitivity of different brain areas and the recovery after neuronal damage are scarce. Serotonin transporter (5-HTT) mRNA in the raphe nuclei also has not been examined. ⋯ Our results also suggest that the acute MDMA administration abolished aggressive behaviour but MDMA pretreatment and the consequent depletion of serotonergic terminals did not affect aggression. Our findings concerning the changes detected in 5-HTT mRNA expression and fibre density indicate lasting impairment of the serotonergic system and suggest that a single use of MDMA may be associated with long-lasting cognitive, learning, memory and mood deficits and sleep disturbances particularly when a constellation of genetic vulnerability and certain environmental factors are present. Our data provide further evidence for the connection between altered serotonergic functions and sleep disturbance.
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Suboxone (Buprenorphine/naloxone) is a novel drug used in opiate substitution therapy. In Hungary, it was introduced in November 2007. Suboxone is a product for sublingual administration containing the partial mu-receptor agonist buprenorphine and antagonist naloxone in a 4:1 ratio. ⋯ According to the early experience with Suboxone treatment, it is a well tolerable and successfully applicable drug in the substitution therapy of opiate addicts. A critical phase seems to be the first one or two weeks of treatment. Dropout rate is high during this early period, while after a successful conversion clients presumably remain in therapy for a long period. At the beginning of administration special emphasis must be put on informing patients, especially concerning withdrawal symptoms that might be present during the first week, which highly contributes to better retention in treatment.