UNLABELLED: Fjorback LO, Arendt M, Ørnbøl E, Fink P, Walach H. Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction and Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy - a systematic review of randomized controlled trials. OBJECTIVE: To systematically review the evidence for MBSR and MBCT. METHOD: Systematic searches of Medline, PsycInfo and Embase were performed in October 2010. MBSR, MBCT and Mindfulness Meditation were...
OBJECTIVE: A functional polymorphism in the catechol-o-methyltransferase gene (COMT Val(158)Met) may moderate the psychosis-inducing effects of cannabis. In order to extend this finding to dynamic effects in the flow of daily life, a momentary assessment study of psychotic symptoms in response to cannabis use was conducted. METHOD: The experience sampling technique was used to collect data on...
The existence of cannabis-induced psychosis (CP) remains controversial, partly because of methodological problems. We hypothesize that acute schizophrenia (AS) and CP can have distinct demographic, premorbid and clinical features. We compared 26 patients with CP to 35 with AS, after their cannabis-consumption status was confirmed by repeated urine screens. Patients with CP were assessed after...
Studies of psychiatric out-patients from India have found that diagnosis of some of the subcategories of the dissociative and conversion disorders of the ICD and DSM classificatory systems are rarely made in this setting. Moreover, it was found that a significant percentage of patients seen in psychiatric practice may not fit into the defined subcategories of dissociative (conversion) disorders...
This is a study of the illness behaviour of 100 Chinese psychiatric patients referred consecutively to the psychiatric unit of a general hospital in Singapore. More women than men felt that their illness was due to spirit possession; but belief in possession was not related to educational status. Thirty-six patients or their relatives had consulted a traditional healer before going to the...
The aim of this study was to find out whether there are any similarities between cannabis psychosis on the one hand and schizophrenia and mania on the other, and to delineate any consistency in the pattern of clinical symptoms of cannabis psychosis. Relevant data were collected from patient's case-notes depicting biographical information and the frequencies of mental symptoms. Age and duration...
The hypothesis that central biogenic amines may play a role in the pathophysiology of schizophrenia was originally based upon the fact that hallucinogenic and antipsychotic drugs have profound effects on central transmitter pathways where dopamine, noradrenaline and serotonin are involved. The structural similarities between hallucinogenic drugs such as amphetamine and mescaline, and...
ABSTRACTKhat is a plant whose leaves are chewed for their stimulating effect. This effect is attributed to cathinone, an alkaloid identical to dextroamphetamine. Khat chewing is widespread among eastern African and Yemenite populations and is believed to be innocuous. Our experience shows, however, that a substantial number of chronic khat chewers experience persistent hypnagogic hallucinations...
Bufotenine given intravenously to a medically trained volunteer subject correlated with the appearance of profound perceptual and emotional changes which were of short duration. The compound rapidly disappeared from the blood and metabolites quickly appeared in the urine of the subject.
That cannabis use may provoke mental disturbances is well known to Scandinavian psychiatrists today. A review of the psychiatric aspects of cannabis use is given, and the clinical signs of 70 cases of cannabis psychoses collected in Sweden are described. The bluntness and "amotivation" following chronic cannabis use are discussed. Anxiety reactions, flashbacks, dysphoric reactions and an...
Eleven patients with a psychosis in connection with cannabis abuse admitted to two mental hospitals during 1 year were examined. Patients with a pre-existent psychosis or a mixed abuse were excluded. The patients were divided into three groups: acute, subacute and chronic. The features of the disease were essentially similar in all patients, with a mixture of affective and schizophrenia-like...
Four cases of hypnagogic or hypnopompic visual hallucinations in patients during amitriptyline treatment are reported. The hallucinations were clearly delineated, projected to the outer objective space and were for a short time experienced as real. The patients rapidly realized the unreality of the "sights", probably because they regained the full criticism and coherent thinking of an...
Depersonalization is discussed and a brief outline of the primary symptoms is presented. The relationship between obsessionalism and depersonalization is reviewed in the literature, and subsequent similarities are presented. The intellectual obsessive depersonalization syndrome is postulated as a variant, and also as an exposition of what might occur in many other cases of depersonalization....
A detailed account is given of the course and outcome of the treatment with LSD of an incapacitating compulsive‐neurotic condition in a 30‐year‐old male. The treatment took place over 1 1/2 years from the autumn of 1962, and the patient, who has been followed since then, is completely cured symptomatically. In addition, a fortunate change in his general personality has taken place. The events...
Eight experienced qualities of reality were examined in relation to five sorts of experience in 15 demented patients in clear states of consciousness (the CSC group), and in 15 patients in disturbed states of consciousness (the DSC group). Many more abnormal reality qualities appeared in the DSC than in the CSC group. In the DSC patients the tendency to experience non-existent fantasy items as...
A theoretical analysis is made of the two concepts: "disturbed state of consciousness" (DSC) and "psychosis", and these concepts are defined in ways which are consistent with actual clinical psychiatric work on the Continent. Concerning DSC's two points are emphasized: Whether we, as psychiatrists, are conscious of it or not--one of our premisses for classifying a state as a pathological DSC is...