Posted by anita on November 8, 2000, at 18:51:39
In reply to anita - Right-Sided Rage, posted by Cam W. on November 3, 2000, at 21:34:11
Hi Cam,
Thanks very much for the info and the article! I'll have to study the article when I have less brain fogginess :-). I'm interested in fear and right-brain dysfunction, rather than rage. The right hemisphere is supposed to be involved in fear responses. Interestingly, risperidone, which is supposed to affect the right brain more than the left, has really decreased my social phobia so far.
Here are two other articles that are relevant:
1. Differences in frontal cortical activation by a working memory task after substitution of risperidone for typical antipsychotic drugs in patients with schizophrenia.< /b >< /font >< br >< br >< b >Honey GD, Bullmore ET, Soni W, Varatheesan M, Williams SC, Sharma T< /b >< br >< br >Section of Cognitive Psychopharmacology, Institute of Psychiatry De Crespigny Park, London SE5 8AF, United Kingdom.< br >< br >Antipsychotic drug treatment of schizophrenia may be complicated by side effects of widespread dopaminergic antagonism, including exacerbation of negative and cognitive symptoms due to frontal cortical hypodopaminergia. Atypical antipsychotics have been shown to enhance frontal dopaminergic activity in animal models. We predicted that substitution of risperidone for typical antipsychotic drugs in the treatment of schizophrenia would be associated with enhanced functional activation of frontal cortex. We measured cerebral blood oxygenation changes during periodic performance of a verbal working memory task, using functional MRI, on two occasions (baseline and 6 weeks later) in two cohorts of schizophrenic patients. One cohort (n = 10) was treated with typical antipsychotic drugs throughout the study. Risperidone was substituted for typical antipsychotics after baseline assessment in the second cohort (n = 10). A matched group of healthy volunteers (n = 10) was also studied on a single occasion. A network comprising bilateral dorsolateral prefrontal and lateral premotor cortex, the supplementary motor area, and posterior parietal cortex was activated by working memory task performance in both the patients and comparison subjects. A two-way analysis of covariance was used to estimate the effect of substituting risperidone for typical antipsychotics on power of functional response in the patient group. Substitution of risperidone increased functional activation in right prefrontal cortex, supplementary motor area, and posterior parietal cortex at both voxel and regional levels of analysis. This study provides direct evidence for significantly enhanced frontal function in schizophrenic patients after substitution of risperidone for typical antipsychotic drugs, and it indicates the potential value of functional MRI as a tool for longitudinal assessment of psychopharmacological effects on cerebral physiology.
2. Electroencephalographic and Perceptual Asymmetry Differences Between
Responders and Nonresponders to an SSRI AntidepressantGerard E. Bruder, Jonathan W. Stewart, Craig E. Tenke, Patrick J. McGrath,
Paul Leite, Nil Bhattacharya and Frederic M. Quitkin
Accepted 7/20/2000Abstract
Background: Recent reports suggest the value of electroencephalographic
(EEG) and dichotic listening measures as predictors of response to
antidepressants. This study examines the potential of EEG alpha asymmetry
and dichotic measures of perceptual asymmetry as predictors of clinical
response to 12 weeks of treatment with fluoxetine (Prozac).Methods: Resting EEG (eyes open and eyes closed) and dichotic listening
with word or complex tone stimuli were assessed in depressed outpatients
during a pretreatment period.Results: Fluoxetine responders (n=34) differed from nonresponders (n=19) in
favoring left over right hemisphere processing of dichotic stimuli. They
also differed in their resting EEG alpha asymmetry, particularly in the
eyes open condition. Nonresponders showed an alpha asymmetry indicative of
overall greater activation of right than left hemisphere, whereas
responders did not. The relationship between hemispheric asymmetry and
treatment response interacted with gender, being evident among depressed
women but not men.Conclusions: The results are consistent with the hypothesis that a
characteristic tendency toward greater left than right hemisphere
activation is associated with favorable response to fluoxetine, whereas the
opposite hemispheric asymmetry predicts poor response.> anita - I talked to Dr.Purdon and he thinks that if the location of the lesion causing rage is on the right side, then he says it sounds plausible that Risperdal might work, but he also said that the study hasn't been published, let alone duplicated. Therefore, he will not give a definite answer to the question, because he is not absolutely sure that what he is photographing with his PET scans is factual. It needs to be proven.
>
> I was reading the new journal articles (November issues of many journals have come out). I found an interesting PET study that mentions that Risperdal decreased regional metabolism in the right thalamus and the right ventral striatum in volunteers with schizophrenia. This may be some proof of Dr.Purdon's work. The study URL is below:
>
> http://bjp.rcpsych.org/cgi/content/full/177/5/402
>
> Check the paragraph between Table 1 and Table 2 in the results section. - Cam
poster:anita
thread:48162
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20001102/msgs/48457.html