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Publications (3)7.59 Total impact

  • Article: The vulnerability to alcohol and substance abuse in individuals diagnosed with schizophrenia
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    ABSTRACT: Individuals with schizophrenia are at increased risk for developing substance abuse disorders. Here, we consider factors that might elevate their risk for substance abuse. The tendency among schizophrenic individuals to overvalue drug-like rewards and to devalue the potential negative consequences of substance abuse may be a contributing factor to their substance abuse risk. This bias, which may partly reflect the convergence of glutamatergic and dopaminergic input to the limbicstriatum, also may contribute to disadvantageous decision-making and other impulsive behavior. This propensity to seek drug-like rewards is augmented by alterations in nicotinic cholinergic, GABAergic, glutamatergic, and cannabinnoid receptor function associated with schizophrenia that increase the abuse liability of low doses of nicotine,ethanol, and perhaps cannabis, and augment the dysphoric effects of higher doses of ethanol and cannabis. The distortions in reward processing and altered response to substances of abuse also increase the likelihood that individuals with schizophrenia will self-medicate their subjective distress with abused substances. The focus on distinctions between motivation and reward with respect to substance abuse risk by schizophrenic patients suggests a need for a reconsideration of the construct of “negative symptoms” for this duallydiagnosed patient group.
    Neurotoxicity Research 04/2012; 10(3):235-252. · 3.51 Impact Factor
  • Article: Interactive effects of subanesthetic ketamine and haloperidol in healthy humans
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    ABSTRACT: Ketamine is an N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA) receptor antagonist with prominent psychoactive effects in humans. This study evaluated whether the oral administration of haloperidol 5 mg would block the effects of an intravenous ketamine infusion (bolus of 0.26 mg/kg followed by 0.65 mg/kg per hour). Twenty healthy subjects completed 4 test days involving the oral administration of haloperidol or matched placebo 2 h prior to the intravenous infusion of ketamine or saline. Ketamine produced cognitive, behavioral, neuroendocrine, and physiologic effects in the healthy subjects that were similar to previous reports. Haloperidol pretreatment reduced impairments in executive cognitive functions produced by ketamine as measured by proverb interpretations and the Wisconsin Card Sorting Test. However, it failed to block the capacity of ketamine to produce psychosis, perceptual changes, negative symptoms, or euphoria in healthy subjects. These data outline an important, but functionally delineaeted modulation of ketamine effects by dopamine2 receptors and other sites of haloperidol action.
    Psychopharmacologia 06/1999; 145(2):193-204. · 4.08 Impact Factor
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    Article: Interactive effects of subanesthetic ketamine and subhypnotic lorazepam in humans
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    ABSTRACT:  Ketamine is an N -methyl- D -aspartate (NMDA) receptor antagonist with psychotogenic and dissociative effects in healthy humans. These cognitive and perceptual effects in humans are reportedly reduced by benzodiazepine premedication. This study assessed the interactive effects of a ketamine (IV bolus of 0.26 mg/kg followed by an infusion of 0.65 mg/kg per hour) and lorazepam 2 mg., PO, in humans. Twenty-three healthy subjects completed 4 test days involving the oral administration of lorazepam or matched placebo 2 h prior to the IV infusion of ketamine or placebo. Ketamine: 1) produced behaviors similar to the positive and negative symptoms of schizophrenia as assessed by the Brief Psychiatric Rating Scale (BPRS); 2) evoked perceptual alterations as measured by the Clinician-Administered Dissociative States Scale (CADSS); 3) impaired performance on the Wisconsin Card Sorting Test (WCST) and other tests sensitive to frontal cortical impairment; and 4) had amnestic effects. Lorazepam produced attention impairments, concrete proverb interpretations, and recall impairments. Lorazepam reduced ketamine-associated emotional distress and there was a non-significant trend for it to decrease perceptual alterations produced by ketamine. However, it failed to reduce many cognitive and behavioral effects of ketamine, including psychosis. Further, lorazepam exacerbated the sedative, attention-impairing, and amnestic effects of ketamine. There was no evidence of pharmacokinetic interaction between these medications. These data suggest that subhypnotic lorazepam and ketamine show a spectrum of interactive effects, ranging from antagonism to potentiation. Peer Reviewed http://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/41959/1/213-135-3-213_81350213.pdf