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Aim: To study the role of oxidative stress in mechanism of psychosomatic disorders involvement in pathogenesis of ulcerogenesis., Material and Methods: Psychosomatic disorders (PSD) and oxidative stress (OS) were assessed in 120 students with duodenal ulcer (DU) who had no concomitant pathology. Examination for PSD included interviewing by questionnaires. OS was judged by the level of lipid peroxidation products (malonic dialdehyde and dienic conjugates) and antioxidant activity--by glutathion peroxidase and superoxidedismutase. Melatonin was measured by enzyme immunoassay., Results: A close correlation was discovered between the severity and features of PSD, lowering of melatonin, severity of OS and clinical features of the disease., Conclusion: DU students develop PSD which become leading factors of ulcerogenesis. One of the mechanisms of their participation in ulcerogenesis may be related with lowering of melatonin which is a potent stress regulator and corrector of lipid peroxidation and antioxidant activity.

Purpose: To evaluate the discriminative power of serial, simultaneous determinations of serum neuron-specific enolase (NSE), prolactin (PRL) and creatine kinase (CK) in differentiating psychogenic non-epileptic seizures (PNES) from epileptic seizures (ES)., Methods: Prospective measurement of the three markers after 44 single seizures (32 ES and 12 PNES) during continuous video-EEG monitoring at seven different sampling points., Results: Patients with ES had a significantly greater increase in PRL at 10, 20, 30 min, 1 and 6 h. The sensitivity for elevated NSE and CK was low. PRL showed a higher sensitivity. However, the corresponding positive predictive value was lower than in CK and NSE. Additionally, PRL had the lowest specificity of all parameters., Conclusions: The limited discriminative power of PRL, CK, and NSE calls into question if these markers are helpful in differentiating PNES and ES.

Neuron-specific enolase (NSE) is a marker of brain injury after acute neurologic insults. We report changes in serum NSE (s-NSE) in 25 patients (15 with epilepsy and 10 patients with nonepileptic events) during continuous inpatient video/EEG monitoring. s-NSE was significantly increased as compared with baseline and normal controls after the first ictal event in the epileptic group, especially in patients with secondarily generalized tonic-clonic seizures (p = 0.01), but s-NSE was not increased in patients with nonepileptic events. These preliminary data indicate that s-NSE may be increased after complex partial seizures--and generalized tonic-clonic seizures (GTCS).

A case is presented in which a young man with no psychiatric history and no previous exposure to psychotropic medication rapidly developed severe catatonia and autonomic hyperactivity, and an elevated creatine kinase level. He was treated with electroconvulsive therapy and recovered completely. This case suggests that a subgroup of patients who presented with symptoms resembling those of neuroleptic malignant syndrome and who have been treated with neuroleptics may suffer from severe psychogenic catatonia.

A comparative study performed in psychosomatic patients (PG) and healthy subjects (HG) reveals several correlations between personality measurements (Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory, Sensation Seeking Scale, Susceptibility to Punishment), and biochemical variables (in serum: MHPG, acetylcholinesterase, calcium, melatonin; and in platelets: monoamine oxidase B, serotonin, calcium proteins). The relationship between some Sensation Seeking subscales and the enzymatic activities evaluated (negative with MAO and positive with AChase) and the opposite sign relationship between serotonin and some scales of MMPI in both groups studied (negative in the PG and positive in the HG) are noteworthy.

Platelet monoamine oxidase (MAO) activity and personality characteristics were correlated in a sample of 52 men (37 +/- SD 13 years) and 54 women (37 +/- SD 15 years) from a rural community. Personality characteristics were measured by using the Freiburger Persönlichkeitsinventar (FPI-A). In males, weak but significant linear correlations (Pearson product-moment and Spearman rank correlations) were found between platelet MAO activity (p-tyramine and benzylamine as substrates) and the extraversion/introversion dimension. In the females, however, there were no consistent significant correlations between MAO activity and FPI test scores. Comparing the top and bottom 25% of the platelet MAO distribution resulted in a significant difference for the second order factor extraversion in the group of men but not in the group of women. The significant correlation between MAO and introversion could not be attributed to cigarette smoking, food consumption, alcohol, or drugs. In accord with previous biochemical-behavior research, it is suggested that reduced platelet MAO activity may, to some extent, reflect an impulsive personality type.

Neutral protease activity was significantly elevated in the cerebro-spinal fluid of patients with multiple sclerosis (MS) in exacerbation and in the acute phase of acute viral meningoencephalitis (AME) compared with that of MS in remission, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis or psychosomatic disease. Since in each relapse of MS, protease activity was higher in exacerbation than in remission, this activity may be one good marker of disease activity in MS. One hundred micro molar of FOY305, synthetic protease inhibitor, inhibited in vitro increased neutral protease activity in MS in exacerbation, which suggests the possibility of a clinical application of this protease inhibitor for MS.