Clinical Psychology around the world has evolved dramatically over the last century. This evolution has led to the legislation of psychologists in some States of the United States of America to legally prescribe psychotropic medications. Since 1981 when the first published survey was conducted to assess the views of psychologists towards prescription privileges, advocates and opponents have loudly voiced their opinions. Some of the topics of debate include training, social, professional, economic and political issues. Comparatively, there has been little discussion of limited prescription privileges for clinical psychologists in Australia. The current exploratory study seeks to be the first study in the literature to address the views of South Australian psychologists-in-training and clinical psychologists' views towards limited prescription privileges for clinical psychologists. / An initial sample of 121 respondents were involved in the first stage of the study, whereby respondents clearly perceived more costs than benefits to the profession and the community, should psychologists attain the right to prescribe. A difference in support of prescription privileges was not found between psychologists-in-training, academic or practising psychologists. In addition, gender had no effect on the opinions of respondents. Of those 121 initial respondents, 51 returned the second questionnaire after reading an informal discussion document on the debate. Results indicated that the provision of information produced a significant, favourable change in opinion towards prescription privileges. / The current study reveals a lack of consensus in opinion and the prioritizing of other marketplace issues such as the desire for the profession to attain Medicare rebates as well as a desire for the profession to attain Medicare rebates as well as a desire for additional psychopharmacology training. / Thesis (PhD)--University of South Australia, 2004.

Clinical Psychology around the world has evolved dramatically over the last century. This evolution has led to the legislation of psychologists in some States of the United States of America to legally prescribe psychotropic medications. Since 1981 when the first published survey was conducted to assess the views of psychologists towards prescription privileges, advocates and opponents have loudly voiced their opinions. Some of the topics of debate include training, social, professional, economic and political issues. Comparatively, there has been little discussion of limited prescription privileges for clinical psychologists in Australia. The current exploratory study seeks to be the first study in the literature to address the views of South Australian psychologists-in-training and clinical psychologists' views towards limited prescription privileges for clinical psychologists. / An initial sample of 121 respondents were involved in the first stage of the study, whereby respondents clearly perceived more costs than benefits to the profession and the community, should psychologists attain the right to prescribe. A difference in support of prescription privileges was not found between psychologists-in-training, academic or practising psychologists. In addition, gender had no effect on the opinions of respondents. Of those 121 initial respondents, 51 returned the second questionnaire after reading an informal discussion document on the debate. Results indicated that the provision of information produced a significant, favourable change in opinion towards prescription privileges. / The current study reveals a lack of consensus in opinion and the prioritizing of other marketplace issues such as the desire for the profession to attain Medicare rebates as well as a desire for the profession to attain Medicare rebates as well as a desire for additional psychopharmacology training. / Thesis (PhD)--University of South Australia, 2004.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Nebraska-Lincoln, 2007. / Title from title screen (site viewed Oct. 10, 2007). PDF text: v, 73 p. : col. ill. UMI publication number: AAT 3259075. Includes bibliographical references. Also available in microfilm and microfiche formats.

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Antipsychotic drugs are the mainstay of treatment for psychotic disorders according to the Standard Treatment Guidelines (2012). However, these drugs are associated with multiple severe adverse drug reactions. In order to limit the effect of adverse drug reactions on patient care, documentation is necessary. Documentation of adverse drug reactions entails recording the reaction experienced, as well as supplementary information. Proper documentation can prevent future occurrences of the same or similar adverse drug reactions. The aim of this study was to determine the effects of an educational intervention targeting increasing documentation of the adverse effects of antipsychotic drugs. The objectives of the study were: to determine the pre-intervention extent and frequency of documentation of antipsychotic-related adverse drug reactions in the patient medical record; to implement an intervention aimed at educating the relevant healthcare professionals, focusing on the adverse drug reactions of antipsychotic drugs and how to record or document these reactions; to assess the post-intervention extent and frequency of documentation of antipsychotic-related adverse drug reactions in the patient medical record; and to assess the attitude of healthcare providers towards the documentation of antipsychotic related adverse drug reactions before and after the intervention.

Cognitive impairments are a common feature of neurological and neuropsychiatric disorders, as well as of substance-abuse disorders. The impairments seen in these disorders can be caused by disruptions to common neural substrates, and therefore pharmacological agents can be repositioned from use in neuropsychiatric to neurological disorders, and vice versa. Together, these disorders have been estimated to comprise 13% of the global burden of disease. Indeed, an individual’s ability to successfully perform everyday activities can be limited by deficits in crucial cognitive functions such as attention, response inhibition, planning and working memory. Frontal-striatal networks in the brain have been shown to underlie these vital functions, which are modulated by neurotransmitters including acetylcholine, dopamine, and noradrenaline. Importantly, these functions are susceptible to pharmacological intervention with drugs such as physostigmine, modafinil, and atomoxetine. In order to explore the nature of a variety of forms of cognitive impairment, which were diverse in severity from mild to more severe, studies were carried out on amateur boxers and sleep-deprived doctors, as well as on patients with subarachnoid haemorrhage (SAH) and on patients with Parkinson’s disease (PD). Quantification of cognitive impairment is the crucial first step in determining which neural networks are involved, and thus which pharmacological agents would be suitable candidates for treatment. A longitudinal study was carried out using a comprehensive battery of well-validated cognitive tasks, in order to quantify the change in cognitive ability in healthy individuals who participated in amateur boxing. Subtle cognitive impairments, which were related to structural changes, were documented. Using existing understanding of pharmacological agents, novel treatments for cognitive impairments were explored in relation to sleep-deprived doctors, as well as to PD and SAH patients. A novel treatment for specific cognitive problems in PD was investigated: atomoxetine, a noradrenaline reuptake inhibitor. A double-blind placebo-controlled study revealed that atomoxetine may be a candidate for treatment of response inhibition impairments seen in PD. This finding is important as noradrenergic treatments are not currently used in PD, despite degeneration in the locus coeruleus, the main cortical source of noradrenaline. Another novel treatment explored was modafinil, a drug that has also been shown to modulate the noradrenergic system, as well as the dopaminergic system. Modafinil is currently licensed for use in narcolepsy and shift work sleep disorder. It was found that modafinil remediates task set-switching impairments and reduces impulsivity in sleep-deprived doctors. Furthermore, it was shown that modafinil might be a potential treatment for cognitive impairments found in neurological patients with SAH. In contrast to this, physostigmine, a cholinesterase inhibitor, did not seem to alter the cognitive symptoms investigated. To summarise, this thesis aims to quantify cognitive impairment in a range of groups, and to explore the potential use of existing pharmacological agents that could be repurposed to treat cognitive impairments in novel ways.

The drug sensitivity of neurones of the Nucleus ventralis lateralis (VL) of the thalamus, and their synaptic activation by electrical stimulation of brachium conjunctivum (BC), precruciate cortex and entopenduncular nucleus, (EN) has been studied in anesthetized and in decerebrate cats. Cells evoked with short latency by BC stimulation were particularly sensitive to excitation by iontophoretically applied acetylcholine (ACh) and L-glutamate (LG) when compared with cells of more dorsal thalamic nuclei. The VL neurones did not exhibit such an enhanced sensitivity to DL-homocysteic acid and N-methyl aspartic acid. The α-methyl derivative of glutamic acid (α-MG) was found in many cases to depress or block the excitation of thalamic neurones by LG, but had no effect on ACh excitation. α-MG sometimes depressed the effects of other excitatory amino acids, but to a lesser degree than those produced by LG. Short latency single action potential and late burst responses evoked in VL by BC or cortical stimulation have been reported by other workers and were confirmed in this study. However, it was found that both cortical and BC stimulus evoked early burst responses which were observed only in anesthetized animals. EN stimulation evoked burst response in VL neurones with latencies of 4-22 msec. Both the early burst and the EN evoked responses could be converted to shorter latency single spikes by iontophoretically applied amino acids and ACh. ACh facilitated synaptic activation by cortical and BC stimuli but could either excite or depress the responses to EN stimulation. Iontophoretically applied atropine and dihydro-β-erythroidine blocked ACh excitation of VL cells but did not alter their synaptic activation, although atropine could reverse the ACh depression of EN evoked responses. Intravenous atropine in doses of 0.5-1.0 mgm/kgm also blocked these ACh effects, but in addition markedly reduced the BC evoked field response in VL without affecting the response to cortical stimulation. It was concluded that the pathways from EN and motor cortex to VL are unlikely to be cholinergically mediated, but that ACh may be the synaptic transmitter for at least part of the cerebello-thalamic pathway. Pentobarbital and α-chloralose were potent blockers of ACh excitation in VL neurones.. It was shown that neurones of EN give rise to collateral axon branches which project to VL and N. centrum-medianum. Stimulation of sensori-motor cortex evoked cell and field responses in the lateral, but not the medial parts of the centrum medianum-Parafascicular complex. / Medicine, Faculty of / Cellular and Physiological Sciences, Department of / Graduate

Two opposing effects on "behavior, a depressant effect and a disinhibitory effect, have been attributed to the "benzodiazepine tranquillizers including chlordiazepoxide. The depressant effect has "been reported to undergo tolerance with repeated doses over several days. The first experiment here was designed to determine the number of days required for tolerance at the 15 mg/kg dose. When no tolerance was found in a test of spontaneous activity, further studies were conducted to determine why no tolerance had occurred and to study conditions under which tolerance might be found.

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