Effect of propranolol on acute withdrawal tremor in alcoholic patients

The effect of the beta-adrenergic blocking agent propranolol was tested on positional tremor occurring during acute alcohol withdrawal using a double-blind crossover method and electrical recording of tremor amplitude and frequency. The difference between the effects of propranolol and placebo was not significant.

Effect of propranolol on essential tremor

The investigators tested the effect of 120 mg propranolol daily on 21 patients with essential tremor using a double-blind cross-over method and electrical recording of tremor amplitude and frequency. The patients varied in age between 15 and 60 years and had a mean tremor frequency of 10 cps. Propranolol had no effect on the tremor frequency but reduced the amplutide in 15 of the patients. Propranolol was most effective in older patients and in those with slow tremor frequencies.

The value of individual joints for radiologic assessment of rheumatoid arthritis

Twenty-seven bilateral joints of 28 patients with rheumatoid arthritis were radiographed and divided into six grades of severity by means of standard reference films. The results indicated that the four lateral metatarsophalangeal joints and the wrists are the most valuable joints for the assessment of rheumatoid arthritis as they show the strongest correlation of involvement with duration, the highest slope value, and the lowest standard deviation of involvement. It was concluded that many currently used methods of radiologic assessment could be improved by evaluating proper radiologic changes in joints representative of rheumatoid arthritis. The need for a new generally accepted classification of severity of rheumatoid arthritis is evident from this paper.

Visual transformation of size

To investigate human visual identification of different-sized objects as identically shaped, matching reaction times were measured for pairs of simultaneously presented random figures. In three experiments, reaction time for correct reactions to test pairs of figures of the same shape and orientation consistently increased approximately linearly as a function of the linear size ratio of the figures. In the second experiment, where this ratio was defined for control pairs as well as for test pairs, reaction time for correct reactions to control pairs showed a similar increase as a function of size ratio. The results suggest that the task was performed by a gradual process of mental size transformation of one of the members of each pair of figures to the format of the other one.

Visual transformation of size

To investigate human visual identification of different-sized objects as identically shaped, matching reaction times were measured for pairs of simultaneously presented random figures. In three experiments, reaction time for correct reactions to test pairs of figures of the same shape and orientation consistently increased approximately linearly as a function of the linear size ratio of the figures. In the second experiment, where this ratio was defined for control pairs as well as for test pairs, reaction time for correct reactions to control pairs showed a similar increase as a function of size ratio. The results suggest that the task was performed by a gradual process of mental size transformation of one of the members of each pair of figures to the format of the other one.