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Drug-Induced and Other Acute Psychoses in an Emergency-Room Setting
Published in Ragy R. Girgis, Gary Brucato, Jeffrey A. Lieberman, Understanding and Caring for People with Schizophrenia, 2020
Ragy R. Girgis, Gary Brucato, Jeffrey A. Lieberman
The next patient was “Liam,” a 45-year-old male with a history of schizophrenia and head trauma following a severe motor vehicle accident. He was sent from his adult group home for bizarre behavior. Although impaired from his chronic, treatment-refractory schizophrenia and comorbid traumatic brain injury, he was generally able to manage independently in this setting. The staff at the group home would supply his daily medications. The group home reported that they had sent Liam to the ER following several days of diminished hygiene, defecation on the floors, and repeatedly exposing himself to other patients. We were also told that he was eating his own feces, the clinical term for which is coprophagia.
Strongyloidiasis
Published in Peter D. Walzer, Robert M. Genta, Parasitic Infections in the Compromised Host, 2020
Robert M. Genta, Peter D. Walzer
Cutaneous penetration of filariform larvae found in contaminated soil is the most common way by which human strongyloidiasis is acquired. The ingestion of infective larvae is not believed to be a common mode of transmission in humans, although coprophagia may play an important role in dogs. In some reported cases, S. stercoralis has been transmitted in unusual manners, such as through renal transplantation (105) or apparently from immersion in a swimming pool (106), but these events represent little more than medical curiosities. Transmammary transmission during breast feeding, a well-documented mode of infection for S. ratti in rodents (107), appears to occur occasionally in human S. fulleborni infections (108) but has not been observed for S. stercoralis.
Neuroscience
Published in Bhaskar Punukollu, Michael Phelan, Anish Unadkat, MRCPsych Part 1 In a Box, 2019
Bhaskar Punukollu, Michael Phelan, Anish Unadkat
Vocal tics: Simple – barking, grunting, snorting, coughing. Complex –echolalia (repeating other peoples phrases), palilalia (repeating other peoples words), coprolalia (using bad language in a repetitive and involuntary manner). Note that coprophagia does not occur.
Coprophagy in nineteenth-century psychiatry
Published in Microbial Ecology in Health and Disease, 2018
On the other hand, the use of excrement as a legitimate therapeutic remedy has returned in modern medicine in the form of faecal microbial transplant for Clostridium difficile infection, at an efficacy rate that far exceeds competing antibiotic remedies [53,54]. It also shows promise as a treatment for persistent Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis [55,56]. When we consider this alongside the recognition that throughout the history of medicine, there have been uses of excrement as a pharmacological remedy for various conditions, it is most certainly worth considering whether institutional forms of coprophagia may be caused by an intuitive self-medicating motivation. It is now known that a wide variety of animals display zoopharmacognosy, or the ability to intuitively self-medicate, either by learnt behaviours in intelligent primates (such as the chimpanzee use of antiparasitic herbs), or through innate adaptive mechanisms and without the need for high intelligence, explaining its occurrence in ants, moths, and fruit flies [57–59]. Some researchers have indeed considered a potential self-medicating explanation for human coprophagia, noting its use by different animals (rabbits, gorillas) to meet nutritional deficiencies such as for the B vitamin thiamine [60]. However, no consistent vitamin or mineral deficiencies have been identified in human excrement-eaters to date. On the other hand, one study found success in reducing coprophagic incidents in a man with profound retardation and autism through the provision of highly spiced foods ad libidum [61].
Reversal of temperature responses to methylone mediated through bi-directional fecal microbiota transplantation between hyperthermic tolerant and naïve rats
Published in Temperature, 2022
Robert Goldsmith, Amal Aburahma, Sudhan Pachhain, Sayantan Roy Choudhury, Vipa Phuntumart, Ray Larsen, Christopher S. Ward, Jon E. Sprague
Male rats were randomly assigned into two groups of six (6) each, the first group being the treatment group and the second serving as the saline controls. On testing day, all subjects were weighed prior to drug challenge, and a core temperature reading was taken with a rectal thermometer at time zero. On treatment days, the ambient temperature averaged 27.4 ± 0.12°C. Following the first temperature measurement each week, the male treatment group received a 10 mg/kg subcutaneous (sc) dose of methylone, and the control group received an equal volume of saline solution. In order to induce tolerance to the methylone-induced hyperthermia, one group of animals were treated with methylone once a week for 4 weeks. This treatment group was referred to as the methylone hyperthermic-tolerant (MHT) group. The second treatment group was treated with saline once a week for 4 weeks. This treatment group was referred to as the methylone-naïve (MN) group [19]. Between weeks 3 and 4, fecal droppings were collected for the FMT from both the MHT and MN groups, with reciprocal transplantations then performed. Therefore, all animals experienced coprophagy under identical circumstances. The first day of FMT was considered day 0 and served as the fecal composition baseline for each group. After 7 days of FMT, the fecal droppings were again collected to determine differences before (day 0) and after (day 7) FMT. Following drug treatment, core temperature readings were recorded at the 30-, 60- and 90-minute time points. This treatment schedule was maintained once a week for a total of four consecutive weeks, until the hyperthermic response of the methylone treatment group was statistically insignificant. Those animals treated weekly for four weeks with methylone were designated as MHT and those that received only saline for four weeks were designated MN. Figure 1 depicts the study design. Rectal temperatures were measured in all animals using a Physiotemp Thermalert TH-8 thermocouple (Physitemp Instruments, Clifton, NJ) attached to a RET-2 (rat) rectal probe coated with white petrolatum prior to insertion. RET-2 probes were inserted 5 cm into the rectum, where they remained for at least fifteen seconds, until a stable temperature was obtained.