Other Postmortem Studies rabbits,
rats, monkeys, guinea pigs
•
•1958 – 1975
•
•all showed damage to
•cortex, subcortex, and
•brainstem following
•brief (2 wks) or chronic
•exposure (up to 1 yr)
Recall that one of
the key features of Alzheimer’s disease and other diseases which cause
dementia is the death and disintegration of brain cells.
The purpose of this
slide is to call attention to the existence of more than a dozen early
experiments in lab animals which were performed between the late 1950s and
1975.Common to all of these
investigations of drug effects were the discoveries that brief (2 week) and
extended (up to 1 year) exposures to the first-generation antipsychotics
resulted in diffuse damage throughout the brain.
Regrettably,
textbooks of medicine and medical training programs have excluded this
legacy.For professionals and
laypersons who are interested in this well concealed history, the
publications of the Austrian neuropathologist, Dr. Kurt Jellinger, are
invaluable.
