Phobia

Phobia, intense and persistent fear of a specific object, situation, or activity. Because of this intense and persistent fear, the phobic person often leads a constricted life. The anxiety is typically out of proportion to the real situation, and the victim is fully aware that the fear is irrational.

Behavioral techniques have proved successful in treating phobias, especially simple and social phobias. One technique, systematic desensitization, involves gradually confronting the phobic person with situations or objects that are increasingly close to the feared ones. Exposure therapy, another behavioral method, has recently been shown more effective. In this technique, phobics are repeatedly exposed to the feared situation or object so that they can see that no harm befalls them; the fear gradually fades. Antianxiety drugs have also been used as palliatives. Antidepressant drugs have also proved successful in treating some phobias.

Phenytoin

Phenytoin or Dilantin, drug used to treat the seizures, or violent muscle contractions, caused by epilepsy. The drug can also control seizures associated with surgery of the brain or spinal cord. Phenytoin influences the movement of sodium along nerve fibers, preventing or minimizing the abnormal electrical impulses that cause seizures.

Phenytoin is available by prescription in tablet, capsule, and liquid form. Taken orally, except for one liquid form made for injection, the drug is usually prescribed in 100-mg doses taken once a day. The maximum recommended daily dosage is 600 mg. To avoid stomach irritation, oral phenytoin should be taken with food. The drug’s effectiveness is usually apparent after two to three weeks of treatment.

Patients with impaired liver function, diabetes, or heart disease should use this drug with caution. Although long-term use of phenytoin is common, it may be associated with the development of cancers in the lymphatic system or the bone marrow (leukemia). Pregnant women or those nursing an infant should not take this drug. Children who take it should be monitored with particular care.

Possible side effects include decreased coordination, mental confusion, or slurred speech. Other observed side effects include nausea, headache, fever, dizziness, twitching, involuntary eye movement, joint pain, insomnia, impotence, bedwetting, abnormal hair growth, skin rash, or change in urine color. An overdose of phenytoin can be fatal. Abruptly stopping treatment can cause uninterrupted seizures that may also be fatal.

Phenytoin may interact adversely with a variety of medications. These include, but are not limited to, aspirin, certain tranquilizers, steroids, blood thinners, ulcer medications, oral contraceptives, estrogens, and antacids. Also included are the drugs felbamate, furosemide, methylphenidate, phenobarbital, carbamazepine, diazepam, doxycycline, sodium valproate, theophylline, and valproic acid. Users of phenytoin should not drink alcoholic beverages.

Brand Name:Dilantin

Pelvic Inflammatory Disease

Pelvic Inflammatory Disease (PID), bacterial infection of the upper female genital tract, including the uterus, fallopian tubes, and ovaries. PID can be caused by several different aerobic (oxygen-requiring) and anaerobic (non-oxygen-requiring) bacteria. The two most important such bacteria are Neisseria gonorrhoeae, the bacterium that causes gonorrhea, and Chlamydia trachomatis, the bacterium that causes chlamydia. These bacteria are usually transmitted through sexual intercourse with an infected partner.

The usual symptoms of acute PID are fever, chills, lower abdominal and pelvic pain, and vaginal discharge or bleeding. These symptoms often begin a few days after the start of a menstrual period, particularly when Neisseria gonorrhoeae is the cause of infection. Infections due to Chlamydia trachomatis usually progress more slowly than those caused by Neisseria gonorrhoeae. On physical examination by a doctor, the uterus, ovaries, and fallopian tubes of the infected person are usually tender. In severe cases, an abscess may be present in the pelvis. Complications from PID occur in one out of four infected women and include tuboovarian abscess, Fitz-Hugh-Curtis syndrome (inflammation surrounding the liver), chronic pelvic pain, and occasionally death. In addition, PID is the single most important risk factor for ectopic pregnancy.and one of the most common causes of female infertility.

Antibiotic therapy is the usual treatment for PID. Most women take oral antibiotics such as intramuscular ceftriaxone, and oral doxycycline and metronidazole for a period of 10 to 14 days, after which they are cured. Women who are severely ill are usually treated with intravenous antibiotic therapy in the hospital. A woman's sexual partner should also be treated with antibiotics.

Paralysis

Paralysis, loss of voluntary movement in a part of the human body, caused by disease or injury anywhere along the motor-nerve path from the brain to the muscle fiber. Paralysis may result from injury, poisoning, infection, hemorrhage, occluded blood vessels, or tumors. Occasionally paralysis is due to congenital deficiency in motor-nerve development. Permanent paralysis results from extensive damage to nerve cells or to a nerve trunk; severely damaged nerve cells cannot regenerate. Transient or incomplete paralysis, called paresis, is often caused by infections, trauma, or poisons that temporarily suppress motor activity but do not extensively damage nerve cells.

Because most of the motor nerves from either half of the brain supply the opposite side of the body, lesions in one part of the brain usually produce paralyses in the opposite half of the body. Paralysis of one limb is known as monoplegia; paralysis of two limbs on the same side of the body as hemiplegia; paralysis of both lower limbs as paraplegia or diplegia; and paralysis of all four limbs as quadriplegia or tetraplegia. Paralysis originating in the brain may sometimes be flaccid, that is, the affected muscles may be loose, weak, flabby, and without normal reflexes. More frequently it is spastic, that is, the affected muscles are rigid and the reflexes accentuated. Paralysis originating in a motor nerve of the spinal cord is always spastic; paralysis originating in peripheral nerves or thin ganglion cells is always flaccid.

Among well-known paralytic conditions are poliomyelitis (previously known as infantile paralysis), cerebral palsy, and multiple sclerosis. Bell's palsy is a common facial paralysis, generally temporary and produced by such conditions as neuritis or infection. Locomotor ataxia is a paralytic condition caused by infestation of the spinal cord and brain with microorganisms that cause syphilis. Alcoholic paralysis is caused by degeneration of nerve cells, in the spinal cord or, less often, in the brain, which have been deprived of essential nutrients.

Temporary paralyses are treated by removing the underlying cause. Permanent paralyses may be ameliorated by appropriate physical therapy and rehabilitation procedures.

Panic Disorder

Panic Disorder, mental illness in which a person experiences repeated, unexpected panic attacks and persistent anxiety about the possibility that the panic attacks will recur. A panic attack is a period of intense fear, apprehension, or discomfort. In panic disorder, the attacks usually occur without warning. Symptoms include a racing heart, shortness of breath, trembling, choking or smothering sensations, and fears of “going crazy,” losing control, or dying from a heart attack. Panic attacks may last from a few seconds to several hours. Most peak within 10 minutes and end within 20 or 30 minutes.