Transplant drugs have side effects
HOUSTON (UPI) — A nurse handed a heart transplant patient a toothbrush. He didn't know what to do with it.
She brought his dinner. He didn't eat. He didn't recognize his wife. In fact, when he looked in the mirror, he didn't even recognize himself.
A few hours earlier the patient was alert and responsive. He was on the way to recovery, but his body started rejecting his heart.
Doctors increased the dosage of antirejection drugs tenfold and a sudden transition took place. His face became expressionless, like a mask, and he ceased to function normally.
to function normally.
The nurse had to put the toothbrush in his hand and move his hand to his mouth. She had to feed him.
Mar. 16 1970 KANSAN 13
The dose of cortisone-like drugs caused the unusual behavior, according to Drs. Irvin A. Kraft and H. Barry Molish of the Baylor College of Medicine. Others reacted strangely in different ways, they said.
They have studied 14 of the 20 transplant patients of Dr. Denton A. Cooley since September 1968 and found the patients suffered from delusions of grandeur, mental deficiency, elation and depression.
Kraft said he also found the patients worried about receiving the heart of a "hard hearted" person or the heart of a woman, but these were not connected with the unusual reactions from the drugs.
The change in attitudes caused by the drugs was temporary and disappeared after the dosage was cut to a low level or was eliminated.
"One patient was grandiose," Kraft said. "He saw himself as going to build a big institution in his home state and call it Cooley Hospital, but these ideas diminished as the medicine was diminished."
Kraft, a psychiatrist, said the I.Q. of one patient was 72 during periods of heavy dosage, but rose to more than 100 other times.
"This man's I.Q. never was measured before the transplant so we don't know what was normal," Kraft said.
"There are very swift mood changes," he said. "A patient will be talking and break into tears where there's no sad situation.
Some have become euphoric."
One was so disoriented that he was found wandering near a shopping center about five miles from the hospital at 2 a.m. one day. The patient, who was allowed to leave the hospital for short periods at this stage of convalescence, said he was mailing a letter.
The antirejection drugs used by Cooley's team have been cortisone and prednisolone, which is five times more powerful than cortisone, according to Dr. Robert Leachman, chief cardiologist on Cooley's transplant team.
These drugs have been causing changes in behavioral patterns in patients since they have been used, but they seldom have been given in large doses as in the transplants.
During the first critical hours
after the transplant, adults received the equivalent of more than 3,000 milograms of cortisone, Leachman said. When used for treatment of arthritis or colitis, the most intense dose normally is 150 milograms a day, Leachman said.
VOTE!!
Mike Helbert Dan Evans
For Junior Class President and Vice President
THE FOLLOWING ARE A FEW OF THE PEOPLE WHO HAVE PLEDGED THEIR SUPPORT TO THE CANDIDACY OF MIKE HELBERT AND DAN EVANS.
Steve English
Bert Gagnon
Sally Brown
Linda Pemberton
Scott Taylor
Russ Ritchel
Mike Roberts
Gary Harben
Ron Michaelsen
Doug De Tray
Dennis Long
Tom Low
Jim Ashton
Chris Hoffman
Art Valentine
Keith Rupert
Tina Borak
Llyle Stout
Diane Lonergan
Benna Henderson
Leslie Peet
George Davidson
Don Weiser
Kathee Hanny
Susan Borgstadt
Peggy Larkin
Melissa Godfrey
Jan Mactier
Dianna Sperber
Ellen Ruff
Claudia Brown
Mary Roenig
Cheryl Rousey
Sandy Myers
Steve Glover
Gretchen Whittake
Scott Manion
Tom Shea
Mike Mulvanon
Cheryl Umphrey
Jorgen Brockman
Sue Dalrymple
Larry White
John Payne
John Campbell
Scott Hendrick
Stan Reese
Bob Rahmeier
Cheri Hill
Mary Gans
Sam Bledsoe
Mike Adams
Jerry Piper
Kenny Cohen
Larry Walter
Scott Schoffner
Steve Morris
Mark Hupe
Gene Mohr
Blaise Plummen
Greg Wilson
Dave Brubaker
Bob Brookens
Dan Wheeler
Brent Eilts
Phil Walsh
Chet Davis
Greg Tharp
Justin T. Hunt
Greg Hotchkiss
Alan Teet
Bob Predmore
John Mize
Jeny Slaughter
Jennifer Gille
Stephen C. Evans
Ward Tanner
Joe Scheller
Phil Gibson
Paul Dewey
Lynn Diller
F. Stank
Tod. E. Queen
John Dobbins
Steve Tippin
Greg Harp
Mike Barhydte
Ed Dallaw
Chuck Schmidt
Jay Patterson
Dick Hertel
Dave Boles
Caroline Cochener
Jamie Griffen
Keith Wealy
Becky Johns
John Schwartz
William Axcell
John Hackney
Dave Steen
PAID FOR BY STUDENTS FOR HELBERT AND EVANS.