Studies of somatostatin and cortisol in relation to affective and other neuropsychiatric disorders have continued. Additionally, further studies of the mechanisms of interleukin-2-induced neurotoxicity have been performed in rodents. A) Somatostatin - CSF somatostatin has been measured in an expanded group of neuropsychiatric patients including patients with multiple sclerosis and neurological controls, patients with alcoholism, pathological gambling, and Huntington's dementia. Significant correlations were observed between somatostatin and performance on the Weschsler Memory Scale, supporting our earlier observations (and perhaps the clinical relevance) of decreased somatostatin levels in patients with neuropsychiatric disorders characterized by cognitive impairment. Studies of the regional concentrations of brain somatostatin in post-mortem schizophrenics, suicide victims, and accident victims have been completed with the sample code not yet broken. B) Cortisol - A salivary cortisol method, developed and validated in our laboratory, has been used to longitudinally follow patients with affective and anxiety disorders. This method shows great promise for studies of ambulatory patients with affective disorder. B) Interleukin-2 - No changes in blood-brain-barrier permeability were observed in rats treated with interleukin-2, irrespective of the size of the tracer employed. These findings contradict previous reports and leave unresolved the mechanism of lymphokine-induced neurotoxicity.
