• Corpus ID: 18497731

PINEAL RESPONSE TO LITHIUM1

@article{Devi1982PINEALRT,
  title={PINEAL RESPONSE TO LITHIUM1},
  author={S. Parvathi Devi and A. Venkoba Rao},
  journal={Indian Journal of Psychiatry},
  year={1982},
  volume={24},
  pages={329 - 337}
}

• S. Devi, A. Rao
• Published 1982
• Biology, Medicine
• Indian Journal of Psychiatry

The pineal gland in ma.i is an active endocrine gland throughout life (Wurtman et al., 1964 ; Tapp & Huxley, 1972 ; Cardinali, 1974 ; Reiter et al., 1975 ; Reiter, 1978). It elaborates several hormones with precise rhythmicity. The chronobiological aspects of the mammalian pineal gland have been clearly brought out by Reiler (198!) defining the circadian rhythms in indole metabolism within the pineal of mammals. The two major classes of pineal hormones— pineal indoles (melatonin, serotonin and the tryptophols) and the polypeptides are known to influence several physiological systems including the central nervous system (Cardinali, 1974 and Anton Tay, 1974). The association of pineal gland with behaviour and mental illness can be traced to Alexandrian school of thought (Herophilus c. 300 B.C.). that the pineal is a sphincter which regulates the flow of thought. Descartes (1650) located the soul, the origin of all thought in the pineal gland (quoted in Hunter and Macalpine, 1963). The first recorded post mortem at Bethletn Hospital by Thomas Allen in 1976 revealed that the pineal gland was "turned into a bladder of water" (Hunter and Macalpine, 1963). King (1686) observed that a mentally deranged patient, had a petrified pineal. Gunz (1753) suggested that concretions of pineal might be the cause of mania. This was supported by Morgagni (1769) and Arnold (1786). Assertions of a link between the pineal and insanity continued to appear in the eighteenth century until Crowther demonstrated from his autopsy studies that pineal calcification had nothing to do with mental derangement. Interest in the pineal gland lay dormant and the gland was relegated to be a vestigeal organ until the endocrine nature of the gland was suggested following descriptions of pineal tumours associated with precocious puberty (Kitay, 1954). The idea of a special relation of pineal gland to mind was revived in reports of experiments with pineal extracts in the treatment of schizophrenia (Becker, 1920 ; Eldered et al., 196U; Kitay & Altschule, 1954). The isolation and characterisation of the pineal hormone melatonin was a turning point in pineal research (Lerner et al., 1958). Since then the pineal gland has been a focus of intense scientific enquiry revealing it to be an endocrine gland capable of affecting brain and behaviour. Among the early observations on the influence of pineal gland on the brain are these of Quay (1965) on the inability of pinealectomised rats to maintain their cerebral potassium content. A slowing of brain maturation, particularly myelination was reported after pinealcetomy in animals (Relkin et al., 1973 ; Relkin & Schneck, 1975). Pinealectomy is accompanied by a general increase in neural excitability (Nir et al., 1969) and in stimulus-induced hippocampal potentials with convulsive patterns (Bindoni and Rizzo, 1965). Frank convulsions have been noted after pinealectomy in previously thyroparathyroidectomised ani-