The purpose of this paper is to assess how 29 different environmental factors affected Tourette symptomatology in 14 children and adolescents (6.6-14.5 years; mean 10.3) who had never received any medication for their disorder. Assessment was based on patients' responses to the Tourette Syndrome (TS) Questionnaire. Eleven different factors were associated with a decrease in symptoms and included doctor visits, talking to friends, and reading for pleasure. The 10 factors reported to have no impact on Tourette symptomatology included various foods, weather, and living away from home. Seventeen factors associated with an increase in Tourette symptoms included events causing anxiety, emotional trauma, and social gatherings.

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A decrease in specific [3H]spiroperidol binding to rat caudate tissue and a parallel decrease in sensitivity to apomorphine in eliciting stereotyped behavior was observed in the offspring of rat mothers treated with either haloperidol or alpha-methyl-p-tyrosine-methyl ester during pregnancy. In contrast, evidence of increased dopamine-receptor sensitivity was observed in the pups if haloperidol was administered to their mothers postpartum during nursing rather than during pregnancy.

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1. Amyloid plaques found in the brains of Alzheimer's diseased patients are composed of the 42 amino acid beta-amyloid peptide (BAP) which is processed out of the larger amyloid precursor protein (APP). 2. To study the regulation of the APP gene expression, we have isolated the promoter region of this angle of this single-copy gene and produced a reporter gene system to determine if the promoter is responsive to agents that may cause the overproduction of APP leading to the abnormal accumulation of plaques in AD. 3. The promoter contains sequences homologous to heat shock elements, AP-1 binding sites, and phorbol ester-inducible sequences as well as GG-rich regions found in other constitutively expressed genes. 4. We show here that this promoter is inducible in cultured cells by interleukin-1 (IL-1) in a transient assay system and that the HSE and AP-1 binding site are required for this inducibility. 5. This induction of transcription from the APP promoter implies that this gene is responsive to tropic and/or trophic agents which may be present in the diseased brain.