THE TROUBLE OF THE
CONCENTRATION, AND STOP STUDYING
IN THREE UNIVERSITY
STUDENTS.
RELIEF AFTER ANTISTRESS
DRUG THERAPY .
Renato COCCHI, neurologist and medical
psychologist.
(Four other texts on this topic)
Summary.
The troubles of the concentration were
the cause of stop studying in 3 university students, with normal or bright
intellectual abilities. This trouble features intrusive thinking, that prevents
the concentration and the long-term memory storage by inhibiting the transfer
of information over the short-term memory store. Three typical cases of
university students were reported , when an individually adjusted antistress
drug therapy allowed the restart of studying and the resumption of the ability
to do examinations.
Key words: Stop studying, concentration,
intrusive thinking, stress, university students, drug therapy, resumption of
studying.
Dropping .
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In a preceding paper (Cocchi, 1994 /
Droping1-it.htm ) I reported four cases of the studies stopping in high school
and university students, with resumption of studying following drug therapy
mainly acting on stress reactions.
Lately occurred, nearly in the same time,
other three similar cases of this fact in three university students. So I
wanted to do here a new report because, as it seems me, there are some curious
constants, and because the resumption of studying came out in a relatively
short time with good or best results.
Still a time the cause of stopping studying
is has to due to learning difficulties in persons who in pass had shown good or
excellent studying skills. In all three cases there was a severe trouble of the
concentration, related to the presence of an intrusive, parasitic, fluctuating
thinking, not focused on a particular content.
Three cases.
Case 1. F. of 21 years at the first consultation. Enrolled in jurisprudence,
after she completed a commercial high school with a juridical address, with
final note of 85/100. In the last 18 months she did four university
examinations with much difficulty, and she is stopping since over a year. She
complains for her head as blocked by thoughts that hinder her concentration.
So, she doesn't have any desire of studying, and she is feeling discouraged,
depressed, without any willingness to go out, tired, with easy weeping. She is
taking the pill, which, among others, regulated her a usually long menstrual
cycle. In her family depressive body reactions were reported. There are also
persecution ideas, even towards her university professors.
Her affective life does not satisfy her.
Born from a prolonged delivery, the first year of life she was eating a few and
cried much, for no apparent reason. As a child she was jealous of the younger
sister.
Symptoms of inability to maintain the left
hemispheric dominance: They say that she is The Contrary Mary. She answered
White to the test: Say me the opposite of the colour Red. She remembers that
some dyslalic words occurred, and the losing of the speech thread, because she
has memory problems in the lexical choice. Often she has dreams with negative
content.
Stress symptoms: She usually suffers from
the cold, looks for chocolate, likes meat broth, does better to the mornings,
sleeps much, bears badly noise and confusion, has atonic constipation, colic
ache, dizziness, dry hairs. She has drooling during her sleep.
Starting therapy (daily doses, by the oral
via): Glutamine 125mg; pyridoxine 150mg; carbamazepine 100mg, chlorimipramine
10mg; bromazepan 1mg.
After one month and half, at the first checkup,
she is doing better and has improved the studying ability, for which now she is
studying. She doesn't cry more and she is less tired.
Now, she sleeps better and bears better the
cool. She has still dizziness if does abrupt motion of her head, bears better
noise and confusion, is less constipated, but her bowel function inclines to
diarrhoea. Not more colic ache, not more drooling during the sleep. Her
speaking is more fluid even if some problems of lexical memory persist. Less
anaedonic. The Contrary Mary behaviour decreased.
Therapeutic variation (daily doses, by the
oral via): Glutamine 250mg; carbamazepine 200mg.
At second check up, after 8-months drug
therapy, she says that has given seven examinations within six months. She has
attended regularly the lectures and succeeds to study. She interrupted the drug
taking for a week [probably for a greater period] and had to take back it. Now,
she complains of physical troubles: Fit of dizziness (but not true vertigo),
nausea, eye sockets (which she had always even in past). In the premenstrual
period has melancholy moments and crying. She affirms to be fatten up, because
eats much and her appetite increased. In facts she eats quickly and of all, but
less chocolate. She cannot refrain. Even a little tired she feels much the
weather variations. She needs to sleep more, for which she has to take a nap in
the afternoon. There is not more difficulty in speaking. Affectively, now she
is more carried out, since she has left the boyfriend with whom she was since
some years. Her family appreciates her university activity, and she Improved
the relationship with her mother, which was conflicting. Rarely she shows The
Contrary Mary behaviour.
Therapeutic variation (daily doses, by the
oral via): Glutamine 125 mg; s-adenosil-l-methionine 100mg; pyridoxine 150mg;
carbamazepine 300mg; chlorimipramine 10mg; bromazepan 1.5mg.
Sixteen months after the beginning of the
drug therapy she did ten university examinations. She had a moment of decrease,
six months ago, then she ran resumption. Now she has a new affective link,
which seems to go on positively. She is feeling more in balance, and not more
The Contrary Mary. Her sleeping and feeding are regular, and she doesn't say
more to be fatten up, a fact more suspected than found out. She sleeps a little
even in the afternoon. She has done some bad, violent dreams. Under
examinations, sometimes she has difficulty in the lexical choice. Even a little
depressed. The intrusive thinking reappeared for a short time. The menstrual cycle
is shorter and she feels less suffering.
Therapeutic variation (daily doses, by the
oral via): Methionine stopped, glutamine 250mg; pyridoxine 75mg.
Case 2. F, 34 years old at the first consultation. She is a carrier of the
syndrome of Gilbert and is a university student in law. She refers
concentration difficulty that started about 11 years ago, with the appearance
of intrusive thinking with fluctuating contents. To study for examinations
became much difficult, because the intrusive thoughts prevented her to memorize
what she was reading. So she was forced to read a period even 10-15 times.
Since 18 months she doesn't succeed more to give examinations ( she lacks only
one and the thesis ). Already treated of with poor success by a cousin
neurologist with antidepressant and anxiolytic therapy. A little depressed.
Much dissatisfied her inability to study. Asthenic, she wakes up as tired, and
does better in the afternoon, since 4-5 PM. In the evening she would never go
to bed. Hyperactive, a very religious woman, she was better in mathematics.
Now, she does not stand for the light, the
noise and the confusion.
Menses are retarded, stomachache occurs as
well as tachycardia, and fat hairs.
Symptoms of difficulty to maintain the left
half-brain dominance: She defines herself as The Contrary Mary. When asked, she
answers White to the test: Which is the opposite of Red? Often she does bad
dreams. She needs to count objects without any reason do it.
Stress symptoms: No feelings of dizziness or
faint. She suffers from colic aches and diarrheas, the lump in the throat,
feeling of mediastinum oppression, "nervous" hunger for chocolate; At
night she has drooling and bruxism, for which last she wears a bite. Several
days her face shows eye sockets. She feels the weather changes with
temporal-mandibular tension. Nighttime cramps occur, and hands' sweating.
Starting therapy (daily doses, by the oral
via): Glutamine 125mg; s-adenosil-l-methionine 100mg; pyridoxine 150mg;
carbamazepine 200mg; chlorimipramine 10 mg; bromazepam 0.6mg.
After one-month therapy, she is more
depressed and is crying more. The concentration improved, for which she
succeeds to study better. No more colic aches and diarrheas, no more lump in
the throat, no more mediastinum oppression. Her hairs are fat as first.
Nighttime drooling unchanged and she uses always the bite.
Now more days are with eye sockets, she
suffers the weather changes as first. Less need to count, less nighttime
cramps, less bad dreams. She wakes up less tired, and is going to bed earler.
Now she is ess hyperactive, but stands the noise worse. Less hands sweating,
but more bodily sweating. Less tachycardiac and less stomach ache.
Therapeutic variation (daily doses, by the
oral via): Methionine stopped. Glutamine 250mg; carbamazepine 300mg.
After three months of drug therapy she did
with success her last examination. She is feeling herself as slowly moving,
sexually frustrated, and angry. She is retroactively disturbed from very bad
relationships with priests, who wanted address her to a religious life. The
studying ability and the memory are good, but depression not overcomes.
Therapeutic variation (daily doses, by the oral via): Chlorimipramine stopped;
A compound with 150mg of glycine added; bromazepam 1.2mg; amitriptyline 14mg.
After about five months of drug therapy
taking she graduates with nine points for her thesis. She is still disturbed in
her relationships with the Catholic hierarchy. Now she attends a
Psychosynthesis course. She entered a lawyer's office to practise. In some
moments her concentration is low.
Therapeutic variation (daily doses, by the
oral via): Biotin 2.5 [mg]; a polyvitaminic compound with mineral salts
(Diagran minerale rafforzato) two tablets every week; carbamazepine 400mg.
After a year of drug therapy, her memory is
improved, for which she is using very fewer bookmarks (post-its). She goes on
to attend a lawyer's office to practise, with good success, but her job place
is precarious and she is feeling exploited. A month ago did solve her ambiguous
sentimental situation. Now she eats many sweet things and carbohydrates to take
comfort.
Her Psychosynthesis course ended and she
found it useful. Often she regrets not having discovered this therapeutic
possibility some years ago. She owns a base of retrospective rage for it.
Therapeutic variation (daily doses, by the
oral via): 5-hydroxytriptophan 100 mg.
Case 3: M, 22 years old, a university student of psychology. He doesn't succeed
to do examinations since nearly a year. He suffers from a concentration deficit
and has intrusive thinking.
A person born from delivery to term, dry,
prolonged, with birthweigh of 3300 grams. In the first year of life he ate
normally, slept very much, he did not have easiness to upper respiratory infections,
nor pallor, nor weeping for no reason, normal bowel function.
Hyperactive, if he stops, he has unpleasant
feelings. He bears well light and noise, but not the confusion. His bowel
function is normal. Usually, he sleeps well, and wakes up not tired, but much
drowsy, even during the day, and doesn't have breakfast at once, because not
hungry. Not nighttime cramps, not drooling in the sleep, not bad dreams. Not
need for forced breathing, not temporo-mandibular tension, rare lump in the
throat.
He had diagnosed a sinusal arrhythmia. Not
asthenic, but abulic and often melancholic: he would come to cry. He uses
aggressive words. Potentially timid, even as a child, and he did uneasy to do
friendship. Not persecutory ideas. In the elementary and junior school did
better at arithmetic and mathematics.
Stress symptoms: He does not stand the heat,
looks for sweet things and chocolate, likes much the meat broth, is doing
better to the mornings, sleeps much, bears badly the confusion, which provokes
him even a tinnitus in the left ear and fainting feelings. Fat hairs. Sometimes
affected by dyslalia.
Symptoms of difficulty to maintain the left
half-brain dominance:
He answered Green to the Test: to the test:
Which is the opposite of Red? Many times he has negative feelings, which feels
as extraneous, about persons to whom he is affectionate. Sometimes he has
difficulty to choose.
Starting therapy (daily doses, by the oral
via): Glutamine 62.5mg; s-adenosil-l-methionine 100mg; pyridoxine 150mg;
carbamazepine 200mg; chlorimipramine 10 mg; oxazepam 7.5mg.
Two months after the beginning of the
therapy he is studying better and he did an examination, because his head was
more clear and the concentration improved, the long-term memory improved, as
even the will. The mood is more stable, with a lower tendency to the weeping,
however still aggressive words, less hyperactive.
He never had opposite feelings, and now he
succeeds to appraise more positively situations which left him undecided. He
bears better the confusion, but the tinnitus to the left ear did not stop. No
more feelings to faint and less dyslalias occurred. Drowsiness in the mornings
and during the day does not persist. He has less desire of meat broth, and
hairs less fat, but he goes less in gym. Now he has to drink sparkling orange
drinks (???).
Therapeutic variation (daily doses, by the
oral via): Glutamine 125mg; carbamazepine 300mg; oxazepam 15mg.
Discussion.
The three case histories here reported have
many common features. As first, I remember the concentration deficit and the
stop of studying, which were the reason of the consultation. The stop of
studying varied from one year to one year and half, but the difficulty had
begun even 11 years before, with a progressive impairment and decreasing of the
notes at examination.
All three had clear depressive components,
surely even in part secondary, and troubles of the half-brain dominance, with
two of them defined as The Contrary Mary. The first and the third case had
delivery troubles, the resentment of which, during the first year life, was
different.
Even the stress symptom reported during the
first visits did not fully overlap. So, the prescribed therapy has had to be
adapted, following the symptoms that can supply information on the involved
neurotransmitters, within and outside the CNS, on the substances related to
them, and on their precursors.
As for an example, from here the importance
of the questions on diet: Sweet things for the glucose and broth for glutamate
and glutamine, the one and the others as precursors of the glutamic acid and of
the GABA. In the second case history at first checkup I found an increased
severity of some stress symptoms, probably because an unbalanced regimen for
that person.
The resuming to study was always possible,
in this three students, and it went at the same rate of the decreasing of the
symptoms of stress.
As previously (Cocchi, 1994), I rewrote
here: How widespread is the problem of abandoning studies due to difficulty in
attention and memorization or concentration? I am unable to provide any
reliable figures but, at a conservative estimate, even if the problem affects
only 10% of the 70% of Italian students who do not complete their studies, the
number will be considerable , in the region of more than 17,000 students per
year.
How much does all this cost from an
emotional point of view to the subjects themselves and to their families? What
is the cost in economical terms to the families and to the state?
I do not consider the posing of such
questions to be out of place here.
The phenomenon is too large and has too many
implications under various aspects not to merit the attention which, abroad
too, it has never received
(Four other texts on this topic)
References.
Brunelli M., Traina G.: Meccanismi cellulari
e molecolare della memoria. In: Brunelli M., Macchi G., Gainotti G., eds):
Plasticita' neuronole. Pytagora, Bologna, 1992.
Cocchi R. Problems of attention and concentration leading to interruption of
studying by high school and University students: A report of 4 cases. It. J. Intellect. Impair. 1994, 7: 29-38.
Cocchi R. Scientific college dropouts and
the risk for psychotic outcome: Four male cases. It. J. Intellect. Impair.
1995:, 8: 37-43.
Grafman J., Passafiume D., Faglioni P.,
Boller F.: Calculation disturbances in adults with focal hemispheric damage.
Cortex 1982, 18: 37-50.
Mathies H.: Neurobiological aspects of
learning and memory. Annu. Rev. Psychol. 1989, 40: 381-398.
Squire L.R.: Mechanisms of memory. Science
1986, 232: 1612.
Posted on Internet on July 2003. Copyright by Renato Cocchi, 2003.
Author's address: dr Renato COCCHI, via Rabbeno, 3
42100 Reggio Emilia (Italy).
renatococchi@libero.it
Dropping .
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