Posted by schleprock on December 6, 2012, at 21:25:31
In reply to Re: Something on CBS news about depression... » schleprock, posted by Phillipa on December 6, 2012, at 18:31:16
First they interviewed a 50 something year old man who'd been suffering from depression since his 20s who had once attempted suicide. He was a bit chubby, and I couldn't help noticing that he had very bad teeth. They had a shot of him pushing around an old fashioned lawnmower. He mentioned that most of his medications fizzle out every three years.
They mentioned that antidepressants haven't really changed over the past 25 years, but there was a new class in development that targeted "glutamate" (that is produced by 80% of brain cells???) as opposed to serotonin (only produced by 30% of brain cells - something like that, I just recall something about "glutamate" outnumbering serotonin.) Something about an accidental discovery, and that early versions of the drug produced side-effects similar to schizophrenia; but someone just concocted a version without those side effects. They also mentioned that it would only take a couple of days for the drug to take effect.
Then something about trials being currently underway, and that even with FDA approval release of the drug would still be around 5 years away.
poster:schleprock
thread:1032569
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20121130/msgs/1032587.html