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Sep. 13th, 2007 08:07 amPicked up from ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
dsgood's roundup of science headlines:
Public Release: 12-Sep-2007
Bipolar Disorders
Manic phase of bipolar disorder benefits from breast cancer medication
The manic phase of bipolar disorder favors destructive behaviors. Stemming it quickly is important. Tamoxifen's effects were dramatic -- 63 percent of patients responded vs. 13 percent on placebo -- and it kicked in faster than many current medications. Tamoxifen skips some of current drugs' biochemical steps and acts directly on the enzyme protein-kinase C, giving scientists a more direct target at which to aim new medications in their search for faster-acting treatments.
NIH/National Institute of Mental Health
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2007-09/niom-mpo090407.php
This is an early trial looking into improving the (currently several days) response time for drugs that halt an in-progress manic episode, and it's going to be quite a while before this turns into a general treatment, if it ever does. But a heads-up anyway, given that there's more than one person on my flist with an interest in this.
dsgood's roundup of science headlines:Public Release: 12-Sep-2007
Bipolar Disorders
Manic phase of bipolar disorder benefits from breast cancer medication
The manic phase of bipolar disorder favors destructive behaviors. Stemming it quickly is important. Tamoxifen's effects were dramatic -- 63 percent of patients responded vs. 13 percent on placebo -- and it kicked in faster than many current medications. Tamoxifen skips some of current drugs' biochemical steps and acts directly on the enzyme protein-kinase C, giving scientists a more direct target at which to aim new medications in their search for faster-acting treatments.
NIH/National Institute of Mental Health
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2007-09/niom-mpo090407.php
This is an early trial looking into improving the (currently several days) response time for drugs that halt an in-progress manic episode, and it's going to be quite a while before this turns into a general treatment, if it ever does. But a heads-up anyway, given that there's more than one person on my flist with an interest in this.