Lilly schizophrenia drug has risk of deep sedation

Update to those who are psycho serious about psychopharmacology.


Lilly schizophrenia drug has risk of deep sedation
by Jennifer Corbett Dooren

Washington- the U.S. Food and Drug administration said yesterday that a long-acting, injectable form of Eli Lilly & Co.'s top-selling drug Zypreexa was effective at treating schizophrenia, but caused "profound sedation" in certain patients.

A memo written by Thomas Laughren, the FDA's psychiatry products division director, and posted on the agency's Web site yesterday, said clinical studies of the drug showed 24 out of 1915 patients exposed to the long-acting form of Zyprexa suffered from profound sedation after receiving the injection. The FDA said the sedation typically lasted about one to three hours.

The long-acting form of Zyprexa faces a review by an FDA panel of outside medical experts tomorrow. The panel will be asked if that form of Zyprexa has been shown to be "acceptably safe" and effective for the treatment of schizophrenia. The panel's decision will amount to a recommendation about whether the FDA should approve the product. The FDA usually follows its panel's advice but isn't required to.

Zyprexia is currently approved as an oral, once-daily medication to ttreat schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. The drug had $4.8 billion in sales last year. There is also a short-acting injectable form of Zyprexa that is used to treat agitated, noncooperative patients with schizophrenia or bipolar mania, usually in an emergency setting.

Lilly is seeking FDA approval of the long-acting form of Zyprexa for the treatment of schizophrenia, which could be injected every two or four weeks. The product would be administered in a doctor's office.

Schizophrenia is a severe, disabling brain disorder that affects the way people think and afflicts about 1% of Americans. According to the National Institute of Mental Health, people with schizophrenia may hear voices other people don't hear of they may believe that others are reading their minds, controlling their thoughts or plotting to harm them. The disorder is typically diagnosed in a person's latge teens or 20s.

The FDA said the panel also will be asked to make recommendations about whether long-acting Zyprexa should carry a "blackbox" warning- the FDA's toughest drug precaution, which appears at the top of a product's label- or if the agency should consider approving the product for so called second line use after other drugs fail.

In documents also posted on the FDA's web site, Lilly said schizophrenia is a "chronic and devastating mental illness" and noted that "nonadherence with medication is common." The company said the injectable form of Zyprexa gives patients another treatment option.

Lilly said it believes the profound sedation associated with the long acting, injectable form of Zyprexa can be safely managed and said patients and health-care providers can be adequately warned of the risk.

The FDA said the sedation seen witht he long-acting form of Zyprexa appears unique to the injectable form of the drug and likely results from the rapid release of the drug into a patient's body after being injected.


source: The Wall Street Journal, Feb. 5, 2008 p. 6

Norepinephrine

There is this interesting article i read. It is about the brain chemical that makes bad memories stay. Here is the copy of the article.

We bank on our memory to help us recall things in our daily lives. We welcome good memories, but bad memories are just sometimes here to stay no matter how much we want to forget them. A group of scientists may hold the answer to this mystery.

Researchers theorized that stress hormone called Norepinephrine aids in the release of a chemical receptor in the brain called GluR1. This helps the brain to make memories easier, allowing the brain to remember what happened to avoid a certain stressful event from recurring.

Hailan Hu, PhD and Roberto Manilow, MD,PhD, from the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory in New York, tested this theory in mice. They injected a group of mice with epinephrine (which boosts norephinephrine), and another group with salt water (which does not affect norepinephrine).

On the first day of the test, the mice were put in a cafe and were allowed to explore for awhile. The next day, the mice got a mild electrical shock as soon as they were placed in the same cage. Scientists then videotaped the mice on the last day of the experiment to see which group of mice stood still longer after being put back in the cage. The epinephrine group was shown to have stood still longer compared to the salt water group. The scientists took that as a sign of "fear-based learning".

Additional tests found that GluR1 played a crucial role in that experiment. Although scientists believe that other chemical chain reactions in the brain may have also been involved. STudy results were purblished in the journal Cell.


Source: Health & Lifestyle, adding life to living. (nov-dec. 2007, p8)

painful+memories=forget

Learn to Forget:
How the mind blocks painful memories
by IAN SAMPLE


Brain scans showing how the mind buries painful memories could lead to revolutionary therapies for emotional problems such as anxiety, depression and post-traumatic stress disorder, psychologists said.

The ability to suppress memories has long been a controversial issue in psychology, but researchers at the University of Colorado found that with practice, volunteers could learn to forget, a skill they used to block out images that were chosen to cause them distress.

Scans of the volunteers' brains revealed that key neural circuits switched on when their minds were trying to banish painful memories, giving scientists a new level of understanding into how the brain works, and raising hopes that it may be possible to design drugs to help troublesome memories fade away.

"We think we now have a grasp of the neural mechanisms at work, and hope the new findings and future research will lead to new therapeutic and pharmacological approaches to treating a variety of emotional disorders." said Brendan Depue, lead schientist on the study at he University of Colorado at Boulder.

Volunteers were asked to memorise 40 different pairs of pictures.

Each pair consisted of an emotionally neutral human face linked to a disturbing image, such as a car crash, an injured person or an electric chair.

The participants were then placed in a magnetic resonance imaging brain scanner and shown only the facial images.

THE COST OF PERFECTION

I've read this interesting article. Hope to share it with you.....


Do you see issues in black and white or shades of gray? The way you handle conflict at work colors not only your feelings about your job, but also your health.

People who think in rigid, evaluative "absolutist" (AB) terms--like perfectionists and control freaks--are more susceptible to emotional and physical problems than those who are open-minded and flexible, or "non-absolutist", says Alistair Ostell, lecturer in psychology at the University of Bradford ManagementCenter in England.

AB thinkers get upset if things don't go their way, which impedes their problem-solving and coping skilss, he explains. This may translate into health complications such as insomnia, heart palpitations, chronic fatigue and high blood pressure. Also, says Ostell, "when people are angry, they increase secretion of the (stress) hormone cortisol, which tends to suppress the immune system, making them vulnerable to infection."

In Ostell's study, published in the British Journal of Medical Psychology,British "headteachers", or school principals, deemed non-absolutist were in better health, were less stressed and enjoyed their jobs more than absolutist principals. Though the study took place in the classroom, Ostell warns that AB thinking occurs across jobs and personality types.

People with AB attitude may find it hard to change their mind-set, says Ostell. But he suggests they consider the link between their attitude and its ill effects--and then try to go with the flow whenever possible.


Source: Psychology Today, Feb. 2000 (p.16)

Just a dream...

This Psycho is no expert in dream analysis but somehow was able to make a sense out of an interesting dream last night.

…A wild beast stood firm and solid in front of our house. He has the body of a robust bear while carrying the angular head of a wolf. His eyes were sharp and dark, enough to pierce through the wall that separates me from him. His jaw was wide with pointed fangs hanged at each side with saliva trickling down. As I watched him across the window I see his eyes fixed at mine, he was staring at me. My brothers finally said “we can’t stay here forever, we got to do something”. They started culling up household items which will serve as their makeshift weapons. Brooms became spears and the wok became a shield. Somehow, I felt that he knew what was going on inside yet he did not flinch and not once did his eyes move. The boys of the house, fortified with shabby armature, marched forward to meet him. The gates flung open and so they went.

The beast waited… still not moving. My brothers and my father encircled him and tried to provoke him. They threw their spears in the air, making poking gestures. The beast, for the first time, moved. He snarled with clenched teeth. He was in an attack position this time and all his claws were visible. He jumped to hit my brother but fortunately my brother was able to dodge it. This continued on for a while, neither party was making a major move. Then the beast decided to run away. Aahhhh…. I was able to sigh in relief. My mother told me she is going out to check on the others and told me to lock all the doors and windows. I did what she told me. I went to the front lawn and closed the main gate. I went inside the house and left the door ajar and as I turned around the beast was there waiting for me. He was panting but his eyes were glaring ready to devour……………………………………………………………………. That was the last image of my dream. I woke up. My heart was beating fast but a smile was registered in my face.

This dream seems like the one you see on movies. I am not entirely sure if it is a reconstructed scene of a past encounter but something tells me it is my unconscious speaking. My unconscious is telling me something through my dreams. Yes, do you know that our dreams say a lot about what is inside our minds??? This belief has been espoused by numerous luminaries –psychologist and scientists alike—. Freud himself was one. In fact he said “the royal road to unconscious is through dreams”. So, really, next time you dream, try to uncover the message. Oh… about my dream?? Before I tell you my interpretation, why don’t you try to analyze it and let’s see if you can indeed interpret dreams.

TEASE YOUR MIND!!!

This one is a classic, people, check it out.

Look at the words below and say the COLOR of the word, not the word itself.

yellow blue orange black
red green purple blue
orange yellow green
blue red purple black

did you blow your mind?? so what is the deal? Scientists claim that the right half of your brain is trying to say the color, while the left side of your brain is trying to say the word.


What is the real deal between the bipolar functioning?? what do you think? why is that so?? lets study it in the future. :) in the meantime, try doing it again.

MUST READ!

HEY! someone send this to my email. i found it interesting and compelling.... just wanna share it to ya guys!

I cdnulolt blveiee taht I cluod aulaclty uesdnatnrd waht I was radgnieg. The phaonmneal pweor of the hmuan mnid Aoccdrnig to a rseearch at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it deosn't mttaer in waht oredr the ltteers in a wrod are, the olny iprmoatnt tihng is taht the frist and lsat ltteer be in the rghit pclae. The rset can be a taotl mses and you can sitll raed it wouthit a porbelm. Tihs is bcuseae the huamn mnid deos not raed ervey lteter by istlef, but the wrod as a wlohe. Amzanig huh? Yaeh and i awlyas thought slpeling was ipmorant!

yes! the power of the human mind.

YES! i'm a psycho but i can't read minds.

Not long ago, when I half-heartedly decided I want to study the human mind, people close to me thought I was a complete nutcase. “Just what would you do after you master the discipline?” was the common question. “Uhm….. I dunno!” was all I can offer. It just seemed like in today’s technology driven world, studying the human mind is as obsolete as the cellphone prototype a.k.a 5110. Another common concern was that people who study the minds ended up losing their own mind (which is slowly becoming a reality to me). But despite their admonitions, my heart or shall I say my stubbornness prevailed. I signed up for the course anyway.

The journey studying the lessons on the human mind was a struggle –sleepless nights and lightless days contemplating matters of the mind—but there were joys as well. The biggest struggle, however, in my case, was getting introduced to people. You see, introduction does not just end with names. People usually expect a brief explanation or description of what you do in life and there lies my dilemma. To better illustrate I cut a snippet of how a usual conversation is for me:

A: Hello! I’m A. How are you?
ME: Hi. I’m good, thank you. How are you?
A: Great! What’s your name?
ME: Phaelun…..
A: So what do you do? I’m an Entrepreneur, it has been my passion ever since. So
what do you do?
ME: uh… I’m a psycho(A cuts in)….
A: (cuts in) oh wow! You’re a psycho, you read minds!
ME: yeah… but I don’t read minds.
B: hello.
A: B! This is phaelun. Phaelun’s a psycho.
ME: Hi. I’m a psycho(B cuts in)….
B: Psycho. Cool, can you read minds? I’m B. read mine.
A: yeah read B’s mind!
ME: uh…. Actually, I don’t read minds…. I can’t just read minds.
B: Just try!
A: Try!
ME: uh…I can form impressions from observation or interviews so I need more
information and time to get to know you.
B: Just try!
A: Just try!
ME: okay. I think A you are a business savvy person.
A: Duh! I already told you I’m an entrepreneur. Try other. Try B. Read B’s mind!
B: Quick. Read my mind. What am I thinking right now?
ME: (kind of pissed) okay. I trying to read your mind but I’m afraid you don’t
have a mind for me to read….
B:……….
A:………
B: let’s get out of here. I knew it, Psychos cannot read minds!

Yes! Psychos cannot read minds! Mind reading is the kind of work a Psychic does… not Psychos. Since I have already been reduced to a “psycho” might as well introduce me the right way. Okay! I’m a psycho but I can’t read minds. Psychic read minds. Psychologist analyzes human behavior. Psycho… well a psycho ….writes a blog about being a psycho!