Posted on 09/02/2007 8:40:47 PM PDT by neverdem
In a clinical trial of about 200 patients, an experimental drug from Eli Lilly reduced schizophrenia symptoms without the serious side effects of current treatments, according to a paper published yesterday in the journal Nature.
The drug must still be evaluated on many more patients to test for the possibility of side effects that have not yet emerged, and it is at least three to four years from completing regulatory review.
But schizophrenia researchers said the trial’s results were surprising and impressive, especially since the drug works in a different way from existing antipsychotic medicines, all of which have serious side effects, including substantial weight gain and tremors.
Lilly will begin a larger clinical trial for the drug this month. If that trial confirms the results seen so far, the new drug could mark a breakthrough in the treatment of schizophrenia — and open the way to a broad new class of treatments for the disease. Schizophrenia, a devastating mental illness that affects 1 percent of adults, or about 2.5 million in the United States, usually begins in the late teens or 20s and is marked by psychotic delusions as well as social withdrawal and cognitive impairment.
“This is potentially one giant step forward for patients,” said Dr. Jeffrey Lieberman, chairman of the psychiatry department at Columbia and the lead investigator on a federally sponsored clinical trial of schizophrenia medicines. “This drug may turn out to be not just a comparably good antipsychotic agent, but a better antipsychotic agent.”
Dr. Lieberman has not been involved with the development of the medicine and does not receive any payments or consulting fees from Lilly.
The new drug also has the potential to be a blockbuster for Lilly. Medicines for schizophrenia and bipolar disorder are the fourth-best selling class of medicines in the...
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
I am me, no, wait, I am you, no, wait, I’m the other guy, no, wait..
I am both for and against this drug!
I am both for and against this drug!
Roses are red, violets are blue, I’m schizophrenic and so am I
“Roses are red, violets are blue, I’m schizophrenic and so am I”
If you were ... your family and all who love you and suffer with you would be hoping and praying that this med would some day be successful in your treatment.
The voices approve.........
Finally, there's a sane comment. Thank you. You also appear to understand this has nothing to do with a split personality disorder.
Yes, I’m sure they would. If your point is that one old pithy cliched schizophrenia “poem” shows a lack of sensitivity on my part, then you don’t know me very well.
Nothing to do with multiple personality disorder.
Nothing to do with schizoid personality either, which is nothing to do with “split personality”.
Astronomers puzzled by cosmic black hole (patches in the universe where nobody's home)
FReepmail me if you want on or off my health and science ping list.
Good response.
One of the long term side effects of antipsychotic meds is called tardive dyskinesia, often worse than the psychosis itself.
http://www.nami.org/Content/ContentGroups/Helpline1/Tardive_Dyskinesia.htm
FYI: The old “label” of split personalities is now “labeled” as DISSOCIATIVE DISORDER” and is a psychosis.
http://www.nami.org/Content/ContentGroups/Helpline1/Dissociative_Disorders.htm
“So, do you thing God judges us on our actions or what’s in our hearts?”
“I think our actions show what’s in our hearts.”
Does that also mean that folks with traumatic brain injuries (TBI) whose acts may not always be “god-approved” are doomed?
So many people have no idea what schizophrenia is and make stupid jokes. It really makes me mad. I wonder if these people also laugh at physically disabled individuals.
I’m not going to pass judgement on the state of anyone’s salvation other than mine.
I believe mental illness and/or injury is/can be an extenuating circumstance though.
That said, I doubt the person I responded to made his posting due to any type of head injury.
I’ve worked with developmentally disabled an metally ill indiviuals for over 10 years.
I also watched my closest friend basically disintegrate due to schizophrenia.
I appreciate dark humor as well, but I didn’t find any of that humorous at all.
The one thing that those of us in the psychiatry and psychology biz agree on is that the basic causes of things like schizophrenia, bi-polar etc are NOT KNOWN. At this point the medical model is followed which means that symptoms are treated i.e. you get a cold, you take a decongestant etc. rather than a med to cure the virus or bacteria etc.
I’ve dealt with the menatlly ill for nearly 18 years off and on. I had a close friend murdered by a schizophrenic. To each their own I guess.
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