Hold onto your hats! Here we go again! History repeating itself . . .

[Guest guest]

atracyphd2

Fri, 06 Jan 2006 01:03:21 -0500

[drugawareness] Hold onto your hats! Here we go again!

History repeating itself . . .

 

 

 

How many times now have I said that this would happen? For years I

have warned that as soon as the patents expire on the major SSRI

antidepressants that we would hear once again that they have found yet

another way to treat depression and will develop a whole new line of

antidepressants. The announcement has now been officially made and who

better to get that out to the press than the AP's own Lauran Neergaard

- one who has been such a major defender of the SSRIs and the whole

serotonin theory:

 

" But the discovery likely will aid research into other diseases that

also depend on cell-based receptors.

" We're finding that other molecules control other receptors, so I

think this may open up quite a major new area of approach to

developing therapeutic drugs, " Greengard said. "

 

I call this the " Whoops! " announcement. Translated that means: " Well

we did not quite get it right this time even though we assured you

that these were the wonder drugs of the last two decades. But now we

think this just " might " be the right way to fine tune this process.

So, we want you to try our new drug (under patent of course where we

can earn FAR MORE than what we would for those generic drugs now no

longer under patent) that we are sure will be by far our greatest drug

yet and hopefully extremely addictive so that we can rake in money

hand over fist before you can figure out how to get off the drugs so

that we can retire in style. "

 

It is not at all a tough prediction to make. This is only history

repeating itself as it has over and over and over again with each new

generation - wonder drugs falling from stardom generally into very

restrictive prescribing guidelines or completely banned and made

illegal as we finally learn the real dangers of each. And always they

are replaced by the new improved and far more expensive version.

Tragically society falls for it everytime!

 

I do hope that in light of this development you all take note of this

statement - a statement that we will hear repeated in another 20 - 25

years about this whole newly proposed group of antidepressants:

 

" Most depression medications used today are members of the Prozac

family that work by making more serotonin available to brain cells.

They stem from a theory that depression patients might not have enough

serotonin, a neurotransmitter, or chemical that carries signals

between nerve cells.

Then scientists discovered the serotonin connection was more

complicated . . . "

 

Keep in mind that the National Institutes of Health, who did this

research, used to be a fairly reliable source for scientific research.

But in the last few years they to have been on the take from the drug

companies. In other words now their research is also funded by the

pharmaceutical giants who stand to benefit so greatly from any

favorable studies about their drugs or information that would indicate

the perceived need for a new improved drug.

 

The fact is that all antidepressants to date work basically the same.

But each group has been marketed differently. That is about the only

real difference because the end result within the brain is basically

the same - increased levels of serotonin - no matter which

antidepressant, new or old, that you use. This is only yet another

twist on an old marketing plan. What a sad day for society. PLEASE

help us to educate our society to the extreme dangers of increased

serotonin before I and a handfull of dedicated associates have to

spend another 16 years working non-stop to do it on our own! Too many,

far too many, lives have already been destroyed in far too many ways

by antidepressants at this point in time!

 

Dr. Ann Blake Tracy, Executive Director,

International Coalition for Drug Awareness

www.drugawareness.org & author of Prozac: Panacea

or Pandora? - Our Serotonin Nightmare (800-280-0730)

 

 

http://news./s/ap/20060106/ap_on_he_me/depression_protein & printer=1;_yl\

t=AkF8XBtgQuvqfSP_m23rixta24cA;_ylu=X3oDMTA3MXN1bHE0BHNlYwN0bWE-

 

 

 

Brain Protein May Be Linked to Depression

By LAURAN NEERGAARD, AP Medical Writer1 hour, 16 minutes ago

 

Scientists have discovered a protein that seems to play a crucial role

in developing depression, a finding that may lead to new treatments

for the often debilitating illness ? and fundamental understanding of

why it strikes.

 

Although problems with the mood-regulating brain chemical serotonin

have long been linked to depression, scientists don't know what causes

the disease that afflicts some 18 million Americans ? or exactly what

serotonin's role is.

 

The newly found protein, named p11, appears to regulate how brain

cells respond to serotonin, researchers from Rockefeller University

and Sweden's Karolinska Institute report Friday in the journal Science.

 

" We're all very excited about this discovery, " said Nobel laureate

Paul Greengard, a Rockefeller neuroscientist who led the research.

" People have been looking for modulators of serotonin for a long time. "

 

Said Oxford University pharmacologist Trevor Sharp, who reviewed the

work: " This finding represents compelling evidence that p11 has a

pivotal role in both the cause of depression and perhaps its

successful treatment. "

 

Most depression medications used today are members of the Prozac

family that work by making more serotonin available to brain cells.

They stem from a theory that depression patients might not have enough

serotonin, a neurotransmitter, or chemical that carries signals

between nerve cells.

Then scientists discovered the serotonin connection was more

complicated, dependent on how well the neurotransmitter binds to

receptors, or docking ports, on cell surfaces. Fourteen different

serotonin receptors have been discovered.

 

The new research focuses on one of those receptors, dubbed the " 1B "

receptor, that seems to play a particularly big role in major depression.

 

Greengard and colleagues discovered that the p11 protein increases the

numbers of these receptors on the surfaces of cells, mobilizing them

so they're available for serotonin to do its job.

 

That led to a series of remarkable experiments, using mice as well as

brain tissue saved from the autopsies of depressed patients, that found:

 

_Depressed people have substantially lower levels of p11 in their

brain tissue than the non-depressed. So did a breed of mice, called

" helpless " mice, that exhibit depression symptoms.

 

_Then the mice were given two older antidepressants - one known as a

tricyclic, the other an MAO inhibitor and electric shock therapy. Each

treatment increased the amount of p11 in mice brains, even though each

therapy is known to work in different ways.

 

_So the researchers bred mice that had no p11-producing gene. They

acted depressed, and had fewer 1B receptors and less serotonin

activity than regular mice. They also were less likely to improve with

depression medication. Mice genetically altered to produce extra p11

acted in just the opposite way ? no depression-like behavior, and

their brain cells carried extra serotonin-signaling receptors.

 

" It's a very important finding, " said Dr. Thomas Insel, director of

the National Institute of Mental Health, which funded the research.

" This gives us a new set of targets for drug development, " but also

" suggests a whole new area of investigation for trying to ...

ultimately discover does this have anything to do with why some people

get depressed and others don't. "

 

The researchers don't yet know whether a genetic defect or some other

factor is responsible for altering p11 levels.

 

" The p11 is upstream of the receptor, and now the question is what is

upstream of the p11, " Greengard said.

 

But Sharp noted that bouts of depression often are associated with

serious stress, and that p11 is part of a protein family known to be

sensitive to certain stress-related hormones.

 

Greengard's lab now is researching the potential for p11-related

therapies.

 

But the discovery likely will aid research into other diseases that

also depend on cell-based receptors.

" We're finding that other molecules control other receptors, so I

think this may open up quite a major new area of approach to

developing therapeutic drugs, " Greengard said.

___

On the Net:

Government depression information: http://www.nimh.nih.gov