BOA SEGUNDA FEIRA PARA TODOS!!

QUERO AGRADECER A COMPANHIA MARAVILHOSA DE TODOS.
HOJE CEDO, FUI RETIRAR OS PONTOS DO MEU PÉ.
MAIS, AINDA FICAREI MAIS 30 DIAS SEM PISAR, OU MAIS...DEPENDE DO MÉDICO..

OS PONTOS SÃO NO LADO DE FORA DO PÉ.
TEM UMA PLANTINA E QUATRO PARAFUSOS.

Another Drug to Treat Drug Addiction

Today I was going to blog this paper, which says that you can predict which kids will grow up and be criminals by measuring their Pavlovian fear conditioning at age 8. In Mauritius. But The Last Psychiatrist already said everything I was going to.

Luckily, there's another article in the American Journal of Psychiatry about crime in a tropical country for me to write about - Randomized, Double-Blind, Placebo-Controlled Trial of Vigabatrin for the Treatment of Cocaine Dependence in Mexican Parolees.

The study found that a drug called vigabatrin helped Mexican cocaine users to stay clean. The addicts were all on parole from jail. They "were poor and unemployed or underemployed, and none had permanent telephone numbers", had a mean age of 30, and had been using cocaine, including crack, for 9 years on average. A difficult population, then.

They were given either vigabatrin, or placebo, every morning for 7 weeks, and their cocaine use was measured with urine samples twice a week. If they managed to stay clean for 3 straight weeks, that was counted as successful treatment. What happened? In the placebo group, almost no-one managed to get clean - just 4 out of 53 (7.5%). But in the people on vigabatrin, 14 out of 50 made it (28%):

Now there's two ways of describing this result. You could say, as the authors did, that "nearly four times as many subjects taking vigabatrin achieved full end-of-trial abstinence", which makes it sound amazing. Four times as many, woo! Or you could say that only 1 in 5 people were helped by the drug - not so good. But hey, it's still a result. And it's a lot more impressive than the "cocaine vaccine".

Interestingly, many of the cocaine addicts were alcoholics too, and in the vigabatrin group 10 of them (43%) also achieved abstinence from alcohol, vs just 1 (6%) in the placebo group.

What's vigabatrin? It's an anticonvulsant used in some countries - including Mexico but not the U.S. - to treat severe forms of epilepsy. Like most anticonvulsants, it works on the neurotransmitter GABA which inhibits neural firing; specifically, vigabatrin prevents GABA from being broken down by an enzyme in the brain. In laboratory experiments, it stops rats and mice from enjoying the effects of cocaine, probably because it blocks the ability of cocaine to increase dopamine levels.

That all sounds promising, but there's a catch. Vigabatrin causes "a tardive peripheral visual field defect that is typically asymptomatic and neither progresses nor resolves upon treatment cessation" as the paper tells us. In other words, prolonged use causes permanent loss of peripheral vision, i.e. "tunnel vision". This can be severe in some cases. They tested for it, and it didn't happen to anyone in this study, but that's probably because it was a short trial and the cumulative total dose was about 10% of the amount that's thought to cause problems: 130g vs. 1,500g. Long-term treatment might be more of an issue.

So why use vigabatrin, when there are plenty of other anticonvulsants that don't permanently damage your eyes? This is the first placebo-controlled trial of vigabatrin but there have been many trials of other anticonvulsants for cocaine dependence and they generally didn't work. So maybe vigabatrin is unique and more effective than other drugs of its kind. Only time, and bigger trials, will tell.

Brodie, J., Case, B., Figueroa, E., Dewey, S., Robinson, J., Wanderling, J., & Laska, E. (2009). Randomized, Double-Blind, Placebo-Controlled Trial of Vigabatrin for the Treatment of Cocaine Dependence in Mexican Parolees American Journal of Psychiatry, 166 (11), 1269-1277 DOI: 10.1176/appi.ajp.2009.08121811

Another Drug to Treat Drug Addiction

Today I was going to blog this paper, which says that you can predict which kids will grow up and be criminals by measuring their Pavlovian fear conditioning at age 8. In Mauritius. But The Last Psychiatrist already said everything I was going to.

Luckily, there's another article in the American Journal of Psychiatry about crime in a tropical country for me to write about - Randomized, Double-Blind, Placebo-Controlled Trial of Vigabatrin for the Treatment of Cocaine Dependence in Mexican Parolees.

The study found that a drug called vigabatrin helped Mexican cocaine users to stay clean. The addicts were all on parole from jail. They "were poor and unemployed or underemployed, and none had permanent telephone numbers", had a mean age of 30, and had been using cocaine, including crack, for 9 years on average. A difficult population, then.

They were given either vigabatrin, or placebo, every morning for 7 weeks, and their cocaine use was measured with urine samples twice a week. If they managed to stay clean for 3 straight weeks, that was counted as successful treatment. What happened? In the placebo group, almost no-one managed to get clean - just 4 out of 53 (7.5%). But in the people on vigabatrin, 14 out of 50 made it (28%):

Now there's two ways of describing this result. You could say, as the authors did, that "nearly four times as many subjects taking vigabatrin achieved full end-of-trial abstinence", which makes it sound amazing. Four times as many, woo! Or you could say that only 1 in 5 people were helped by the drug - not so good. But hey, it's still a result. And it's a lot more impressive than the "cocaine vaccine".

Interestingly, many of the cocaine addicts were alcoholics too, and in the vigabatrin group 10 of them (43%) also achieved abstinence from alcohol, vs just 1 (6%) in the placebo group.

What's vigabatrin? It's an anticonvulsant used in some countries - including Mexico but not the U.S. - to treat severe forms of epilepsy. Like most anticonvulsants, it works on the neurotransmitter GABA which inhibits neural firing; specifically, vigabatrin prevents GABA from being broken down by an enzyme in the brain. In laboratory experiments, it stops rats and mice from enjoying the effects of cocaine, probably because it blocks the ability of cocaine to increase dopamine levels.

That all sounds promising, but there's a catch. Vigabatrin causes "a tardive peripheral visual field defect that is typically asymptomatic and neither progresses nor resolves upon treatment cessation" as the paper tells us. In other words, prolonged use causes permanent loss of peripheral vision, i.e. "tunnel vision". This can be severe in some cases. They tested for it, and it didn't happen to anyone in this study, but that's probably because it was a short trial and the cumulative total dose was about 10% of the amount that's thought to cause problems: 130g vs. 1,500g. Long-term treatment might be more of an issue.

So why use vigabatrin, when there are plenty of other anticonvulsants that don't permanently damage your eyes? This is the first placebo-controlled trial of vigabatrin but there have been many trials of other anticonvulsants for cocaine dependence and they generally didn't work. So maybe vigabatrin is unique and more effective than other drugs of its kind. Only time, and bigger trials, will tell.

Brodie, J., Case, B., Figueroa, E., Dewey, S., Robinson, J., Wanderling, J., & Laska, E. (2009). Randomized, Double-Blind, Placebo-Controlled Trial of Vigabatrin for the Treatment of Cocaine Dependence in Mexican Parolees American Journal of Psychiatry, 166 (11), 1269-1277 DOI: 10.1176/appi.ajp.2009.08121811

BOM FINAL DE SEMANA A TODOS!!

QUE AS BÊNÇÃOS DE DEUS ACOMPANHE VOCÊ NESTE FINAL DE SEMANA. SEJA TODOS MUITO FELIZES.
É O QUE DESEJO A CADA UM.

QUE NOSSA AMIZADE SEJA, SEMPRE UM NÓ,
EM NOSSA VIDA VIRTUAL.
QUE NINGUÉM, SEJA CAPAZ DE DESTRUIR.
OFEREÇO, ESTE LINDO SELINHO,
EM NOME DE NOSSA AMIZADE.


AGRADEÇO A TODOS QUE CHEGAM.
ASSIM QUE PUDER IREI AGRADECER OS SEUS CARINHOS.

APROVEITE PARA LER E VISITAR ESSES CANTINHOS.

Poetas-Um Vôo Livre

Sinal de Liberdade-uma expressão de sentimento

Blog Coletivo-Uma Interação de Amigos

Meus Mimos!(VOCÊ, AINDA NÃO LEVOU OS MEUS PRESENTINHOS?
ENTÃO, CORRE LÁ)

BOM DIA A TODOS!!

É COM MUITO CARINHO QUE RECEBO A TODOS EM MINHA CASA.
AGRADEÇO O IMENSO AFETO E RESPEITO DE TODOS.

ESTE SELO QUE OFERECI, TEVE E TEM UMA IMPORTANTCIA MUITO GRANDE:VOCÊ!!!!

BEM ONTEM NÃO PUDE POSTAR.
DE MANHÃ, A NETE ESTAVA MUITO LENTA E DESISTI.

A TARDE DEU UM TEMPORAL E FICAMOS SEM ENERGIA, ATÉ DE MADRUGADA. A LUZ SÓ VOLTOU AS 1H40 DA MANHÃ DE HOJE.

ASSIM QUE DER VOU VISITAR A TODOS, E RETRIBUIR ESTE GRANDE AMOR AMIGO.

AGORA ESTOU INDO AO MÉDICO.

AGRADEÇO IMENSAMENTE A SUA PRESENÇA NESTE BLOG.
UM GRANDE ABRAÇO!

ESTA FOTO, FOI TIRANDO UMA SEMANA ANTES, DA CIRURGIA.
REALMENTE, EU ESTAVA NA PRAIA.
NO FERIADÃO DO DIA 02.11.09


"UM AMIGO É UM PRESENTE QUE VOCÊ DÁ A SI MESMO".


QUERO LEMBRAR QUE NO BLOG Meus Mimos!
TEM SELOS PARA AS MULHERES: SOMOS LINDAS E INTELIGENTES"

PARA OS HOMENS ESTE BLOG ME FAZ VIAJAR E BLOG DE OURO.
ALÉM DAS MULHERES É CLARO!!!!

Banned In China

The BBC have run a profile of a Chinese rock band who've been banned from the radio for criticizing the government.

How sad, we think. But we're not very surprised. We all know that the authoritarian Chinese regime doesn't respect human rights and civil liberties. Naturally they would want to a silence the free, peaceful voice of democratic youth in the form of rock music...

Except it turns out that the band are criticizing the Chinese government for being too nice:

"Taiwan is ours, Tibet is ours. Compromising with the United States and Japan is a disgrace".

"Our lyrics are aimed at our government," says Mr Liu. "It takes a very tough line towards its own people. But outside China it is very soft. When your people are being bullied by others, you should stand up for them. Right now they are being very soft."

I'm reminded of what happened in Algeria when an Islamist party won the first round of the democratic elections in 1991. The military promptly seized power, canceled the elections, and banned religious political parties. Military coups and authoritarianism are generally considered bad. But are they still bad when the people they're suppressing are extremists?

Banned In China

The BBC have run a profile of a Chinese rock band who've been banned from the radio for criticizing the government.

How sad, we think. But we're not very surprised. We all know that the authoritarian Chinese regime doesn't respect human rights and civil liberties. Naturally they would want to a silence the free, peaceful voice of democratic youth in the form of rock music...

Except it turns out that the band are criticizing the Chinese government for being too nice:

"Taiwan is ours, Tibet is ours. Compromising with the United States and Japan is a disgrace".

"Our lyrics are aimed at our government," says Mr Liu. "It takes a very tough line towards its own people. But outside China it is very soft. When your people are being bullied by others, you should stand up for them. Right now they are being very soft."

I'm reminded of what happened in Algeria when an Islamist party won the first round of the democratic elections in 1991. The military promptly seized power, canceled the elections, and banned religious political parties. Military coups and authoritarianism are generally considered bad. But are they still bad when the people they're suppressing are extremists?