By Barbara Bronson Gray HealthDay Reporter Latest Mental Health News THURSDAY, April 25 (HealthDay News) -- Medications taken by people with bipolar disorder may actually be nudging hundreds of genes that direct the brain to behave more normally, according to new research. The study suggests that antipsychotic drugs activate a wide range of genes, changing their function, said lead author Dr. Melvin McInnis. "A gene's activity in any given cell will vary depending on what it's exposed to," said McInnis, a professor of bipolar disorder and depression at the School of Medicine at the University of Michigan. It's not often that scientists stumble upon something in research that they totally weren't expecting to see. "It was a major surprise to us that people treated with an antipsychotic [medication] had changes in the gene expression pattern," McInnis said. The findings could help point the way to new gene-targeted and stem cell therapies, and provide valuable insight into what causes manic-depressive mood swings, he added. However, a genetics expert not connected to the study was more cautious about drawing implications from its findings. Bipolar disorder, also known as manic-depressive illness, affects about 5.7 million American adults, or about 2.6 percent of the … Continue reading →

27 April 2013 Last updated at 08:01 ET Police have issued a warning over drugs after a 19-year-old man was found dead at a flat in Essex. The man, from the Braintree area, was discovered at the property in Witham, Essex, early on Saturday. Two other men at the flat, believed to have taken the LSD type drug 2C-E, were taken to hospital. Det Ch Insp Anne Cameron said police believed the drug was produced by people with "no regard for the lives of their customers". She issued a warning that other potentially fatal drugs may be in circulation and should not be taken. The drug is in the form of a white crystal powder and can have a hallucinogenic effect. "We believe that one person has died and two others were taken ill because they have taken a drug that was poorly-produced by criminals," Ms Cameron said. A post-mortem examination and toxicology tests will be carried out later. The two other men, an 18-year-old from Braintree and a 21-year-old from Witham, were taken to Broomfield Hospital, but later released. Go here to read the rest: Teenager dies after taking drugs … Continue reading →

The growing use of synthetic drugs is threatening to shred the safety net offered to the city's most vulnerable residents at the CHUM shelter in downtown Duluth, the nonprofit agency's staff says. In the past year, CHUM staff members have caught more than 100 people smoking, snorting or injecting synthetic drugs on shelter property, even though clients know such activities mean automatic expulsion for at least two weeks. Shawn Carr, a support staffer at CHUM who oversees the shelter most nights, considers the growing use of synthetic drugs a stubborn obstacle. "It pulls us away from our primary mission, which is helping people," he said. "These days, we have to spend so much of our time policing." CHUM continues to enforce policies of zero tolerance when it comes to drugs, and that hard line has strained relationships at times, according to Carr. "Some people who I was very friendly with in the past now see me almost as the enemy," he said. Carr said that during one particularly tough week recently, the shelter kicked out 16 people for using synthetic drugs on its premises. Shelter resident Josh Mason, who moved to Duluth from Colorado, was surprised by the amount of … Continue reading →

Its easy to bash big pharma. Last year,11of the 12 cancer drugs approved by the US Food and Drug Administrationwere priced above $100,000 a year. But life, even a few more months of it, comes at a price. Thats often the missing component in the debate over the exorbitant costs.Yesterday, more than 100 cancer specialists from around the worlddecried the high costs of a cancer drug called Gleevec usedto treatchronic myeloid leukemia, a deadly blood cancer. In the medical journal Blood, the doctors commentary noted that the costs were not only unsustainable but also immoral. Yet while on an individual scale, the cost of cancer drugs may seem astronomical, Americans also greatly value each year of life. Economists have put that number anywhere from $80,000 to $300,000. Frank R. Lichtenberg, a professor at Columbias Graduate School of Business, has studied the relationship of medical innovation to social value. The newer cancer drugs account for the largest portion of expenditure but also the greatest gains. Currently, Lichtenberg has a paper under review entitled, Has medical innovation reduced cancer mortality? The answer: yes. Drug innovation was the largest lifesaver, accounting for an 8.4% decrease in mortality rate from 2000-2009. His paper cites … Continue reading →

Latest Prevention & Wellness News FRIDAY, April 26 (HealthDay News) -- A roadside breathalyzer test for marijuana, cocaine and other illegal drugs could be a step closer to reality, thanks to new research. Using a commercially available breath sampler, Swedish scientists were able to identify 12 substances in the breath of at least 40 patients who had taken drugs in the previous 24 hours and were recovering at a drug-addiction emergency clinic. The findings appear in the April 26 issue of the Journal of Breath Research. The study is the first to detect alprazolam (the active ingredient in Xanax and other anti-anxiety drugs) and benzoylecgonine (a cocaine byproduct) in exhaled breath, according to a journal news release. The study also confirmed previous findings that methadone, amphetamine, methamphetamine, cocaine, morphine, 6-acetylmorphine, tetrahydrocannabinol (THC, the active ingredient in marijuana), buprenorphine (a synthetic narcotic), diazepam (Valium is one brand) and oxazepam (a sedative) can be detected in a person's breath. "Considering the samples were taken 24 hours after the intake of drugs, we were surprised to find that there was still high detectability for most drugs," study author Olof Beck, a professor at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, said in the news release. … Continue reading →