Cancer drug and antidepressants provide clues for treating brain-eating amoeba infections
(University of California - San Diego) Researchers at Skaggs School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences at University of California San Diego have now identified three new molecular drug targets in Naegleria fowleri and a number of drugs that are able to inhibit the amoeba's growth in a laboratory dish. Several of these drugs are already approved by the US Food and Drug Administration for other uses, such as antifungal agents, the breast cancer drug tamoxifen and antidepressant Prozac. (Source: EurekAlert! - Infectious and Emerging Diseases)
Source: EurekAlert! - Infectious and Emerging Diseases - September 13, 2018 Category: Infectious Diseases Source Type: news
Prozac may be driving the antibiotic-resistance crisis
Researchers from the University of Queensland found that when E.coli is exposed to the antidepressant fluoxetine it undergoes mutations that stop it responding to common antibiotics. (Source: the Mail online | Health)
Source: the Mail online | Health - September 10, 2018 Category: Consumer Health News Source Type: news
Open water swimming as a treatment for major depressive disorder - van Tulleken C, Tipton M, Massey H, Harper CM.
A 24-year-old woman with symptoms of major depressive disorder and anxiety had been treated for the condition since the age of 17. Symptoms were resistant to fluoxetine and then citalopram. Following the birth of her daughter, she wanted to be medication-f... (Source: SafetyLit)
Source: SafetyLit - August 24, 2018 Category: International Medicine & Public Health Tags: Program and Other Evaluations, Effectiveness Studies Source Type: news
Antidepressant restores youthful flexibility to aging inhibitory neurons in mice
(Picower Institute at MIT) Inhibitory neurons in the aging brain show reduced growth and plasticity, likely contributing to declines in brain function. In a new study in mice researchers at the Picower Institute at MIT show that treatment with fluoxetine restored substantial growth and plasticity. (Source: EurekAlert! - Medicine and Health)
Source: EurekAlert! - Medicine and Health - August 20, 2018 Category: International Medicine & Public Health Source Type: news
Medical News Today: What is fluoxetine?
Fluoxetine oral capsule is a prescription medication used to treat conditions such as depression, obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), eating disorders, and panic attacks. It comes as the brand-name drugs Prozac and Prozac Weekly, and as a generic drug. Learn about side effects, warnings, dosage, and more. (Source: Health News from Medical News Today)
Source: Health News from Medical News Today - July 12, 2018 Category: Consumer Health News Tags: Pharmacy / Pharmacist Source Type: news
My OCD story: evidence-based medicine to the rescue!
Karen Morley blogs about her experience of seeking help for her Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD) and how finding and using Cochrane evidence was a turning point. This blog post was originally published onEvidently Cochrane.Without knowing what it was, I had experienced episodes of Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD) since I was an adolescent, usually when I was particularly stressed. But it was when I was caring full time for my mother, who had multiple conditions including dementia, that I had an unusually distressing episode of contamination-related OCD. When I took to the internet I was amazed to discover that the ob...
Source: Cochrane News and Events - June 27, 2018 Category: Information Technology Authors: Muriah Umoquit Source Type: news
My OCD story: evidence-based medicine to the rescue!
Karen Morley blogs about her experience of seeking help for her Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD) and how finding and using Cochrane evidence was a turning point. This blog post was originally published onEvidently Cochrane.Without knowing what it was, I had experienced episodes of Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD) since I was an adolescent, usually when I was particularly stressed. But it was when I was caring full time for my mother, who had multiple conditions including dementia, that I had an unusually distressing episode of contamination-related OCD. When I took to the internet I was amazed to discover that the ob...
Source: Cochrane News and Events - June 27, 2018 Category: Information Technology Authors: Muriah Umoquit Source Type: news
Serotonin speeds learning
(Champalimaud Centre for the Unknown) Why do treatments with antidepressants like Prozac seem to work better when combined with behavioral therapies, which promote the learning of positive behaviors by the depressed patient? A new study suggests a possible explanation. (Source: EurekAlert! - Medicine and Health)
Source: EurekAlert! - Medicine and Health - June 26, 2018 Category: International Medicine & Public Health Source Type: news
Roseanne Barr Just Used the ‘Ambien Defense.’ So Have Accused Murderers and Drunk Drivers
Roseanne Barr had an explanation in the aftermath of sending a racist tweet that led to the cancellation of her sitcom, Roseanne: Ambien made me do it.
“It was 2 in the morning and I was ambien tweeting,” Barr wrote in a now-deleted tweet, adding in a separate post that she was “Not giving excuses for what I did (tweeted) but I’ve done weird stuff while on ambien.”
Roseanne is definitely not off Twitter despite her statement yesterday that she was leaving it.
And her “Ambien tweeting” line has users describing every odd (non-racist) thing they’ve done while on the sleep d...
Source: TIME: Health - May 30, 2018 Category: Consumer Health News Tags: Uncategorized Drugs healthytime onetime Source Type: news
Mind: Antidepressants and Withdrawal: Readers Tell Their Stories
Nearly 9,000 readers wrote to The Times to talk about their use of antidepressants. Here ’ s what we learned. (Source: NYT Health)
Source: NYT Health - April 17, 2018 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: BENEDICT CAREY Tags: Depression (Mental) Mental Health and Disorders Anxiety and Stress Antidepressants Drugs (Pharmaceuticals) Brain Advertising and Marketing Prozac (Drug) New York Times Source Type: news
Many People Taking Antidepressants Discover They Cannot Quit
Long-term use of the medications is surging in the United States, according to an analysis by The Times. One reason: withdrawal symptoms that make it difficult to stop. (Source: NYT Health)
Source: NYT Health - April 7, 2018 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: BENEDICT CAREY and ROBERT GEBELOFF Tags: Depression (Mental) Drugs (Pharmaceuticals) Mental Health and Disorders Antidepressants Psychiatry and Psychiatrists Addiction (Psychology) Prozac (Drug) Cymbalta (Drug) Paxil (Drug) Zoloft (Drug) Eli Lilly and Company Food and Drug Source Type: news
The Drugs That Changed Our Minds by Lauren Slater – review
Twenty years after hailing antidepressants in her memoir Prozac Diary, a now jaded, sceptical Lauren Slater revisits the psychopharmacological industry – with uneven resultsInProzac Diary (1998), Lauren Slater wrote powerfully of the way fluoxetine had transformed her previously chaotic life. While the author recorded a handful of negative side-effects – a profound loss of libido, for instance – the reader was left with the sense that Prozac had pieced back together the shards of Slater’s existence. In some ways,The Drugs That Changed Our Minds is a sequel to that book. Slater is now in her mid-50s, recently divorc...
Source: Guardian Unlimited Science - April 1, 2018 Category: Science Authors: Alex Preston Tags: Autobiography and memoir Science and nature Books Medical research Depression Society Culture Source Type: news
Serotonin Involved in a Slug Hosts Response to a Parasite
Host slugs given Prozac to increase their serotonin levels no longer avoid parasitic nematodes, the same behavior seen in infected slugs. (Source: The Scientist)
Source: The Scientist - March 12, 2018 Category: Science Tags: Daily News,News & Opinion Source Type: news
Antidepressants do work – but children need someone to talk to
Young people in mental distress need – and deserve – faster access to support services, as well as pillsNearly a decade ago I found myself perched on the edge of a hard chair in a dark doctor ’s office. I was 13 and struggling a lot with self harm, body image, and the simple task of keeping myself alive. Shuffling my feet and wondering how I ended up here, I remember not fully understanding what was happening when I was handed a little green prescription for Fluoxetine – an antidepre ssant drug often better known as Prozac.Back then, my frame of reference for mental illness was pretty minimal. All I knew was that I...
Source: Guardian Unlimited Science - March 4, 2018 Category: Science Authors: Alice Gibbs Tags: Depression Mental health Psychiatry Society Drugs Science Source Type: news
Fluoxetine Capsules (New - Discontinuation)
Drug Shortage (Source: FDA Drug Shortages)
Source: FDA Drug Shortages - February 23, 2018 Category: Drugs & Pharmacology Source Type: news
