Posted by laima on February 1, 2007, at 1:45:59
In reply to Re: Are we in a psychiatric drug development reses, posted by halcyondaze on January 31, 2007, at 14:44:24
New, novel drug shortage= polypharmacy up? Just a speculation.The thing about Emsam is, it's one antidepressent, and not the one for everyone. Breakthrough delivery process does not equal miraculous universally effective drug- these are two different issues. What Emsam did was make one particular MAOI more accessable to a wider pool of patients. A technological breakthrough. Fortunately, I swore I heard at least one other MAOI was being slowly developed into a patch. MAOIs are known, I understand, to be particularly effective for atypical depression- the oversleeping, understimulated, overeating kind. So of course it might not be the best choice for someone with an undereating, undersleeping problem. And a drug which made me sleepier and hungrier would make me miserable. In short, to consider it a panacea I think is an error.
Meanwhile, quite recently it seems as though we've seen a lot of new non-drug treatments become available. I'm not so well versed on these- there's the implant, (Vagus Nerve Stimulator?), there's the magnets, and is there not something else similar?
I also have seen ads recently for research studies looking for volunteers- they are looking to figure out ways to predict which patients will repond to which antidepressents by testing their emzymes, or something along those lines. This would take a lot of educated guesswork out of prescribing.
So research IS being done. Meanwhile, maybe we have to wait for the fda scandals to blow over. There was a New York Times article yesterday about how drug companies will be facing far more scrutiny due to public outcry about approved drugs which turn out to be dangerous- the article cited Vioxx, but I have a few other suspects in mind. I would imagine drug companies would want to hedge their money and bets on something they believe would be a sure and easy approval, relatively safe from costly mass lawsuits, and a guarenteed money maker-as opposed to money sinker. Cut their losses while ahead, if a drug starts looking iffy. I wonder if we will see reprocussions and fallout from the zyprexa fiasco. (A great drug for many- but not always so great for the many people who were prescribed it for inappropriate off-label uses, in part due to a notoriously aggressive and arguably deceptive sales campaign, and developed obesity or diabetes as a result. Lilly paid out millions, if not billions, in lawsuit settlements just this winter.) (As per New York Times articles, all available under "zyprexa" on wikipedia, and on various babble threads.) I suspect Lilly stock isn't at its best at the moment. That was their top seller.
So- potential LAWSUITS- that may be a monetary deterrent to trying out daring new powerful pharmaceuticals.
A shame it's not easier to pool the world's research together, and make drug importation/exportation easier for everyone's benefit. Ie, if France developes and approves a great atypical antipsychotic, why not speed up approval for legal importation into the US? Why no RIMAS in US? Or that drug which is a cousin of provigel? Why not pull MDMA back out of the closet and clean it up? There might be lots of important substances already sitting in closets in laboratories, banished for being bad, when all they might need is some tweaking to be more realistic for functioning well with daily use.
I also wonder lately if nutrition, ie, EFAs, might not be one crucial factor for many of us. Ie, a brain enjoying top nutrition surely would be more responsive than one gasping along, short on antioxidants, vitamins, essential fatty acids? Just a pet theory I am entertaining and experimenting with. And look at some of the possible novel alternative/pharmaceutical combos, like Emsam/dlpa. How much research has been done in this sort of area?
poster:laima
thread:728180
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20070125/msgs/728660.html