Word: lithium
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...decades, the only drug for bipolar patients--and one that is still an important part of the pharmacological arsenal--was lithium. It works by regulating a number of neurotransmitters, including dopamine and norepinephrine, as well as protein kinase C, a family of chemicals that help determine the neurotransmitter amounts that nerve cells release. With its hands on so many of the brain's chemical levers, lithium can help bring bipolars back to equilibrium. For 30% of sufferers, however, it has no effect at all; for others, the side effects are intolerable. "It's still a miraculous drug," says Keck...
...drugs are stepping into the breach. Rather than rely on the imprecise relief that a single drug like lithium provides, contemporary chemists are investigating a battery of other medications. Depakote, an anticonvulsant developed to calm the storms of epilepsy, was found to have a similarly soothing effect on bipolar cycling, and it was approved in 1995 to treat that condition too. The success of one anticonvulsant prompted researchers to look at others, and in the past five years, several--including Lamictal, Tegretol, Trileptal and Topamax--have been...
...investigators are beginning a yearlong study of at least 10 bipolar drugs, comparing the merits of each and the ways they can best be combined. Others are looking at such unconventional treatments as omega-3 fatty acids, found in fish oil, which may inhibit the same brain receptors that lithium affects. Elsewhere, researchers are running brain scans to determine which lobes and regions are involved in bipolar disorder and how to target them more accurately with drugs. Investigators also hope to develop a blood test that will allow bipolar disorder to be spotted as simply as, say, high cholesterol, eliminating...
...Afterwards, says his publisher, "his childhood took a turn for the bizarre with electroshock machine fun and games; month-long family/patient sleep-overs on the front lawn; a physician-assisted fake suicide attempt to get excused from school forever; a pedophile living in the barn; Lithium, Valium, and Halcyon eaten like candy, and much more." The therapist was later arrested for fraud. Former TIME writer Kurt Andersen blurbs the book enthusiastically. "I was reminded of Roald Dahl's 'Boy' and 'A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius'...Burroughs has produced a memoir that's funny and sharp but also humane...
...Casio, for example, recently unveiled a prototype of a fuel-cell-powered laptop that looks acceptably normal. The power supply weighs half as much as existing laptop batteries and can run the machine for 20 hours at a stretch?quadruple the longevity of a fully charged lithium-ion battery. Medis Technologies, a NASDAQ-listed Israeli company, has designed a tiny, 80-g fuel cell that can sustain 20 hours of mobile-phone conversation...