Date Rape Drug To The Rescue!
http://discovermagazine.com/2008/jan/date-rape-drug-to-the-rescue
Imagine your body going completely limp anytime you experience a strong emotion. This is exactly the problem that Harry Miles has. Any time he experiences joy, fear, or anger his body simply goes limp. Harry has both cataplexy, which causes the body to weaken when any strong emotion is experienced, and narcolepsy, in which the affected is constantly tired and often falls asleep throughout the day. He had been on Ritalin to fight the narcolepsy, but that eventually stopped working. His doctor, Dr. Anna Reisman, tried prescribing a higher dosage of Ritalin along with Prozac to combat his symptoms, but to avail. He was constantly in danger of either falling asleep or going limp. He lost his job and was losing hope of ever being a normal human being again.
One year later, a breakthrough occured. A sedative called Xyrem had been found to help people with cataplexy sleep through the night. It also lessened the occurence of the "weakness attacks." Xyrem is actually the pharmaceutical form of GHB (gamma-hydroxybutyrate, better known as the date rape drug. GHB was also the poison found in some Chinese-made toys. Despite the bad history of this drug, Miles was soon prescribed Xyrem by a sleep specialist. At his last checkup with Dr. Reisman, he was asked when his last cataplectic attack had occured. It had been so long that he could actually not remember. He was a normal human being again.
RESPONSE
One of the most important things I noticed in this article is that we must never give up on a drug just because the only uses found so far are dangerous ones. The human body has a delicate balance of chemicals, so it must be understood that even though a certain amount or variant of one drug is harmful to the body, it could be reformulated or the dosage could be lowered and lives could be changed and saved. Besides, if we can inject toxins into faces to make them "pretty," why wouldn't GHB be able to be used for something good?
3 Comments:
I'm amazed at the reseach that has been done in the medical world today to find cures for diseases. Also to see that a drug that was once posionous to the body can become a cure for someone. I also thought that it is weird that a person with cataplexy has the threat of going limp at any moment depending on how they feel or just in a conversation they have with another person. But now Xyrem can help with cataplexy.
I think that the summary of the article was very sourceful and well informing.
It's amazing how a drug could be poison to one thing, but then it can also be used as a cure to a devastating disease. The technology that we have in this world is incredible and it's only growing. But what is also cool is that there has had to been a ton of research for something like Xyrem to be used. And it's great that we have it now and can use it to possibly save people's lives.
I find that it's rather refreshing to think that a drug with such a bad rep (aka The Date Rape Drug) can now have useful and helpful benefits. It's also extremely inspiriting that we can find new uses for drugs, especially overlooked and underestimated drugs. Not only does it give you hope for the future, but it restores your faith in medicine and science and the further development of finding cures for the diseases, deadly or mundane.
Post a Comment
<< Home