I came across a very interesting article about new treatment for vegetative patients, the patients who cannot respond to the outside world and need to lie on the bed, in Scinetific america. The article "Consciousness-Raising: Kick-Starting the Brain's Dopamine System May Revive Some Vegetative Patients" tells us the new finding in treating vegetative patients by stimulating dopamine, the neuron transmitter, in their brain.
The article reports that Esteban Fridman find that the medicine called apomorphine can be used to treat vegetative patients. From eight cases, seven patients can regain their consciousness, among which one of them can drive a car by himself. Fridman makes a hypothesis that, since the neuron system in the vegetative patients cannot exchange data, if we can stimulate dopamine, which is one kind of important neurotransmitter chemicals in human body, to work again, the patients could recover from the state of unconsciousness. Fridman chooses apomorphine which when injected into body will binds to dopamine. Although there are other kinds of medicine that can bind with dopamine, the patients respond to none of them. Fridman will make a further formal study on the effect of apomorphine on vegetative patients.
This study would give light of hope to many families who live in misery due to their relatives who suffer this problem. Hopefully, this medicine can work in a larger scale so that it can be used to treat with other patients who are suffering from this symptom. Currently, we still have inadequate knowledge about how brain function, a lot of problems on brain damages such as alzeimer are still beyond our ability to cure them. Like in Fridman's study, although another medicine can bind with dopamine, it is only apomorphine to which the patients responded. The knowledge about the mechanism of medicine in human body is still speculative. We can know only if some medicine work, but not how it works. Maybe if the nanotechnology become more advanced, people can have better instrument to track medicine in our body, we might gain sufficient knowledge to explain what is going on in our body, so that we can cure the disease about brain and neuron system more efficiently. Personally, I feel afraid of this kind of disease most, it seems to deprive us the ability of thinking. I wonder if we cannot think, where would we be.
The article reports that Esteban Fridman find that the medicine called apomorphine can be used to treat vegetative patients. From eight cases, seven patients can regain their consciousness, among which one of them can drive a car by himself. Fridman makes a hypothesis that, since the neuron system in the vegetative patients cannot exchange data, if we can stimulate dopamine, which is one kind of important neurotransmitter chemicals in human body, to work again, the patients could recover from the state of unconsciousness. Fridman chooses apomorphine which when injected into body will binds to dopamine. Although there are other kinds of medicine that can bind with dopamine, the patients respond to none of them. Fridman will make a further formal study on the effect of apomorphine on vegetative patients.
This study would give light of hope to many families who live in misery due to their relatives who suffer this problem. Hopefully, this medicine can work in a larger scale so that it can be used to treat with other patients who are suffering from this symptom. Currently, we still have inadequate knowledge about how brain function, a lot of problems on brain damages such as alzeimer are still beyond our ability to cure them. Like in Fridman's study, although another medicine can bind with dopamine, it is only apomorphine to which the patients responded. The knowledge about the mechanism of medicine in human body is still speculative. We can know only if some medicine work, but not how it works. Maybe if the nanotechnology become more advanced, people can have better instrument to track medicine in our body, we might gain sufficient knowledge to explain what is going on in our body, so that we can cure the disease about brain and neuron system more efficiently. Personally, I feel afraid of this kind of disease most, it seems to deprive us the ability of thinking. I wonder if we cannot think, where would we be.
__________
References
Emspak, J. (2010, Mar 12th) Consciousness-raising: kick-starting the brain's dopamine system may revive some vegetative patients., Scientific American, Retrieved Mar 13th, 2010 from
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=apomorphine-dopamine-vegetative
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=apomorphine-dopamine-vegetative
No comments:
Post a Comment
Before you click the blue "Publish" button for your first comment on a post, check ✔ the "Notify me" box. You want to know when your classmates contribute to a discussion you have joined.
A thoughtful response should normally mean writing for five to ten minutes. After you state your main idea, some details, explanation, examples or other follow up will help your readers.
Note: only a member of this blog may post a comment.