Antipsychotic drugs could be shrinking brains. A large study seems to offer a fair degree of confirmation. I think, among other things, we should look more carefully at off-label use of these drugs. Smaller brains may not be bad, but ...
Meanwhile, about 50 percent of people prescribed antidepressants are off-label users. It's stuff like this that leads to "Big Pharma" cries.
You not only have a "second brain" in your gut, but your intestinal microbes may influence both that and the actual brain, through effects on neurotransmitters. Woo-ers running wild with this aside, how could this affect antibiotics prescriptions? What is antibiotic resistance going to do to this?
This is a slice of my philosophical, lay scientific, musical, religious skepticism, and poetic musings. (All poems are my own.) The science and philosophy side meet in my study of cognitive philosophy; Dan Dennett was the first serious influence on me, but I've moved beyond him. The poems are somewhat related, as many are on philosophical or psychological themes. That includes existentialism and questions of selfhood, death, and more. Nature and other poems will also show up here on occasion.
Wednesday, February 09, 2011
Neuroscience roundup - brains, guts, meds
Labels:
antidepressants,
medicine,
neuroscience,
neurotransmitters
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