Medications for the treatment of cancer, while life saving, can, as is so often true of medications, lead to their own problems, among them something called "chemobrain"; the loss of memory and concentration among other difficulties.
Scientist in Cincinnati (my home state) may have found a treatment; a drug called dexmethyphenidate.
Another interesting read via Science Daily
Kudos to Dr. Elyse Lower and her fellow researchers on the team.
Posted by Rachel Ann at June 10, 2005 12:42 PMDexmethyphenidate? Why can't scientists ever come up with pronouncable names?
Posted by: The Agent at June 10, 2005 02:36 PMInteresting findings. I'm suprised that they never discovered this earlier, as dexmethylphenidate has been around for quite some time. It's one of the two isomers of methylphenidate (which most people know of as Ritalin). While Ritalin is a 50:50 mix of d and l-methylphenidates, there's a newer drug, Focalin, which is just dexmethylphenidate (and that's who sponsored the study).
Regardless, it's interesting to see that this substance alleviated a lot of the problems. Perhaps this could lead to more clues about more specifically what happens in the brain as a result of chemo causing this problem
Posted by: jaws at June 12, 2005 02:55 AMPeople may have discovered it earlier, after all, the symptoms of "chemobrain" are really attention problems. But proving it in a large multicenter trial is something else.
Posted by: owlish at June 16, 2005 03:57 PM