Posted by steve on November 27, 2000, at 23:44:37
In this threat http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20001102/msgs/48725.html
different posters suggested that the basal ganglia shrinkage one
sees in long-term anti-psychotic use is no big deal. Does anyone
know why these researchers do think it is a big deal in Gulf
War Syndrome?http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/nm/20001127/hl/syndrome_1.html
Gulf War Symptoms Linked to Brain Damage
CHICAGO (Reuters) - Symptoms such as memory loss and dizziness
suffered by US veterans with Gulf War syndrome can be correlated to
specific areas of the brain where cells have died, probably from chemical
exposure, researchers said on Monday.In 1999, doctors from the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center
in Dallas reported that brain scans performed on people with symptoms of
Gulf War syndrome showed depleted cells in three areas of their brains.This year we show that brain cell losses from specific areas of the brain
correlate with different symptoms and abnormalities,'' lead researcher Robert
Haley said in a report released at the annual meeting of the Radiological
Society of North America.The scans performed on 12 veterans with severe cases of the syndrome
found brain cell losses of between 10% and 25% in three regions deep inside
the brain--the BASAL GANGLIA in each hemisphere and the brain stem. Scans
performed on healthy veterans of the 1990-1991 Gulf War were normal.The Texas researchers have found the amount of brain cell loss in the Gulf
War veterans to be comparable to that of patients with brain diseases like
amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS or Lou Gehrig's disease), multiple
sclerosis, dementia and other degenerative neurological disorders, although
the brain areas affected are different.I'm not saying that anti-psychotics are intrinsically bad, I do know that
Zyprexa helps my anxiety, but I would like to know if the cost of that could
be clinically significant brain shrinkage.
poster:steve
thread:49525
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20001115/msgs/49525.html