Posted by IsoM on January 31, 2002, at 17:04:53
In reply to Re: Forest Labs gets US conditional approval for Lexa., posted by OldSchool on January 31, 2002, at 16:49:29
The development of the new Celexa is meant to be an improvement in its effectiveness - it's meant to have fewer side-effects. Most of the side-effects experienced comes from the ineffective isomer of Celexa. Take that away & you'll still get the same response as you did to the old Celexa but without as many troubling side-effects.
There are teams of earnest young scientists working together to come up with new ADs but drugs can only be chemically engineered & carefully tailored for each specific need as more is learned about how our body's many functions interact. That's why one class is called "Selective" serotonin reuptake inhibitors. There's many sites throughout the body where serotonin has its effects, these try to target slective sites. If drugs could be even more tailored to just fit the ones that need to be targeted - result is more effective meds with fewer side-effects.
Drug engineering is really only in its infancy. We're only at the "leeches & blood-letting" stage, so to speak, but at this point in time, it's the best we've got. Would it be more cruel to hold back simply because we haven't progressed enough? Or to provide treatment such as we have now?
(Not to say I don't think pharmaceutical firms don't push their products forcefully on the market - but that's another story.)
poster:IsoM
thread:91928
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20020131/msgs/92413.html