New Drug Treating Fragile X Syndrome

A new hope for patients suffering from Fragile X Syndrome ; a new drug has been developed by Novartis Pharmaceuticals company that could treat Fragile X Syndrome patients.
A new study performed by researchers in Rush university medical center developed a new drug that treats Fragile X Syndrome and shows improvement in some patients suffering from Fragile X Syndrome.
Fragile X Syndrome resembles one of the most common causes of inherited intellectual disabilities and one of the most common causes of autism or autistic like symptoms and behavior
Symptoms of Fragile X Syndrome include a characteristic physical and behavioral symptoms like delayed speech and language development , learning and intellectual disabilities.

New Drug Treating Fragile X Syndrome

The new drug called AFQ, developed by Novartis pharmaceuticals and helped to improve some patients with Fragile X Syndrome and patients response to the new drug can be determined by a certain kind of genes in their DNA , something like finger prints that tell wither the patient will benefit from the new drug or not.
Some health care professionals said that this drug could be used as a treatment modality for other behavioral disorders like autism
However that study still have a longer period to determine the efficacy of the new drug and its effect in Fragile X Syndrome patients.

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Huntington's disease cause-symptoms- treatment

Definition :
Huntington's disease is a chronic, degenerative, slowly progressive neurologic disease that affects brain nerve cells leading to their permanent damage. Due to the previous defects Huntington's disease patients may experience abnormal movements, emotional and mental disturbances.
Genetic predisposition linked to Huntington's disease as an inherted disease.

Huntington's disease cause-symptoms- treatment

Symptoms and signs of Huntington's disease:

Symptoms of Huntington's disease start to develop in the middle age people howvever if sympotoms of Huntington's disease started at younger ages this means severe form of the disease
Symptoms and signs of Huntington's disease are vague and vary widely from patient to another depending upon the degree of nerve damage and nerve cell loss. And death is the final destination for those patient after about 10 to 30 years from the time symptoms of Huntington's disease start to appear and manifest.
Early signs and symptoms of Huntington's disease are:
•    Changes in personality; by which we mean behavioural changes like aggression, depression and lack of interst.
•    Cognitive defects; decision making problems, difficulties in answering qestions or learning new inforamtion, object recognition.
•    Disequilibrium
•    Invoulnatry facial movements
•    Clumsiness
Later signs and symptoms of Clumsiness include the following: -
•    Sudden jerky, involuntary movements (chorea) throughout your body
•    Severe problems with balance and coordination
•    Jerky, rapid eye movements
•    Hesitant, halting or slurred speech
•    Swallowing problems
•    Dementia

Huntington's disease cause-symptoms- treatment

Causes of Huntington's disease:

Huntington's disease is an inherted disease that is due to certain gene defect. As a medical term Huntington's disease is an autosomal dominant disorder that means only one cpy of the defective gene that is inhereted for either one parent or both is capable of presenting the symptoms of the disease. In another words only the defective gene needs to be inhereted from only one parent for the Huntington's disease disease to develop.
Risk factors of Huntington's disease:
Only inheretance; if one parent has the gene so the child has 50% risk to develop the disease
Diagnosis of Huntington's disease:
This is confirmed by doing :-
-    Complete physical examination
-    Taking a detalied medical history, family history
-    Inquiring about recent emotional or intellectual changes or any behavioural changes
-    Psychaitric consultation
-    Genetic counseling
Treatment options for Huntington's disease:
Treatment results for Huntington's disease really is disappointing. As there is no medication till this moment capable of reversing disease progress or offer any satisfying results and the available medication help only to modify or control the symptoms of the disease.
Medications and Huntington's disease:
Tetrabenazine ( Xenazine ) is the first choice druge that is specifically has the FDA approval for treating Huntington's disease. Tetrabenaxzine ( Xenazine ) helps to improve the jerky, involuntary movements of Huntington's disease by increasing the amount of dopamine available in the brain. Possible side effects include insomnia, drowsiness, nausea and restlessness.
Tranqulizers like Clonazepam and antipsychotic drugs clike haloperidol and clozapine ( Clozaril ) may help to control and reduce the invoulntary movements and hallucinations in the jerky, involuntary movements of Huntington's disease by increasing the amount of dopamine available in the brain. Possible side effects include insomnia, drowsiness, nausea and restlessness..
Besides the above medications patient have to undergo :-
Speech therapy
Physical  therapy
New hope for patients with Huntington's disease as Scientists are working to try to come up with new treatments to slow the course of Huntington's disease using stem cells

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Depression Treatment With Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation

Depression is a  medical disorder that affects both body and mind. Depression affect how person feel, think and beahve. Depression resemble an increasing health problem may be due to the Luxury life welife nowadays.
Treatment of depression using antidepressant agents is controversial as many patient feel satisfied with the results of their treatment and on the other hand others are frustrated and calin ineffectiveness of these antidepressant medications they received.
Electroconvulsive  therapy has been trusted as an effective treatment for depression but has the side effects on memory thus wasn’t commonly used. And patient with resistant cases of depression were awainting a new treatment the put an end to their suffer and misery. In 2009 FDA aprroved Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation as treatment for depression for those resistant cases who gain no benefits form the calssic antidepressant medications.
Whoever transcranial magnetic stimulation is an approved treatmet for depression it has limitations, transcranial magnetic rstimulation would be beneficial for patient who cant tolerate antidepressant medications and not work with them. Depression treatment with transcranial magnetic stimulation vary; some patient start to feel better during the first week of treamtnet and others don’t.
But the real advantage of the transcranial magnetic stimulation as an approved treatment for depression is that the fewer side effects it has. But on the other hand there is risk of relapse that still not revealed. Also treatment of depression via transcranial magnetic stimulation still have some problems with insurance coverage. But it is more likely for transcranial magnetic stimulation to get insurance coverage due to its efficacy as antidepressant treatment.

Depression Treatment With Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation

Hope this new treatment really help patients with depression
See Also
Depression and distress difficult to be noticed

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Depression and Distress Difficult to be noticed

Depression and Distress Difficult to be noticed, a result of a study by the University of Leicester  concluded that; nursing staff have a considerable difficulty in the diagnosis and detection of depression and distress.
This results make the researchers team start to plan to develop a strategy that help in identifing mood disorders . In the NHS 400,000 nurses provide valuable support to those suffering a range a physical and mental illnesses but struggle to detect depression in the early stages. Nurses are often very capable of forming good therapeutic relationships and provide a great deal of psychological support which is highly valued. However their ability to do this is increasingly under-pressure from high workloads and little funding for professional development.
In another study that tested  the ability of nurses to detect distressed patients and found half were missed until distress became severe.

Depression and Distress Difficult to be noticed

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