A nod to prostate cancer, vegetarianism, rehab, recovery awareness

Pity the awareness raiser who has little to use but a calendar date that rolls around once every year. But try they must. And so in the last five days alone, we've been told:

- "This week, the NFL and the American Urological Association Foundation (AUAF) launched on a campaign for men called “Know Your Stats” in honor of September’s Prostate Cancer Awareness Month." 

- "We hope to coordinate an interview for Suicide Prevention Month (September)."

- "Sept 20-26 is National Rehabilitation Week, and (Julia) Keller’s new young adult novel -- based on her personal and professional experiences, and written from the point of view of a young teenage girl -- tells the story of a family coping with the return of a severely injured soldier father."

- "Following is some detailed information which you may find interesting for a story in support of World Vegetarian Day and Vegetarian Awareness Month throughout the month of October." 

- "With National Breast Cancer Month coming up in October, we thought information on a new breast cancer radiation technique with proven life-saving benefits would be of interest." (This was just one of the breast-cancer-awareness suggestions received this week.)

- "The celebration, Batter Up! A Home Run for Recovery Month was part of National Alcohol and Drug Addiction Recovery Month celebrated annually in September."

- "The webinar, which comes on the final day of National ADHD Public Awareness Month, will report on published research on the effects of the Transcendental Meditation technique for improving academic achievement and executive brain function while reducing learning disorders, anxiety, depression, metabolic syndrome, diabetes, and heart disease."

We give in. Coming soon: A special Health section issue with no news or trends or context, just efforts to make you aware. (Kind of like this blog post.) 

Until that carefully unspecific time, allow me to recommend the list of 2009 National Health Observances. It's one-stop shopping for those who need to know which diseases, conditions and issues warrant awareness today, this week, this month.

After I make it through my inbox, I'll really have to figure out whose idea that was.

-- Tami Dennis

Photo: Even the NFL is on the game.

Credit: Matthew Emmons / US Presswire

Rodent of the Week: How the brain gets hooked on drugs

A study in which researchers got mice hooked on drugs without using drugs may yield clues to a key part of the brain involved in drug addiction.

The study, published online today in the journal Science, shows that a naturally occurring protein called brain-derived neurotrophic factor, or BDNF, acts on a part of the brain called the ventral tegmental area and switches the cells in this area from a dopamine-independent system to a dopamine-dependent system, thus causing addiction.

Researchers have known that drug addiction is a disease that disrupts the brain's dopamine response, which is involved in feelings of pleasure and reward. Chronic exposure to drugs increases levels of BDNF in the ventral tegmental area, which is where dopamine circuitry is located. The researchers gave rats who were not dependent on drugs a single injection of BDNF into the ventral tegmental area of the brain. The injection made the rats behave as if they were dependent, causing them to prefer certain smells, lighting and textures and to seek this stimulation for a "fix." The BDNF injection caused specific chemicals that normally inhibit neurons in this part of the brain to instead excite them.

"When someone chronically uses drugs, this system changes. This is the mechanism that makes you feel like you need that drug," said the lead author of the study, Hector Vargas-Perez, of the University of Toronto.

"If we can understand how the brain's circuitry changes in association with drug abuse, it could potentially suggest ways to medically counteract the effects of dependency," Scott Steffensen, a Brigham Young University neuroscientist and co-author of the study, said in a news release.

— Shari Roan

Photo: Courtesy of Advanced Cell Technology Inc.

Modafinil has potential for abuse, study says

Modafinil, a stimulant medication used to treat narcolepsy, has characteristics that may trigger abuse and dependence in people who take the drug off-label to improve cognitive performance, according to a study published today in the Journal of the American Medical Assn.

The study is an early warning by federal health officials that modafinil may have unexpected and tragic consequences for people who use it simply for a brain boost. Besides treating narcolepsy, modafinil is prescribed for cognitive dysfunction in some psychiatric disorders, like schizophrenia. But "modafinil is increasingly being diverted for nonmedical use by healthy individuals with the expectation that it will improve cognitive performance," wrote the authors of the paper, from the National Institute on Drug Abuse.

The way modafinil works in the brain has been something of a mystery, however it was developed with the expectation that it would not affect the neurotransmitter dopamine while promoting wakefulness. The new study, however, shows it acts on dopamine, which opens the door for potential abuse. The researchers gave 10 healthy men either a placebo or modafinil in doses of either 200 milligrams (the dose recommended for narcolepsy) or 400 milligrams (a dose used to treat attention deficit hyperactive disorder). The men then underwent brain scans, which showed an increase of dopamine in the brain, especially a part of the brain central to drug dependence.

"This is relevant because drugs that increase dopamine in the brain, particularly those that increase dopamine in the nucleus accumbens, a brain region critical for the rewarding effects of drugs of abuse, have the potential for being diverted, and repeated use by individuals who are vulnerable can result in addiction," the authors wrote.

While stimulants used to treat attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, such as methylphenidate (Ritalin) also increase dopamine, the therapeutic doses for modafinil are much higher -- 200 milligrams for modafinil compared with 20 milligrams for methylphenidate, the authors noted.

-- Shari Roan

Photo: The 1997 artwork "Brain with Flowers," by Fred Tomaselli. Credit: Fred Tomaselli; James Cohen Gallery, New York.