New center to study therapies and ethnicity
Article Abstract:
Research results indicate that different ethnic groups respond differently to drugs used to treat major mental disorders. This has been the motivating force behind the research of Keh-Ming Lin, a psychiatrist from Taiwan. Lin has been named to head the newly-funded Research Center on the Psychobiology of Ethnicity located at the Harbor-University of Los Angeles Medical Center in Torrance, California. The center will be one of several studying cultural aspects of mental health care, but it will additionally focus on questions concerning the ethnic factors that determine drug responses. Several drugs that are commonly used to treat mental disorders, such as haloperidol, benzodiazepines, and lithium, appear to be therapeutically effective at much lower blood levels in Asians than in Caucasians. Such differences could result from ethnic variability in metabolism, in protein binding in the blood, or in receptors (proteins) located on brain cells to which these drugs bind. Studies have also shown that the environment plays a role in drug responses; comparisons among Sudanese living in the Sudan and in Britain, and Caucasians living in Britain, showed that metabolic rates for antipyrine (a drug that uses the same enzymes that are activated by psychotropic drugs) were similar for the two groups living in Britain, regardless of the ethic group. It has been suggested that this could be an effect of diet. Another area of research at the new center will be 'culture bound syndromes'; these include syndromes particular to one culture. For instance, 'koro', a condition that affects young Chinese men, involves the experience of intense sexual anxiety associated with the belief that the penis is shrinking up into the abdomen. Other planned projects are discussed briefly. While studies involving ethnicity always run a risk of being labeled racist, this has not occurred so far in connection with the center. The focus is not on the biology of race differences, but on the ways different ethnic groups respond to treatment for mental illness, a phenomenon with biological correlates. The ultimate goal is the delivery of more appropriate therapies. (Consumer Summary produced by Reliance Medical Information, Inc.)
Publication Name: Science
Subject: Science and technology
ISSN: 0036-8075
Year: 1991
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Young scientists voice hopes and fears for the future
Article Abstract:
All but one of the 26 promising young scientists interviewed believe they can find the job they want. Most want to be university research scientists. Several of the students discuss their ambitions and their concerns about their futures.
Publication Name: Science
Subject: Science and technology
ISSN: 0036-8075
Year: 1995
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