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Ever since Viagra revolutionised male sexual performance, researchers have been struggling to find an equivalent for women. They have now succeeded. The world’s first ‘lust drug’ for women, PT-141, has been developed by scientists at Concordia University, Montreal, and Palatin Technologies. It is an odorous, colourless chemical, which claims to dramatically increase a woman’s sexual desire. It’s simple to use too -- just inhale it and wait for the sparks to fly. If there was any doubt that sex for women is more between the ears than between the legs, PT-141 dispels it effectively. The drug works by targeting the female arousal centre in the brain rather than stimulating blood flow to the genitals like Viagra. Michael Perelman, co-director of the Human Sexuality Program at New York Presbyterian Hospital and an advisor on the PT-141 trials, confirms this by saying that the spray might affect how “we think and feel.” The potential of PT-141 is huge, given that almost 40 per cent of women are said to suffer from a lack of libido. Also, there is a feeling that scientists, mostly men, ignore women’s sexual problems. In fact, say pharmaceutical industry sources, if PT-141 — which could be on chemist counters in three years — proves what is being claimed, it could even outsell Viagra. In the trials conducted so far, 16 women were given PT-141 while 16 others were given a placebo. The latter hardly reacted, while those on PT-141 reported tingling and throbbing and a strong desire to have sex. Found here?.

Stress Hormones Cause Depression - New Drugs May Target Cortisol to Prevent Chronic Anxious Behavior and Mood Disorders April 17th 2006 Stress Hormones Cause Depression - New Drugs May Target Cortisol to Prevent Chronic Anxious Behavior and Mood Disorders Anxiety and Stress Researchers believe that long term exposure to stress causes depression. Many medical professionals have suspected this, but lacked the evidence. Neuroscientists at Harvard Medical School, and its affiliate Mclean Hospital, have shown that long-term exposure to a stress hormone in mice directly resulted in the anxiety that often comes with depression. Researchers already knew that people with depression had high levels of the human stress hormone, cortisol, but were not sure if it was a cause or effect. They now believe that long-term exposure to cortisol actually contributes to the symptoms of depression. Scientists exposed mice to both short term and long-term durations of the rodent stress hormone, corticosterone. According to Paul Ardayfio, PhD candidate, and Kwang-Soo Kim, PhD, chronic stress, such as caring for a spouse with dementia, rather than acute stress, has been associated with depression. The researchers used 58 mice for their study. They put hormones in the drinking water. They considered chronic doses to be 17 to 18 days of exposure and acute doses were 24 hours of exposure. Then they used a standard test to evaluate anxiety in animals. Mice that received the stress hormone for more than two weeks took significantly longer to emerge from a small dark compartment into a brightly lit open field. They seemed more fearful and were less willing to explore their new environment. Chronic exposure to corticosterone also dulled their reactions to a startling stimulus. This was another sign that their nervous system was overwhelmed. This is likely the first experiment that compared the effects of chronic corticosterone with the effects of acute corticosterone on anxiety-like behavior. These new findings did not surprise researchers, especially since more than half of the people with Cushing's disease, in which a disordered adrenal system releases too much cortisol, have depression and anxiety. Researchers already knew that the "anxious-retarded" subtype of depression is commonly associated with disruption of that same hormonal system. They also were aware that people getting corticosteroid therapy for inflammatory and other disorders have increased mood-related side effects, including anxiety and depression. Another reason doctors have suspected that stress causes depression is because higher glucocorticoid levels for chronic periods have been linked to increased activity in anxiety-related brain regions such as the amygdala in both rodents and humans. The authors wrote, "Our results suggest that chronically high levels of cortisol, which occurs in Cushing's disease and some subtypes of depression, can increase anxiety on the one hand and dull responses to external stimuli on the other." The difference between the responses to acute and chronic hormone exposure strengthen the view that very-short-term or acute exposure, they add, "may be adaptive, whereas chronic exposure has detrimental effects on brain and behavior." It is hoped the research will help doctors design new psychiatric drugs that treat the causes of depression rather than the peripheral disease-related phenomena. Ardyflo and Kim speculate that drugs that reverse or block the deleterious effects of chronically elevated stress hormones may help guard against some types of anxiety symptoms in depression, citing the preclinical evidence in rats. The research appears in the April issue of Behavioral Neuroscience, which is published by the American Psychological Association.

Very interesting article, Ellen! You know, in most businesses, if they were only getting that percentage of satisfaction from customers, they'd go under. Why is that not true for doctors? Secondly, this isn't going to come out right no matter how I say it, but there are so many folks who don't know enough to know they aren't getting what they need, so are "satisfied" all the way to death. So I think the numbers don't reflect the actuality of good health care. I think the they are much lower for that. Thanks for sharing this. Robin

I contacted my senators via email and will call them tomorrow. Here is a page that has all the information one needs to contact his/her senator: Contact Your Senator