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Study links depression to low blood levels of acetyl-L-carnitine
Investigators at Stanford and elsewhere have shown, for the first time in humans, that low blood levels of acetyl-L-carnitine track with the severity and duration of depression.
People with depression have low blood levels of a substance called acetyl-L-carnitine, according to a Stanford University School of Medicine scientist and her collaborators in a multicenter study.
Naturally produced in the body, acetyl-L-carnitine is also widely available in drugstores, supermarkets and health food catalogs as a nutritional supplement. People with severe or treatment-resistant depression, or whose bouts of depression began earlier in life, have particularly low blood levels of the substance.
The findings, published online July 30 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, build on extensive animal research. They mark the first rigorous indication that the link between acetyl-L-carnitine levels and depression may apply to people, too. And they point the way to a new class of antidepressants that could be freer of side effects and faster-acting than those in use today, and that may help patients for whom existing treatments don't work or have stopped working.
Also at The Rockefeller University.
Acetyl-l-carnitine deficiency in patients with major depressive disorder (DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1801609115) (DX)
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday August 02 2018, @09:35AM (8 children)
This seems pretty straightforward to test. Acetyl-L-carnitine is easy to get as an OTC supplement and is already safe for human consumption. Its side effects are well known, as is how long it normally takes to build a blood level and for it to clear the body.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday August 02 2018, @12:36PM (2 children)
"No. I find drug tests degrading. You guys are still doing this stuff?"
"It's not a drug test; we want to know whether you're at risk for depression. Depressed people reduce productivity."
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Thursday August 02 2018, @01:31PM (1 child)
Too bad someone has not invented a simple "piss into this cup" test for psychopathic managers and C level people. After all, soulless psychopathic people with no empathy reduce productivity.
I thought paxil back in 1992 was supposed to be the magical cure all for depression. At least from the ads and press coverage I remember. Now some vets give prescriptions for paxil to some dogs that bite -- and under a generic name rather than the brand name.
The lower I set my standards the more accomplishments I have.
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday August 02 2018, @01:55PM
If there's one thing that history shows, it's that soulless psychopathic people with no empathy drive productivity, especially when the economic system in place provides an incentive to do so in a way that benefits everyone else at the same time.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday August 02 2018, @01:01PM (4 children)
Yep, and if the patient doesn't respond to depression after giving them supplements for a week or two, tell them that they just don't want to get well and threaten them with being committed to an insane asylum and strapped into an electric chair every day, then left in their cell to soil themselves if they don't start being happier.
Brings back memories of when colloidal silver was the cure-all and my da got frustrated that it wasn't working.
Bonus points if we can come up with a crazy interpretation of some verse in the bible that prophecies the discovery of acetyl-L-carnitine so that when da starts going crazy on Prednisone again he can jump straight to the conclusion of shape-shifting demons from the burning hells.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday August 02 2018, @01:16PM
Thanks for jumping the shark.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by DannyB on Thursday August 02 2018, @01:40PM (2 children)
You have this wrong. Prophecy for a drug, a cure would then contradict the shape-shifting demons explanation. It's like saying that a prophecy for the discovery of insulin -- which would then contradict the explanation that the seizures were due to demonic possession rather than diabetic or epileptic seizures treatable by drugs.
The current US Vice President (unless he has announced a change in his views) believes that such treatment works for turning gay people straight. So it should also work with depressed people and be the first line of treatment rather than drugs.
The lower I set my standards the more accomplishments I have.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday August 02 2018, @02:24PM (1 child)
Citation please, for the statement on the current US Vice President.
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Thursday August 02 2018, @06:57PM
After some googling . . .
I am able to find that a social media post from a few years ago makes this statement, and is false. So wherever I picked up that false meme shows how well such things can spread. I will stop using it.
I can also find that Mike Pence uses vague language which can be argued that it does or does not support gay conversion therapy. Even without the electric shock therapy, the idea of involuntarily subjecting anyone, especially a minor, to gay conversion therapy should be repugnant to anyone. The fact that the VP doesn't clarify his ambiguous language seems telling.
The lower I set my standards the more accomplishments I have.