Pronunciation: dye-AZ-e-pam
Chemical Abstracts Service Registry Number: 439-14-5
Formal Names: Alupram, Atensine, Diastat, Diazemuls, Evacalm, Solis, Stesolid, Tensium, Valium, Valrelease, Vival
Informal Names: Blues, Drunk Pills, Ludes, Mother’s Little Helper, V, Val
Type: Depressant (benzodiazepine class).
Federal Schedule Listing: Schedule IV (DEA no. 2765)
USA Availability: Prescription
Pregnancy Category: D

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We hear a lot about depression in general, but there’s a reason most of the ads we see for antidepressant medications feature women.

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Is depression the same for men and women? Not necessarily.

Men and women both may develop major depression with persistent sadness, hopelessness, sleep and appetite disturbance, lack of sexual interest, feelings of worthlessness, and suicidal thoughts.

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Most polular benzodiapines drugs:

Xanax - generic name Alprazolam

Valium - generic name Diazepam

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The focus of pharmacogenetic studies has largely been on those genes that encode enzymes responsible for the metabolism of medications. However, ethnic differences may also be affected by genes controlling the function and response of therapeutic targets. A well-established example of the difference that exists between different ethnic groups is the metabolism of alcohol. One of the enzymes responsible for the metabolism of alcohol is acetaldehyde dehydrogenase (ALDH), and 40%–50% of Asian subjects have a mutation that renders this enzyme inactive. The result is an uncomfortable “flushing” response, well known among many Asians even with a very small amount of alcohol (Agarwal and Goedde 1992; Yoshida 1993). It is now known that a mutation in a single nucleotide is responsible for the production of the inactive form of ALDH (Novoradovsky et al. 1995; Goedde et al. 1986).

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Research on anxiety and anxiety disorders is undergoing a paradigmatic transformation as disparate areas of psychiatric nosology, epidemiology, pharmacology and cognitive neuroscience converge towards an integrated understanding of the pathophysiology of these disorders.

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The history of the use of St. John’s Wort as an antidepressant. A more detailed account is given by Rosenthal.

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The therapeutic properties and advantages of the medicinal herb St. John’s Wort, and preparations derived from it, have been known for more than 2,000 years. However, the specific use of the plant as an antidepressant drug, or as a herbal preparation to treat depressive illness, is relatively recent and has come to the fore only in the last 20 years. St. John’s Wort was first mentioned in the Roman times by Pliny the Elder in the 1st century AD [1]; interestingly it was not to treat melancholia, although the condition was known at that time, but as a “seed of bracing quality which checks diarrhoea and promotes urine and is taken with wine for bladder troubles”. Read the rest of this entry »

Panic disorder is a widely spread anxious state that affects about 4% of all population. Women suffer from it six times more often than men. The typical start of a panic disorder is usually observed in adolescence and in the beginning of a mature age.
The exact cause of panic disorder origin is not clarified yet however it is known that there are changes in central nervous system connected to metabolism of serotonin and noradrenaline during it. Apparently, when a disease appears a significant role belongs to hereditary predisposition. Close relatives of those people who suffer from panic attacks often have the same symptoms or demonstrations of other anxiety states. Appearance of panic attacks quite often coincides with essential mental experience, stresses or changes in way of life: divorce, move, graduation, marriage, first-born birth and so on.
Often it is possible to trace a connection of panic disorder with negative emotions experienced in childhood. Approximately half part of children suffering from a school phobia (fear connected to school) has symptoms of panic disorders becoming adult.
It is possible to cure panic disorders if do it in time and with a help of professional medical interference. However, this disease may lead to severe consequences in the form of social isolation, disability and finally to a significant decline in living standards if not treated properly.

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It is known that panic attacks are accompanied with agoraphobia. We may note at once that it is senselessly to escape the places where you had a panic attack. Such places may be lift, subway, market and big supermarket, electric train and so on. People begin to escape a transport mainly because it may be stuffy; they are pressed in a crowd and there may be a fear that they’ll feel bad and nobody will help them, that they will not be able to control the situation and leave this place in time, that the train may stop in the railway tunnel, they will lose consciousness and so on. As a matter of fact, the panic attack may happen anywhere, even in own flat. It is impossible to escape all the places where panic attack may start. Following this logic of escaping, the patients sometimes even do not leave their homes, at least, alone. Introducing the restrictions concerning movements as well as that places where panic attacks occurred, you deprive yourself of many opportunities and, finally, appear in a social isolation: it is impossible to agree to have more high-paid job, which is situated far away from home, it is impossible to visit your friends, theatres, exhibitions, etc. Read the rest of this entry »