Chemo brain – A psychotropic drug phenomenon?
Section snippets
Introduction: What is chemo brain?
The term ‘chemo brain’ refers to a spectrum of cognitive deficiencies which affect some 4–75% of cancer patients following treatment with chemotherapy [1], [2], [3]. Ranging in intensity from transient and mild, to intractable and severe, the main features of chemo brain include decrements in attention, concentration, memory, language, reaction time, speed of information processing, judgment, and planning [4], [5]. Despite its clinical significance, however, clinicians have been slow to
Evidence that chemotherapies cause chemo brain
Researchers at the University of Colorado performed a longitudinal investigation of eight breast cancer survivors, using a combination of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and magnetic resonance spectroscopy (MRS) techniques [6]. The neuroimaging studies were obtained at baseline (prior to chemotherapy), after the completion of induction chemotherapy (multiple cycles of doxorubicin hydrochloride, fluorouracil, and methotrexate), and again at intervals of 1, 3, 6, 9, and 12 months following the
Psychiatric drugs: evidence of cancer fighting properties
As oncologists have begun to accept the reality of chemo brain, along with the responsibility for modifying or avoiding the therapies which cause it, psychiatrists have been slow to recognize the possibility that their prevailing drug treatments may be similarly cytotoxic. An expanding body of scientific research has documented the potential utility of existing psychopharmaceuticals in the treatment of various cancers, based primarily upon in vitro findings Table 1.
The realization that a number
In vitro evidence for psychotropic chemo brain
Several recent investigations are pertinent to the discussion of psychotropic chemo brain. In a study of neuroleptic therapies, researchers in Israel screened a number of phenothiazines (thioridazine, perphenazine, fluphenazine) for their potential anti-tumor effects upon cancers of the brain [16]. The experimental procedures involved a number of sophisticated assays to determine drug-related changes in cell death and cell proliferation. Lab cultures included a rat glioma cell line, a human
In vivo evidence for psychotropic chemo brain
It is significant that clinical trials in the field of oncology have already capitalized upon the cytotoxic properties of psychiatric drugs. For example, researchers at the Moffitt Cancer Center in Florida recently published the results of the first Phase I drug trial using valproic acid as an adjuvant treatment for advanced solid tumors in humans [24]. Drawing upon the knowledge that valproic acid functions as an inhibitor of histone deacetylases (an effect which ultimately results in
Summary
A growing number of scientists are investigating the potential utility of psychotropic drugs in the treatment of cancer. Ironically, as specialists in the field of oncology have finally acknowledged the capacity of their longstanding chemotherapies to induce an iatrogenic condition known as chemo brain, psychiatrists have ignored a parallel condition of their own. Given the expanded utilization of psychotropic drugs in all specialties of medicine, the time has arrived for physicians to consider
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Executive functioning in 6 year old children exposed to chemotherapy in utero
2020, Early Human DevelopmentCitation Excerpt :However, data of the potential long-term effects of antenatal chemotherapy on the development of the child remain scarce. Studies in children and adult cancer patients treated with chemotherapy have shown that chemotherapeutic agents can impact their cognitive functioning [3–5]. The phenomenon of “chemo-brain” has been described as an array of long-term disturbances in cognitive functioning.
Effects of cancer treatment during pregnancy on fetal and child development
2017, The Lancet Child and Adolescent HealthCitation Excerpt :Adults and children with cancer who are treated with chemotherapy often report cognitive problems, such as disturbances in intelligence, attention, memory, language, information processing, judgment, and planning.64,65 These problems are often referred to as chemo-brain in the literature.66 Imaging studies have also found an association between changes in cognitive functioning and changes in cerebral white matter integrity in cancer survivors.67,68
The tyrosine kinase inhibitor, sunitinib malate, induces cognitive impairment in vivo via dysregulating VEGFR signaling, apoptotic and autophagic machineries
2016, Experimental NeurologyCitation Excerpt :Chemotherapy has long been proven an indispensable cornerstone in cancer management (Cavaletti et al., 2015). Nevertheless, chemotherapy use has been causatively linked to discrete devastating adverse effects which reduce patients' overall quality of life precluding them from resuming their pre-cancer lifestyle (Jackson, 2008). Cognitive dysfunction during and following chemotherapy, often referred to as “chemobrain,” has largely been reported in patients receiving chemotherapeutics whose cognitive problems worsened during treatment and were still evident 6 months after chemotherapy cessation (Kitamura et al., 2015).
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