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Originally Posted by flamesfever
Great minds think alike.
My wife suffers from MS, along with a number of our friends. I would be keenly interested in knowing how these findings are being received by the medical experts here in Calgary... and more importantly if they are acting on them.
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I guess the best answer would be very cautious optimism and significant skepticism. It is felt that these results need to be replicated by another group.
We were involved in a recent trial looking at the role of Lithium in ALS(Lou Gehrig's disease). A small Italian trail had shown no deaths in a group of ALS patients treated with lithium + riluzole(the standard treatment) compared to a third of patients dying on riluzole alone over the course of one year. As a result many patients started taking lithium. The study we performed mimicked the treatment of the Italian group but using a much more rigorous design. This was a multicentre study using the Canadian ALS Research Network(CALS) and the North East ALS Research Network (NEALS). There was no no benefit of lithium over placebo. People who took the lithium were only exposed to the side effects and not any potential benefit other than having hope. In the past we have seen similar patterns with other treatments.
One particularly compelling example is minocycline. Data in animals suggested benefit in ALS. Lots of patients decided to take minocyline on their own outside of a trial. Understandable in the context of a disease which kills you and has no treatment which can halt it. Unfortunately in the trial patients who took minocycline had a higher mortality rate than those who did not.
I look forward to the day when we have treatments for MS and ALS that can stop and potentially reverse the diseases. I hope this is a step forward for MS. I hope that repeated testing can show a benefit. However personally I remain skeptical. I hope I am wrong.
Charcot