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</o:shapelayout></xml><![endif]--></head><body lang=EN-US link=blue vlink=purple><div class=WordSection1><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'>OK so I heard back from a contact whose identity I intentionally conceal. The short report is this: doctors are being swamped with requests for bexarotene, and some patients are going on their own and getting it through various channels. Doctors are doing their best to compile results, but it is far more complicated than watching mice making nests. For starters, bex is a powerful thyroid suppressant. About half the patients who take the meds start to show signs of hypothyroidism, which itself can cause Alzheimer’s-like symptoms, possibly making the patient appear to get worse if they were already prone to hyperthyroidism. The patients sometimes cut themselves off from their regular doctors, which deprives the medical community and the patient community of valuable data. The ethical dilemmas faced by the doctors are maddening to the point of being nearly overwhelming. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'>It turns out there are several different things that can cause intermittent mental dysfunction, and it is crazy difficult to separate and classify everything in every patient, a far bigger task than doctors can do in a few minutes a week visits. Families are so eager for any thread of hope, they may see signals in the data which are not there, creating reports that are mistakenly optimistic. Much if not most of the data may be false positives. The doctors must compensate for the hope effect, weighing the credibility of the various family members’ reports, which is itself wildly difficult to do. The best study group would be those who seldom get visits from family members, for these can be examined by a neutral observer under more controlled conditions. Then of course there is the thorny ethical problem of giving a possibly dangerous medication to a patient who is not fully capable of making an informed decision.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'>Dr. Landreth made the mouse observations in 2009, and discovered within minutes all the stuff that has taken us two weeks to realize. So he has been struggling with it ever since. I will put his picture back up on the piano, and thank evolution I didn’t go to medical school. I sure as hell wouldn’t want to be the doctor making these decisions for others.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'>If I find out anything worth reporting, I will do so. Good luck to all of us.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'>spike<o:p></o:p></span></p></div></body></html>