Anti-suicide nasal spray for U.S. Army
US Army grants $3 million for anti-suicide nasal spray research
The U.S. Army gave $3 million to the University of Indiana to develop an antidepressant that can be taken as a nasal spray. The grant could speed the development of a portable and easy-to-use device for preventing mental health problems.
One of the reasons depression and suicidal tendencies are so challenging to treat is that most medicines can't easily be delivered to the brain. Your brain is protected by the aptly named blood-brain barrier, which is specifically designed to keep any outside material from getting inside. While that's good in most situations, the barrier also keeps out medicines.
The nasal spray uses a nanoparticle delivery approach to send very tiny droplets of a drug called thyrotropin-releasing hormone (TRH) into the body and across the blood-brain barrier. That way, the drug reaches the brain and dissolves slowly. TRH has demonstrated the potential to prevent suicide, depression, and bipolar disorder in other studies, but right now, a spinal tap is the only way to send it to the brain. If the researchers at the University of Indiana are successful, the delivery approach could lead to a new treatment that would be effective without being invasive. The technology could be applied to other diseases beyond mental illnesses, too.
Tragically, mental health problems are not uncommon in the military. Report for the year 2012:
The Army suicide pace this year is surpassing last year, particularly among active-duty soldiers where there is a 22% increase — 116 deaths so far this year vs. 95 during the same seven months last year, according to Army data.
The current Army suicide rate seven months into this year is 29 deaths-per-100,000, far surpassing last year's rate of about 23 deaths-per-100,000, says Bruce Shahbaz, an Army analyst. Those rates compare with a 2009 civilian rate — the latest available data — of 18.5 for a demographically similar population.
A new pattern has emerged this year with more suicides among veteran soldiers than among younger GIs, Shahbaz says.
Within the active-duty Army in 2012, there were 54 suicides among enlisted soldiers ranked sergeant or higher (not including officers ranked lieutenant or higher) compared with 46 among junior enlisted, the first time this has happened, Shahbaz says. The Army has traditionally viewed younger soldiers as the most vulnerable suicide population, but that may be changing, he says.
Shahbaz says one theory for the higher rate of suicide is that with the draw-down of troops from combat, soldiers are spending more time at home and the emotional adjustments have become a struggle.
The July record included 26 potential suicides among active-duty soldiers and 12 among National Guard or Reserve soldiers who were not on active-duty service. The 26 suicides are also a monthly all-time record high for the active-duty Army.
Fort Bragg, N.C., reported the most suicides of any Army installation so far this year with 13 deaths.
In a recent interview with USA TODAY, Gen. Ray Odierno, Army chief of staff, said suicides are now the most common form of death in the Army, claiming more lives that combat or motor vehicle accidents.
"We're very focused on this," Odierno said, citing a campaign begun this year aimed at improving emotional resiliency, closely monitoring soldier attitudes and regularly assessing support programs.
Suicides have increased across the military, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta told Congress last month. He said servicemembers of all branches are killing themselves at the rate of about one per day. "That is an epidemic," he testified. "Something's wrong."
The problem is worse within the Army, which saw its suicide rate double from 2004 to 2009, before stabilizing for three years.
Odierno says a key factor in reducing suicides is other soldiers assisting a troubled friend. "If we can start getting peers coming forward and telling somebody, 'Hey, we really might have a problem here,' that's when we're having success," he says.
TRH has antidepressant effects
Lead researcher Dr Michael Kubek claims that a chemical compound based on a thyrotropin-releasing hormone (TRH) is capable of almost-instantly cheering people up.
He told The Daily: “We've known since the 1970s that TRH has antidepressant effects, and it works quite rapidly. The bottom-line problem has been figuring out how to get it into the brain.”
But he emphasised that it wouldn’t replace anti-depressants.
He added: “The phase directly after starting an antidepressant is very vulnerable time frame in a patient's life. The nasal spray would stabilise them right away, while they wait for the anti-depressants to do their job.”
Dr Sandrine Dupre, a research associate in The University of Manchester’s Faculty of Life Sciences, told The Huffington Post UK: “TRH is an important chemical in the brain which has a central role in the regulation of many physiological processes.
"It is known to play a key role in helping the body produce thyroid hormones when it senses levels circulating in the blood have dropped – abnormal concentrations of thyroid hormones have been associated with depression.
“TRH administered as a nasal spray in rats has been shown to be an effective way of targeting the brain and had anti-seizure effects but the exact mechanisms involved are still not fully understood. The multi-functionality of this neuropeptide also makes it difficult to predict if the proposed anti-depression treatment will have an effect.”
General Lloyd J Austin III, Vice Chief of Staff of the Army, said earlier this year that in a career spanning 37 years, suicides were the toughest enemy that he’d ever faced.
The suicide rate among US soldiers is around 40% higher compared to civilians of a similar age – and there are more deaths from suicide than from combat or vehicle accidents, according to USA Today.
Suicide is the fourth leading cause of death for adults between the ages of 18 and 65 years. Every day, more than 100 Americans take their own life.
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