April 30, 2007

Chemo Brain

Jane Gross writes in Sunday's New York Times about chemo brain, in which folks who have received chemotherapy also exhibit signs of severe cognitive impairment. Mostly this is women who’ve received aggressive treatment for breast cancer -- one woman found 4 gallons of milk in her fridge after buying a fifth, with no recollection of having purchased the other four gallons.

Gross writes, "There is now widespread acknowledgment that patients with cognitive symptoms are not imagining things, and a growing number of oncologists are rushing to offer remedies, including stimulants commonly used for attention-deficit disorder and acupuncture."

Health: Chemotherapy Fog Is No Longer Ignored as Illusion
By Jane Gross ... Sunday, April 29, 2007
Research is leading to new attitudes about the cognitive side effects of life-saving treatment.

Natasha Mitchell, of Australia's All in the Mind radio programme, reported on chemo brain a few months ago. "[S]hort-term memory loss, foggy thoughts, fatigue - lingering sometimes years after chemotherapy. Could chemo be doing more than killing off cancer cells? New research suggests it may be more toxic to your nerve cells than cancer itself."

Our neurotoxic world (part one): Chemotherapy and the brain, from All In The Mind - 10 February 2007

Interesting stuff.

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