Rebecca Brachman: Could a drug prevent depression and PTSD?
Rebecca Brachman: ¿Podría una droga prevenir la depresión y el TEPT?
Rebecca Brachman is a pioneer in the field of preventative psychopharmacology, developing drugs to enhance stress resilience and prevent mental illness. Full bio
Double-click the English transcript below to play the video.
para pacientes con tuberculosis,
in the late 1800s,
a fines del siglo XIX,
what was causing this disease.
de esta enfermedad.
that made you susceptible.
una sensibilidad exacerbada
it gave you heightened sensitivity
que la tuberculosis era causada
that tuberculosis was caused
altamente contagiosa,
bacterial infection,
develop drugs to treat it.
medicamentos para tratarla.
a new drug, iproniazid,
una nueva medicina: iproniazida,
might cure tuberculosis,
la tuberculosis.
they were "dancing in the halls."
que "bailaban por los pasillos".
because they were getting better.
que estuvieran mejorando:
as being "inappropriately happy."
como "inapropiadamente felices".
antidepressant was discovered.
el primer antidepresivo.
is not uncommon in science,
no son poco comunes en la ciencia,
than just a happy accident.
que solo un accidente feliz;
para que éste ocurra.
for discovery to occur.
I'm going to talk to you a little bit
como opuesto a la suerte casual,
the opposite of dumb luck --
de los cincuentas,
y ahora podemos curar la tuberculosis.
and we can actually now cure tuberculosis.
though not necessarily in other countries,
quizá no en otros países,
are not too worried about TB.
no les preocupe mucho la tuberculosis.
in the early 1900s
a los trastornos psiquiátricos.
about psychiatric disorders.
of an epidemic of mood disorders
de trastornos emocionales,
stress disorder, or PTSD.
de estrés postraumático, TEPT.
in the United States
los adultos en EE. UU.
experienced it personally
que si no lo has experimentado
that someone you know has,
que conozcas lo sufra,
a la diabetes y a la guerra,
of disability worldwide.
de discapacidad a nivel mundial.
maníacos a los pacientes,
that was making people manic,
ward and the antihistamine,
como con el antihistamínico,
to do one thing --
o combatir alergias,
or suppress allergies --
something very different --
completamente diferente:
is actually quite challenging.
es bastante desafiante.
la iproniazida en el estado de ánimo,
this mood-enhancing effect of iproniazid,
what they saw.
of being a tuberculosis drug
como un efecto secundario adverso.
are experiencing severe euphoria.
experimentaban una euforia severa
that this might somehow interfere
interferir de algún modo
only be used in cases of extreme TB
en casos extremos de TB,
muy estables emocionalmente,
highly emotionally stable,
of how we use it as an antidepressant.
de su uso como antidepresivo
from the perspective of this one disease,
la perspectiva de esta enfermedad,
con la otra enfermedad.
for another disease.
it's not entirely their fault.
is a bias that affects all of us.
nos afecta a todos.
be able to think of an object
use or function.
o función tradicional.
sea bastante difícil
pretty hard for all of us,
a TV show to the guy who was,
para la readaptación.
en la iproniazida como el la imipramina,
of iproniazid and imipramine,
or people dancing in the halls.
bailando en los pasillos.
que se les descubriera.
they were caught.
qué más hemos pasado por alto.
what else we've missed.
a case study in repurposing.
de readaptación.
that are really important.
que son muy importantes.
los niveles de serotonina,
increase levels of serotonin,
right, one or the two,
no ser tan importantes,
hacer medicinas más seguras,
that we had to develop safer drugs,
un buen punto de partida.
like a pretty good place to start.
en la serotonina, específicamente,
to more specifically focus on serotonin,
reuptake inhibitors, so the SSRIs,
de la recaptación de serotonina,
just worked on optimizing those drugs.
casi en solo optimizar esas medicinas.
que las medicinas anteriores,
than the drugs that came before them,
muchos efectos secundarios,
entre 4 y 6 semanas en muchos pacientes.
in a lot of patients.
con quienes sí funcionan.
where they do work.
where these drugs don't work.
estas medicinas no funcionan.
para ningún trastorno emocional,
for any mood disorders,
que inhiben los síntomas.
taking a painkiller for an infection
un analgésico para una infección
esa enfermedad subyacente.
to treat that underlying disease.
in our thinking
nos ayudó a reconocer
that iproniazid and imipramine
podían ser readaptadas así,
de la serotonina, con la que luego,
this is a dramatization.
esto es una dramatización.
and remove our bias, right,
suprimir nuestro prejuicio,
sobre nuestros resultados.
as to what our results will be.
in what we choose to study
se asoman en lo que elegimos estudiar
for the past 30 years,
durante los últimos 30 años,
isn't all there is to depression?
que existe para la depresión?
cuánto tiempo,
doctors have discovered
los doctores han descubierto
realmente nuevo desde los ISRS,
antidepressant since the SSRIs,
within a few hours or a day,
en cuestión de horas o en un día,
which is another neurotransmitter.
que es otro neurotransmisor.
como anestesia en cirugía.
as anesthesia in surgery.
relativamente rápido,
was an antidepressant,
era un antidepresivo,
a better antidepressant,
sea mejor antidepresivo
that it's a better antidepressant
de ser un mejor antidepresivo,
as an antidepressant in mice.
antidepresivo en ratones.
realmente corta,
a really short half-life,
within a few hours.
lo desecha en pocas horas.
una inyección a los ratones
another experiment to save money.
para economizar.
no funcionar en absoluto.
like it didn't really work at all.
de depresión por años,
of depression for years,
Calypsol a los ratones
that one injection of Calypsol
is actually the measure of them walking.
la medida de lo que caminaban.
another mouse in a pencil cup
en un portalápiz
por si no está claro.
in case that's not clear.
in this depression model,
en este modelo de depresión,
trasera, detrás del portalápiz.
in that back corner, behind a cup.
una inyección de Calypsol,
that one injection of Calypsol,
had never been stressed at all,
Calypsol antes como anestesia,
Calypsol before as anesthesia,
some weird effects on cells
en las células y en otros comportamientos
long after the drug,
después de la medicina,
when you're not sure,
lo repetimos de nuevo.
to test them,
a otra para evaluarlos,
on the floor with the computer in her lap
con la computadora en su regazo
the data in real time.
en tiempo real.
de experimentos en una prueba,
in an animal room where you're testing,
estuvieran protegidos contra el estrés
were protected against stress,
como quieran llamarlo.
however you want to call it.
because it was too good to be true.
in a physiological model,
halfway across the world in France run it.
en Francia lo ejecutaran.
se confirmaba lo mismo.
they confirmed the same thing.
this one injection of Calypsol
against stress for weeks.
desde entonces,
have independently confirmed this effect.
este efecto independientemente.
es la causa inicial,
is the initial trigger
are different diseases,
pero tienen algo en común:
they share in common.
o en desastres naturales,
o las agresiones sexuales,
stress disorder,
de estrés postraumático.
develops a mood disorder.
desarrollan un trastorno emocional.
estrés y ser fuertes
stress and be resilient
depresión o TEPT
depression or PTSD
que era un tipo de cualidad pasiva.
as just sort of this passive property.
de susceptibilidad
the first resilience-enhancing drug.
que mejora la resistencia.
cantidad del medicamento,
a tiny amount of the drug,
con los antidepresivos.
you see with antidepressants.
lo que se ve con las vacunas.
to what you see in immune vaccines.
you'll get your shots,
that protects you.
lo que te protege.
to this bacteria that fights it off,
nuestros tratamientos, ¿no?
from, say, our treatments. Right?
estás expuesto a la bacteria,
you're exposed to the bacteria,
say, an antibiotic which cures it,
un antibiótico que te cura
de hecho, matando a la bacteria.
to kill the bacteria.
with this palliative,
antes sobre el paliativo,
that will suppress the symptoms,
the underlying infection,
during the time in which you're taking it,
durante el tiempo que lo tomes,
como factor de riesgo,
solo inhiben los síntomas,
have to keep taking them
continuar tomando la medicina
the length of your own life.
la duración de tu propia vida.
drugs "paravaccines,"
para mejorar la resistencia "paravacunas",
que pueden tener el potencial
like they might have the potential
stress disorder.
de estrés postraumático.
are also paravaccines.
son también paravacunas
de proteger a personas
como la depresión y el TEPT.
like depression and PTSD.
en emergencias y bomberos,
and firefighters,
de estas enfermedades,
of the scale of these diseases,
de enfermedades
and is therefore expected to rise
que aumente a seis billones
in just the next 15 years.
because of our prior biases.
debido a nuestros prejuicios.
as an anesthetic.
el mundo como anestesia.
We use it on the battlefield.
en muchos de los países en desarrollo,
in a lot of developing nations,
list of most essential medicines.
Mundial de la Salud
la ketamina como paravacuna,
as a paravaccine first,
with our functional fixedness
con nuestra inflexibilidad funcional,
que interfieren.
compuesto que hemos descubierto
the only compound we have discovered
paravaccine qualities,
profilácticas y paravacunas.
we've discovered,
they're totally new,
de aprobación de la FDA,
the entire FDA approval process --
they can ever be used in humans.
que se puedan usar en humanos.
que está a la venta.
del precio y en poco tiempo.
of the price and a fraction of the time.
funcional y los patrones mentales
functional fixedness and mental set,
para la readaptación de las medicinas,
to repurposing drugs,
and no longer exclusive
sin patente y deja de ser exclusiva,
to develop them,
no producen dinero.
aplica para todos los medicamentos.
That is true for all drugs.
is completely novel in psychiatry,
completamente nueva en la psiquiatría,
prevenir trastornos mentales
100 years from now,
en la depresión y el TEPT
at depression and PTSD
con los sanatorios de tuberculosis,
at tuberculosis sanitoriums
of the mental health epidemic.
de la epidemia de trastornos mentales.
un hombre sabio continúa adivinando".
ABOUT THE SPEAKER
Rebecca Brachman - Neuroscientist, writer, entrepreneurRebecca Brachman is a pioneer in the field of preventative psychopharmacology, developing drugs to enhance stress resilience and prevent mental illness.
Why you should listen
Current treatments for mood disorders only suppress symptoms without addressing the underlying disease, and there are no known cures. The drugs Rebecca Brachman is developing would be the first to prevent psychiatric disorders such as post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and depression.
Brachman completed her PhD at Columbia University, prior to which she was a fellow at the National Institutes of Health, where she discovered that immune cells carry a memory of psychological stress and that white blood cells can act as antidepressants and resilience-enhancers. Brachman's research has been featured in The Atlantic, WIRED and Business Insider, and her work was recently described by Dr. George Slavich on NPR as a "moonshot project that is very much needed in the mental health arena."
In addition to conducting ongoing research at Columbia, Brachman is an NYCEDC Entrepreneurship Lab Fellow and cofounder of Paravax -- a biotech startup developing vaccine-like prophylactic drugs ("paravaccines") -- along with her scientific collaborator, Christine Ann Denny. She is also working on a non-profit venture to repurpose existing generic drugs for use as prophylactics, and previously served as the Interim Program Director for Outreach at the Zuckerman Institute at Columbia University.
Brachman is also a playwright and screenwriter. She holds Bachelor's degrees in both neuroscience and creative wWriting, and she is currently working on a tech-focused writing project with her long-time writing partner, Sean Calder ("Grimm," "Damages," "ER"). She served as the director of NeuWrite, a national network of science-writing groups that fosters ongoing collaboration between scientists, writers and artists, and she has been featured as a storyteller at The Story Collider.
(Photo: Kenneth Willardt)
Rebecca Brachman | Speaker | TED.com