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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Nov. 19, 1980)
Page 8 THE BATTALION WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 19, 1980 Local/ National Class of’84 dance set Thursday Trying to cure disorders The Class of ’84 will hold a dance Thursday from 8 p.m. to midnight p.m. at Cell Block Five. The dance will be their first fundraiser with proceeds going to the March 6 Freshman Ball. Live music will be provided by Red Stegall. Admission to the dance is $5 per person. Tickets may be bought in the Memorial Student Center or from class officers and representa tives. Beer and setups will be free with the price of admission. Corps underclassmen will have a free night out, class president Jay Cross said. Cross said the Class of ’84 will probably have more fundraisers in conjunction with Cell Block Five, and will also sell T-shirts to raise money. Prof studies schizophrenia bunch-a-b’loons a fun way to say almost anything ask about our BONFIRE BUDDY SPECIAL! call weekdays 1-5 696-4179 Friday, 7:30 p.m. All Conceris Free ' ' " OASJS ffyf ACTION *ith tmr ADS Advertise an item in the Battalion. Call 845-2611 By BELINDA McCOY Battalion Reporter Physical health is a high price to pay for mental health, but that is exactly the price that some schizophrenics must pay. With the currently available treatment for schi zophrenia, serious side effects usually result. Only about half of the cases can be controlled. Not cured, just controlled, said Dr. Susan Robinson, professor of medical pharmacology at Texas A&M University. Schizophrenia is one of two major forms of psychoses — mental disorganizations which re sult in personality disorders. The cause of schizophrenia is still unknown, said Robinson, and so is its treatment in many cases. Robinson is currently conducting a three-year study, funded by a grant from the National Insti tutes of Health, to develop new drugs to treat schizophrenia. She is studying the brains of labor atory rats to better understand the human brain. “Actually I’m trying to make (something) like a map of the brain,” said Robinson. “If we know how the brain is put together, then we can design drugs that act at a certain point, and then we could see if that helps schizophrenics.” Schizophrenia is characterized by a thought disorder, said Robinson. “They (schizophrenics) just can’t see things straight,” she said. There are three common types of schizophre nia. In catatonic schizophrenia — which is char acterized by zombie-like behavior — a patient just sits and stares at a wall, said Robinson. It is the most easily recognized form of the disease and also the most easily controlled. “If we know how the brain is put together, we can design drugs that act at a certain point, ’’said Dr. Susan Robison, profesor of medical pharmacology, “and then we could see if that helps schizophrenics. “ Paranoid schizophrenia exists when a patient thinks that “everybody is out to get them.’ In the third form of schizophrenia, hebephrenic, a pa tient can only talk nonsense. It is thought that schizophrenia is caused by an excess of a chemical substance in the brain called dopamine. The brain works by electrical impulses, ex plained Robinson. The neurons in the brain com municate to start those electrical impulses by re leasing chemical substances called neurotrans mitters. Dopamine is one of about 25 neurotransmitters known today. Too much dopamine is believed to cause schizophrenia by creating a biochemical short-circuit in the brain. i® Some drugs — called antipsychotic cU have been developed to treat schizophrenia U most important of these, Thorozine, wasdL vered accidentally in France. " At one time, said Robinson, it was thouiM sleep therapy helped mental patients. So U tuates were given to them. 1 To speed up the effect of the barbito Thorozine, an anti-histamine, was deveU Eventually it was found that Thorozine ba<T tain effects on schizophrenia on its ownbybli ing reception of dopamine in the brain. Today Thorozine is one of the most comm# used anti-psychotic drugs. But the drugs are5 always effective on all forms of schizophrenia “Only about one-half of the mental patient helped by the anti-psychotic drugs now ^ able,” said Robinson. “There are a whole lot chronic schizophrenics that these drugs fe help at all.” There are also two serious, automatic s| effects of the drugs. One of those side effects ist development of Parkinson’s disease, abraini ease which in this case will go away as soonasfe use of the drugs is ceased. The other side effect, tardive dyskinesiii permanent, even if the patient stops taking drugs. Tardive dyskinesia does not damage thebrt said Robinson, but it changes the neurotranstf ter receptors in the brain. It is characterized: uncontrolled movements of arms and facial nw- ments, and can sometimes be embarrassingtotl patient and family. “They look like freaks and they can’t conrj what they are doing,” Robinson said. & Aggie ' : ''l 1 MX missile support bases " Christmas Cards 1 named in Utah and Nevada and Wrapping Paper £ on Sale in the MSC Nov. 17-22 4 United Press International SALT LAKE CITY — The Air Force confirmed Tuesday that it pre fers to locate the primary support base for the proposed MX missile system in Coyote Springs, Nev., and the secondary base at Milford, Utah. Ken Olson, Utah coordinator for the MX proposal, said he was in formed by Air Force officials that a draft environmental impact state ment on the nuclear weapons system would list the two communities as recommended sites to house support personnel. Coyote Springs, about 60 miles northeast of Las Vegas, would serve as the primary support base for the mammoth $33 billion missile sys tem, while about 6,500 Air Force workers and their families would live near Milford, 45 miles east of the Utah-Nevada state line in Beaver County. Olson said the Air Force environ mental statement would be released during the second week of Decem ber. Utah and Nevada officials will then take about 90 days to analyze and respond to the document. “We presume that during that 90- day period the new Reagan adminis tration will also be formulating its policy concerning basing modes for the MX,” he said. Pentagon officials have recom mended building 4,600 concrete launch sites in the Great Basin of Utah and Nevada to house 200 multi- 9 a.m.-4 p.m. OIVFIRE t * P* TAKE ADVANTAGE OF PRE- SALE PRICES! PRE-SALE WB yL DAYS ARE NOV. 16-25 FROM 10-2 DAILY IN THE MSC MAIN v HALLWAY SPONSORED BY JJ MSC CAMERA COMMITTEE. yL Picture Size Pre-sale Price Post-sale Price ATTENTION OFF CAMPUS STUDENTS OFF CAMPUS STUDENTS MAY PURCHASE BOARD DINING FOR THE SPRING SEMESTER. Dining space will be available in Sbisa, Commons, and Duncan Dining facilities. Sign up for the board plan during pre-registration. warhead missiles. The miss:® would be moved from bunke!|[ bunker to thwart enemy detection I specific missile locations. Olson said preliminary studies: i the Utah MX office indicate Mi f would be a good support base sits "One advantage of the Milfordsi ^ is that it is about equadistant k Cedar City and Beaver — allow: all three communities to share li | social impacts and economic benet of the settlement of thousands military personnel,” he said. But Olson said the draft envin* mental statement probably wool not include Air Force recommeno tions on the best way to provii housing and services for its II workers. The Air Force has indicated might house all of the technici» security personnel and their depet dents on the base itself, he said. H he also said those workers might I' located off-base if communities! the area had available housing. “Unfortunately, what.— to rely excessively on the free mark when the housing industry is in w ly bad shape, Olson said. lit® prefer to have their employees '■ off-base, we think they should W* providing federal funds to help cot munities provide water, sewer i£ street services associated wit housing. He said such federal investment- localities would help contracto build additional housing units nw quickly and cheaply. As many as 16,000 r . move to the Milford area to work! the MX if that site is approved on secondary base, the Utah coord® tor said. 8x10 11x14 16x20 8 2.50 *8.00 *15.00 *3.50 *10.00 *20.00 Show Your Support For House Speaker BILLY CLAYTON class of ’50 at a pre-game APPRECIATION BAR-B-Q TEXAS HALL OF FAME, F.M. 2818 SATURDAY NOV. 22 11:00A.M. TO 1:00 P.M. nd Tickets available at all financial institutions and MSC Thurs & Fri. Adults — *10 Students — *5