Schizophrenia patient credits Abilify for giving him freedom from mental illness
Kenneth Edwards used to be invisible.
When you sift through trash cans for scraps and smoke the remnants of other people's cigarettes, as he did, you can often go unseen.
Haunted by schizophrenic delusions, Edwards saw everyone as a threat. He chose to live penniless and on the edge of society, sleeping in makeshift shacks and surviving off the land, as he was in June 1999 when he was profiled in a Clarion-Ledger story on homelessness.
Edwards broke free of his demons 1 1/2 years ago when he became one of more than 1,200 schizophrenia patients worldwide to participate in a clinical drug trial for arpiprazole (Abilify).
Just six months earlier, he had been living under the Flowood bridge.
On Monday, the 61-year-old former college professor, now alone in Brandon, joined others in describing how the drug had changed their lives.
Known under the brand name Abilify, the anti-psychotic medication has been on the market since November 2002 after receiving Food and Drug Administration approval. Some local health advocates laud it as a "miracle" treatment for those with severe mental illness.
Nationally, about 22.1 percent of adult Americans suffer from a diagnosable mental disorder in a given year, according to the National Institute of Mental Health. Of those, 2.3 million have bipolar disease; 2.2 million have schizophrenia. In Mississippi, an estimated 111,000 adults suffer from serious mental illness.
Edwards, a former Knoxville, Tenn., resident and struggling writer, credits the small orange pill he takes daily for giving him freedom from mental illness without side effects like severe drowsiness and weight gain.
During Monday's visit to the Region 8 Mental Health Center, Edwards and other patients got to meet the Japanese researcher who created their miracle drug.
For the 22 years, Dr. Tetsuro Kikuchi of Tokyo had searched for a drug that would control a neurotransmitter in the brain called dopamine without totally shutting it off like some older anti-psychotic drugs. Reducing dopamine seems to help a schizophrenic's brain function more like those of healthy people.
Near the end of the clinical trials, Kikuchi was at an international meeting in Miami on mental illness when Dr. Skip Brister, medical director for Region 8, approached him.
Brister told him of the success he'd seen with the Abilify: Some patients were interested in their personal hygiene for the first time in years. Some found a renewed interest in faith.
Brister invited him to meet some of the people whose lives had been changed.
Kikuchi, who'd never seen those who had benefitted from his life work, accepted.
Through a translator Monday, Kikuchi said he was honored to make the visit. He snapped photos of the patients to memorialize his trip.
"This has really motivated me to develop a new compound because there are still improvements to develop," he said.
While Abilify seems to work better than the older drugs, officials said some patients still don't respond to it.
Kikuchi estimates it may take him 10 years to create an even better drug.
Debra Gore of Madison, who also attended the meeting Monday, just wanted to thank him for this one.
Gore said her daughter, Chantel Brown, 30, suffered a breakdown nine credit hours shy of securing her accounting degree from Louisiana State University. Diagnosed with bipolar disorder, she spiraled into manic episodes that left her so confused and delusional she had to be hospitalized.
Gore said medication eventually controlled her daughter's condition, but the side effects prevented her from living a normal life.
About a week after Brown began taking Abilify, Gore said she noticed an amazing difference. "I feel like my daughter is back," she said.
In a phone interview, Brown, now in North Carolina with her husband and two small children, said life's "been wonderful since I've gotten Abilify."
"I'm working full time and just living life to the fullest."
Source: The Clarion-Ledger
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