商业周刊:阻止自杀的药物(3)

In the 1990s he was a psychiatry¹ professor, mentoring² then associate professor John Krystal at Yale and trying to figure out how a deficit³ of serotonin played into depression.

在20世纪90年代，丹尼斯·查尼是一名精神病学教授，指导耶鲁大学当时的副教授约翰·克里斯托，试图弄清楚血清素缺乏如何导致抑郁症。

Back then, depression research was all about serotonin. The 1987 approval of Prozac, the first selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor, or SSRI,

当时，抑郁症研究都关注血清素。1987年批准了抗抑郁药Prozac，这是首款选择性血清素再摄取抑制剂（SSRI），

ushered⁴ in an era of what people in the industry call me-too drug development, research that seeks to improve on existing medicines rather than exploring new approaches.

开创了业内人士称之为模仿性跟进的药物开发时代，即研究旨在改善现有药物药效，而不是探索新疗法。

Within this narrow range, pharmaceutical⁵ companies churned out blockbuster after blockbuster.

在这个狭窄的研究范畴内，制药公司大量生产出很多畅销药品。

One in eight Americans age 12 and older reported using antidepressants within the past month, according to a survey conducted from 2011 to 2014 by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

美国疾病控制和预防中心2011年至2014年进行的一项调查显示，八分之一的12岁及以上的美国人在过去一个月内使用过抗抑郁药。

Charney was a depression guy; Krystal was interested in schizophrenia. Their curiosity led them to the same place: the glutamate system, what Krystal calls the "main information highway of the higher brain."

查尼研究抑郁症，而克里斯托对精神分裂症很感兴趣，好奇心把他们引向同一个地方：谷氨酸系统，也就是克里斯托所说的“高阶大脑的主要信息高速公路”。

(Glutamate is an excitatory neurotransmitter, which helps brain cells communicate. It's considered crucial in learning and memory formation.)

（谷氨酸是一种兴奋性神经递质，可以帮助脑细胞进行交流。它被认为是学习和记忆形成的关键。）

They had already used ketamine to temporarily produce schizophrenialike symptoms, to better understand glutamate's role in that condition.

他们已经使用氯胺酮暂时产生类似精神分裂症的症状，以更好地了解谷氨酸在这种情况下的作用。

In the mid-1990s they decided⁶ to conduct a single-dose study of ketamine on nine patients (two ultimately dropped out) at the Yale-affiliated VA Connecticut Healthcare System in West Haven⁷ to see how depressed⁸ people would react to the drug.

20世纪90年代中期，他们决定在西汉文市康涅狄格州附属耶鲁大学退伍军人医疗系统中对9名患者（其中两名患者最终退出试验）进行一次氯胺酮单剂量研究，以了解抑郁症患者对药物的反应。

Outside the field of anesthesiology, ketamine is known, if it's known at all, for its abuse potential.

在麻醉学领域之外，氯胺酮因其存在可能被滥用的风险而广为人知。

Street users sometimes take doses large enough to enter what's known as a "K hole," a state in which they're unable to interact with the world around them.

街头毒品吸食者有时会服用大剂量氯胺酮，进入所谓的“K洞”状态（K是氯胺酮英文首字母），在这种状态下他们无法与周围世界互动。

Over the course of a day, those recreational doses can be as much as 100 times greater than the tiny amount Charney and Krystal were planning to give to patients.

在一天内，用于消遣而服用的氯胺酮剂量可能比查尼和克里斯托计划给病人服用的微量剂量高出100倍。

Nonetheless, they decided to monitor patients for 72 hours—well beyond the two hours that ketamine produces obvious behavioral effects— just to be careful not to miss any negative effects that might crop up.

尽管如此，他们决定对患者进行72小时监测，氯胺酮产生明显行为影响为两小时，他们的监测时间远远超过了这个时间，这样做只是不想错过任何可能产生的负面影响。

"If we had done the typical thing that we do with these drug tests," Krystal says, "we would have completely missed the antidepressant effect of ketamine."

克里斯托说：“如果我们只做有关这些药物测试的常规性工作，我们就无法监测到氯胺酮抗抑郁的药效。”

1 psychiatry   

n.精神病学，精神病疗法

参考例句：

• The study appeared in the Amercian science Journal of Psychiatry.这个研究发表在美国精神病学的杂志上。
• A physician is someone who specializes in psychiatry.精神病专家是专门从事精神病治疗的人。

2 mentoring   

n.mentoring是一种工作关系。mentor通常是处在比mentee更高工作职位上的有影响力的人。他/她有比‘mentee’更丰富的工作经验和知识，并用心支持mentee的职业（发展）。v.（无经验之人的）有经验可信赖的顾问( mentor的现在分词 )

参考例句：

• One of the most effective instruments for coaching and mentoring is the "role rehearsal" . 辅导和教学的最有效的手段之一是“角色排练。” 来自辞典例句
• Bell Canada called their mentoring system a buddy-buddy system. 加拿大贝尔公司称他们的训导系统是伙伴—伙伴系统。 来自互联网

3 deficit   

n.亏空，亏损；赤字，逆差

参考例句：

• The directors have reported a deficit of 2.5 million dollars.董事们报告赤字为250万美元。
• We have a great deficit this year.我们今年有很大亏损。

4 ushered   

v.引，领，陪同( usher的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• The secretary ushered me into his office. 秘书把我领进他的办公室。
• A round of parties ushered in the New Year. 一系列的晚会迎来了新年。 来自《简明英汉词典》

5 pharmaceutical   

adj.药学的，药物的；药用的，药剂师的

参考例句：

• She has donated money to establish a pharmaceutical laboratory.她捐款成立了一个药剂实验室。
• We are engaged in a legal tussle with a large pharmaceutical company.我们正同一家大制药公司闹法律纠纷。

6 decided   

adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的

参考例句：

• This gave them a decided advantage over their opponents.这使他们比对手具有明显的优势。
• There is a decided difference between British and Chinese way of greeting.英国人和中国人打招呼的方式有很明显的区别。

7 haven   

n.安全的地方，避难所，庇护所

参考例句：

• It's a real haven at the end of a busy working day.忙碌了一整天后，这真是一个安乐窝。
• The school library is a little haven of peace and quiet.学校的图书馆是一个和平且安静的小避风港。

8 depressed   

adj.沮丧的，抑郁的，不景气的，萧条的

参考例句：

• When he was depressed,he felt utterly divorced from reality.他心情沮丧时就感到完全脱离了现实。
• His mother was depressed by the sad news.这个坏消息使他的母亲意志消沉。