Patent Application
Patent Application: Method and System for Diagnosis of Neuropsychiatric Disorders Including Chronic Alcoholism
Inventors: Jay W. Pettegrew, M.D. and Kanagasabai Panchalingam, Ph.D.
U.S. Continuation-In-Part (CIP) Patent claims priority from U.S. application No. 11/117,126
Utility Patent Application No. 11/209,318 filed August 23, 2005, published in the United States December 28, 2006, Patent No. 20060292547 A1.
U.S. Patent 7,700,074 issued April 20, 2010.
This invention relates to methods adapted for diagnosis of the progression of neuropsychiatric disorders, specifically chronic alcoholism disease. Chronic alcoholism is a diverse and heterogeneous disorder that can be dichotomized into cognitively intact and cognitively impaired subgroups. At a molecular level, ethanol has been shown to have both acute and chronic effects on: Membrane biophysical properties, Membrane composition and metabolism, Protein phosphorylation, Lipid metabolic signaling, Lipoprotein transport of cholesterol. There may be molecular underpinnings for cognitive impairment seen in some chronic alcoholism subjects.
There is a long-standing need within the medical community for a diagnostic tool for assessing cognitive impairment seen in some chronic alcoholism subjects. Such a tool would be extremely useful in the development of treatments that delay or prevent cognitive impairment due to chronic alcoholism