ok... so everytime i seem to get a good idea for research it's all about mental illness.

not that i've looked too much into it, but supposedly people who are heterozygous for the genetic disorder that causes PKU have a phenylalanine sensitivity such that it will not (to use a horribly scientific term) fuck them quite in the obvious manner that it does to homozygotes. -BUT it can cause them tryptophan (and hence dopamine) deficiency as a result of comsuming things like aspartame that are LOADED with phenylalanine.

i was told that the prevalance of PKU heterozygotes ("het" hereafter) is like 1/35!!!!

holy shit. so imagine all the people who could have diet coke induced depression!

and so then i thought... ok. first step is a prevalance study. how many people presenting with depression are hets? then, let's do a double blind study (although the logistics may be difficult) to see if they get better with a simple low-normal phenylalanine diet. then we need to look into a good screening method. Genetic screens are costly and if we could just do something like a phenylalanine challenge and look at one of the metabolites known to accumulate in PKU... dude. like there's some fucking hot research to do!!!

seriously, there is so little *science* in psychiatry. we need more!!! and i AM passionate about it.

so maybe.... oh, it would be a good career... i think...

hm...