Triazenes: Synthesis and Chemical Properties.- Mechanisms of the Biological Actions of Triazenes.- Triazenes and Triazene N-Oxides: Antitumour Action in Animal Tumour Systems.- Antimestastatic Action of Triazene Derivatives.- Effects of Triazenes on Immune Responses.- Xenogenization of Experimental Tumors by Triazene Derivatives.- The Metabolism of Antineoplastic Triazenes.- Notes on the Metabolism, Pharmacokinetics and Mode of Action of N-Methyl and N-Ethyl-Triazenes in Relation to Their Pharmacological Activity.- Clinical Use of Triazenes.- Clinical Studies with the p-Carboxyl-Dimethyl-Phenyl-Triazene CB10-277.- Triazenes: Therapeutic Considerations and Perspectives.- Antitumor Imidazotetrazines: Prodrugs Targeted to the Major Groove of DNA.- O6-Alkylguanine-DNA-Alkyltransferase Gene Expression and the Cytotoxicity of Triazenes.- N-Methylmelamines, a Unique Class of Anti-Tumour Agents?.- Experimental Background and Early Clinical Studies with Imidazotetrazine Derivatives.- 'O6-Alkylguanine-DNA-Alkyltransferase: Significance, Methods of Measurement and Some Human Tumor and Normal Tissue Levels' (Contributions of the Workshop).- Summary of Poster-Sessions.- Contributors.

This book examines existing treatments, legislation and research methodology of depression and exposes their limitations, championing psycho-social support as an alternative. Depression, affecting 350 million people according to the World Health Organisation, is almost invariably diagnosed by the criteria of the American Psychiatric Association - a definition which encompasses those with normal emotional responses to stressful life events. Tullio Giraldi discusses recent developments in popular and academic dialogue related to the use of antidepressants and recent increases in depression diagnosis and laments the rise in prescribing antidepressants despite their links to suicide and unfulfilled promises of efficacy and safety. He argues that psychotherapy is a cost effective treatment devoid of drugs' adverse effects. This work presents psycho-social support as an alternative to antidepressants, particularly for less severe cases, and as a more effective strategy for coping with the emotional challenges of today's global reality. Patients, students of medicine and psychology, and professionals of mental health will find this work valuable.

This book critically examines the development of mindfulness, tracing its development from Buddhist meditation to its variety of popular applications today, including the treatment of mental disorders, wellbeing and improvement of performance. The book begins with a chapter on the meaning of mindfulness, then moves on to chart the spread of Buddhism into the western world and examine the development of Mindfulness Based Cognitive Therapy (MBCT). The second half of the book considers some of the growing concerns related to mindfulness such as the loss of the moral and communitarian values of Buddhism, and the psychologicization and medicalization of existential problems into a capitalist society.

More than 25 years have elapsed since the development of the seminal idea which led to the synthesis of dimethyl triazenes as antitumor agents. The original suggestion of Shealy et ale was to use 4-imidazone-carboxarnide as the carrier of a nitro- gen-containing cytotoxic function. 5-diazoimidazole-4-carbox- amide (diazo-IC) was synthesized and tested in mice as a potential inhibitor of de novo purine biosynthesis. Its lack of antitumor action was attributed to its polarity and to the resulting poor uptake of this hydrophilic chemical. Diazo-IC was then coupled with dimethylamine, yielding 5, (3,3-dimethyl- l-triazeno)imidazole-4-carboxamide) (DTIC) with the intention of obtaining a less polar and more lipophil~c prod rug which might release diazo-IC intracellularly. Preliminary tests showed that DTIC had good antiumor activity in experimental systems. Further tests demonstrated a broad spectrum of action against rodent tumors, and clinical trials indicated activity against human malignancies. Subsequent clinical use of DTIC has demonstrated its usefulness against malignant melanoma, for which it is currently the drug of choice, and its effective- ness in combination chemotherapy in the treatment of other human cancers. Because of its antitumor activity the mechan- ism of action of DTIC has been investigated in some detail. The original rationale for its development, that is, the hydrolysis in vivo to diazo-IC, has been shown not to be in- volved in th-e-mechansims of action. DTIC requires metabolic acti- vation before it exerts its biological effects.

This book critically examines the development of mindfulness, tracing its development from Buddhist meditation to its variety of popular applications today, including the treatment of mental disorders, wellbeing and improvement of performance. The book begins with a chapter on the meaning of mindfulness, then moves on to chart the spread of Buddhism into the western world and examine the development of Mindfulness Based Cognitive Therapy (MBCT). The second half of the book considers some of the growing concerns related to mindfulness such as the loss of the moral and communitarian values of Buddhism, and the psychologicization and medicalization of existential problems into a capitalist society.