Epidemiology
Worldwide, the prevalence of all hereditary spastic paraplegias combined is estimated to be 2 to 6 in 100,000 people. A Norwegian study of more than 2.5 million people published in March 2009 has found an HSP prevalence rate of 7.4/100,000 of population – a higher rate, but in the same range as previous studies. No differences in rate relating to gender were found, and average age at onset was 24 years. In the United States, Hereditary Spastic Paraplegia is listed as a "rare disease" by the Office of Rare Diseases (ORD) of the National Institutes of Health which means that the disorder affects less than 200,000 people in the US population. References
Further reading
GeneReviews/NCBI/NIH/UW entry on Spastic Paraplegia 3A
GeneReviews/NCBI/NIH/UW entry on Hereditary Spastic Paraplegia Overview
Warner, Tom (January–February 2007). "Hereditary Spastic Paraplegia" (PDF). Advances in Clinical Neuroscience and Rehabilitation. 6 (6): 16–17. External links
Spastic Paraplegia Foundation
Later, working at Laboratoires Aron in Paris, he was prompted by Garcias report to reinvestigate the blood sugar-lowering activity of metformin and several biguanide analogs. Sterne was the first to try metformin on humans for the treatment of diabetes; he coined the name "Glucophage" (glucose eater) for the medication and published his results in 1957.Metformin became available in the British National Formulary in 1958. It was sold in the UK by a small Aron subsidiary called Rona.Broad interest in metformin was not rekindled until the withdrawal of the other biguanides in the 1970s. Metformin was approved in Canada in 1972, but did not receive approval by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for type 2 diabetes until 1994. Produced under license by Bristol-Myers Squibb, Glucophage was the first branded formulation of metformin to be marketed in the U.S., beginning on 3 March 1995. Generic formulations are now available in several countries, and metformin is believed to have become the worlds most widely prescribed antidiabetic medication. Society and culture
Environmental
Metformin and its major transformation product guanylurea are present in wastewater treatment plant effluents and regularly detected in surface waters. Guanylurea concentrations above 200 μg/L have been measured in a German river, which are amongst the highest reported for pharmaceutical transformation products in aquatic environments. Formulations
The name "Metformin" is the BAN, USAN, and INN for this medication, and is sold under several trade names. Common brand names include Glucophage, Riomet, Fortamet, and Glumetza in the US.