MIA Reports
From Compliance to Activism:
A Mother’s Journey
March 4, 2014
Through years of turmoil and confusion, Cindi Fisher’s enduring love for her involuntarily committed son gradually changed her from compliant mom to mental health civil rights activist. That’s when authorities banned her from even contacting her son. But could she be a bellwether of a coming nation-wide wave of protestors?Full Article
In The News
Jury Awards $3M to Family of 5-Year-Old With Topamax-Related Birth Defects
March 10, 2014
A Pennsylvania jury awarded $3 million to the family of a 5-year-old born with cleft palate and lip as a result of the mother taking Topomax during pregnancy. The jury ruled that Janssen Pharmaceuticals, a subsidiary of Johnson & Johnson, failed to warn of the risk of birth defects associated with the drug. “On behalf of the Anderson family and their child,” said a lawyer for the family, “we are proud to have held Janssen Pharmaceuticals responsible for its decision to sell Topamax without adequately warning families of the serious risks present during pregnancy.”
Iatrogenic Effects of the Chemical Imbalance Theory
March 10, 2014
Researchers (including MIA blogger Brett Deacon) found that study subjects given “a bogus biological but credible test demonstrating their depressive symptoms to be caused, or not caused, by a chemical imbalance in the brain” were more pessimistic and self-blaming regarding their prognosis, and viewed pharmacotherapy as more credible and effective than psychotherapy. The authors conclude “the present findings add to a growing literature highlighting the unhelpful and potentially iatrogenic effects of attributing depressive symptoms to a chemical imbalance.”
Psychotic Experiences Are Not Strongly Associated With Schizophrenia
March 7, 2014
Although psychotic experiences (PEs) and schizophrenia are thought to share similar etiological risk factors, PEs also co-exist with depression and, according to research from the U.K., are a weak predictor of genetic and environmental risk for schizophrenia. The data, published in Psychological Medicine, indicate that “disentangling aetiological pathways to PEs from those impacting upon co-morbid psychopathology might provide important insights into the aetiology of psychotic disorders.”
Early Life Risk Factors for Adult Suicide
March 7, 2014
Researchers from the U.K. and Canada identified early life risk factors from a 1958 birth cohort that predicted suicide up to 50 years later. The strongest factors for suicide were birth order (later-born children more at risk), young maternal age, emotional adversities (such as parental death, neglect, domestic tension, institutional care, and parental divorce/separation and bullying. The strongest link was for persons with three or more adversities.
J&J Settles With Montana for $5.9M in Risperdal Marketing Lawsuit
March 7, 2014
Subsidiaries of Johnson & Johnson have agreed to pay $5.9 million to settle Montana’s lawsuit over the company’s fraudulent marketing of Risperdal. According to the lawsuit, J&J and its subsidiaries knew that the drug could cause weight gain, diabetes, and vascular complications, but hid the risks. After approval by the FDA for adult schizophrenia and bipolar disorder in adults, the companies promoted the drug for various conditions in both adults and children.
50% of All Clinical Trials Go Unpublished
March 7, 2014
Half of the 600 randomly selected trials listed on ClinicalTrials.gov, a registry of publicly and privately supported clinical trials, had their results published in a journal, according to a report from Thomson Reuters Cortellis Clinical Trials. The report notes that lack or ambiguity in reporting clinical outcomes “could potentially be detrimental to clinical improvements.”
NIMH to Implement New Strategy for Evaluating Research Proposals
March 7, 2014
Thomas Insel, director of the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH), announced Wednesday that new funding for psychiatric research “will follow an experimental medicine approach in which interventions serve not only as potential treatments, but as probes to generate information about the mechanisms underlying a disorder.” Research will be expected to identify specific targets on which an intervention will have an effect, and meet standards for transparency.
Other Recent News
Around the Web
“‘I Wrote a New Story for my Nervous System’ — Neurosculpting, Neuroplasticity”
March 11, 2014
In the words of Monica Cassani; “This is so EXCITING. I listened to this with such complete and total delight. This interview with Lisa Wimberger is, in large part, what I have been creating for myself …”
“Inheriting Stress”
March 10, 2014
The author of a November, 2013 article in Biological Psychiatry, on the effects of pre-pregnancy stress that manifest in the offspring of rats over successive generations, writes in The New York Times “What explains this pattern? Does trauma lead to suboptimal parenting, which leads to abnormal behavior in children, which later affects their own parenting style? Or can you biologically inherit the effects of your parents’ stress, after all?”
“Reported High Rates of Military Mental Illness Are Wrong and Dangerous”
March 7, 2014
Allen Frances critiques the recent reports of high rates of mental illness in the military: “The research reported is not just a waste of tens of millions of dollars better spent actually helping our troops; it mischaracterizes them in ways likely to lead to even more over doses of prescribed medication and even more disadvantage in the job market.”
“How Much Do We Know About Schizophrenia and How Well Do We Know It?”
March 7, 2014
Research from Australia asks the question noted above, and answers “subtle, but diverse, structural brain alterations, altered electrophysiological functioning and sleep patterns, minor physical anomalies, neurological soft signs, and sensory alterations. There are markers of infection, inflammation or altered immunological parameters; and there is increased mortality from a range of causes. Risk for schizophrenia is increased with cannabis use, pregnancy and birth complications, prenatal exposure to Toxoplasma gondii, childhood central nervous system viral infections, childhood adversities, urbanicity and immigration (first and second generation), particularly in certain ethnic groups . . . We conclude that while our knowledge of schizophrenia is very substantial, our understanding of it remains limited.”
