Yearly Archives: 2012
One in Seven Scots Take Antidepressants
Following a fourfold-increase in antidepressant use in Scotland over the last two decades, one in seven Scots are taking the drugs. Prescriptions for antipsychotics...
DSM-5: Inter-Rater Reliability on the Decline
1 Boring Old Man reviews the decline in inter-rater reliability from the DSM-II to the DSM-5.
1 Boring Old Man →
NY Times: “A Call for Caution in the Use of Antipsychotic Drugs”
Professor of psychiatry Richard Friedman traces the history of antipsychotics in the New York Times Health section yesterday, finding that the promise of atypical...
More From Finland
The 17th International Conference on the Treatment of Psychosis included nurses, psychologists, psychiatrists, and other clinicians as well as several persons with lived experience and at least one philosopher, anthropologist, family member, and chaplain. I will try to summarize what I learned and experienced.
J&J Tries to Block a Reporter from Courtroom
Philadelphia Inquirer reporter David Sell writes of Johnson & Johnson's attempt to remove him from the courtroom during jury selection for the upcoming Risperdal...
J&J CEO Does Not Have to Testify in Risperdal Gynecomastia Trial
In a victory for Johnson & Johnson, a Philadelphia judge ruled that CEO Alex Gorsky cannot be called as a witness by the plaintiff,...
It Takes More Than a Pill to Heal From Depression
"To optimize the function of the healing system, you must do everything in your power to improve physical health, mental/emotional health, and spiritual health... One must see the whole picture of health, and understand the importance of working on all fronts."
Andrew Weil, Eight Weeks to Optimal Health
Family Economic Context Linked to Adolescents’ Antipsychotic Use
In a study of the Swedish Medical Birth Registry published in the British Medical Journal, researchers identified all 324,510 single children born between 1988...
J&J CEO Too Busy to Testify in Gynecomastia Trial
David Sell writes in the Philadelphia Inquirer about the travels and tribulations of Johnson & Johnson CEO Alex Gorsky, who will be too busy...
Mental Health Rights, Pharma, and the Election
Jim Gottstein writes in Pharmalot about developments in the mental health rights field, how pharma has contributed (positively or negatively), and how the upcoming...
Recognition That “Mental Illness” Is Not What We’ve Been Told
Monica Cassani reviews an article in the Wilson Quarterly about the changing paradigm of mental illness and the failure of the psychopharmacological era.
Beyond Meds...
Schizophrenia-Immune System “Link” Opens the Door to Research
"In order to expose people to dangerous treatments - and immunosuppresive drugs do carry risks - you need serious evidence to suggest those drugs...
Remembering the 2003 Fast For Freedom: Time for Another?
On August 16, 2003, six individuals who had travelled from all over the country – Brooklyn; Wilmington, Delaware; Chicago; Portland – to Pasadena, California,...
$11 Billion in Drug Industry Fines Not Enough
The U.K.'s Independent asks whether the $11 Billion in fines that the drug industry has racked up, and related "corporate integrity agreements," are enough...
Profile of J&J CEO Alex Gorsky
1 Boring Old Man reviews the rise, and possible fall and its implication, of Johnson & Johnson CEO Alex Gorsky; who has built his...
Ritalin Increases Risk-Taking in Women
Women who were asked to play a gambling were significantly more likely to keep betting when the stakes increased if they had taken Ritalin...
Woman “Jacked Up” on Zoloft Kills Baby
Saying that she had been "jacked up" on a new medication (Zoloft) and had not slept for five or six days, a Milwaukee man...
2nd-Generation Antipsychotics Cause Extrapyramidal Side Effects as Much as 1st-Generation
According to researchers from Yale and the U.K., the improvements in extrapyramidal side effects expected from 2nd-generation antipsychotics has not been realized, while the...
Sales of Antipsychotics Predicted to Drop, Then Hit a High by 2021
After a drop to $6.5 billion in 2014, due to the loss of patent protection by the Seroquel, Zyprexa, and Abilify, sales of antipsychotics...
Texas Teen’s Lawyers Seek Testimony From J&J CEO
Lawyers for a Texas teenager whose lawsuit, one of 400 Johnson & Johnson faces over personal injuries caused by Risperdal, is set to begin...
Class Action Lawsuit Granted Over Pfizer Antidepressant’s Effects on Heart, Liver and Profits
Pfizer will face a class action lawsuit by investors who claim that the drugmaker's Wyeth unit failed to disclose information about its antidepressant Pristiq's...
Are You Committed to Eliminating Labels and Medications With Emotional Distress?
I am committed. Fully committed to creating a solution. Are you with me? I think medications and labels for people experiencing emotional distress should be almost entirely eliminated, and should not be applied first, for everyone and forever, to people experiencing extreme states. Our current mental health system is a permanent solution to a temporary problem. We need mental health exit ramps, we need human ways to help each other in crisis and through adversity, we need compassion and love and friendship in times of struggle. We need each other.
Beyond Meds: “Healer Heal Thyself”
Monica Cassani writes in "Beyond Meds" about the general lack of self-awareness among mental health treaters and the consequent lack of a recovery orientation...
J&J CEO Avoids Testimony in Philadelphia Risperdal Case
Chief executive Alex Gorsky was once proud enough of Risperdal to put its sales numbers on his resume, according to the Philadelphia Inquirer today,...
Risperdal Whistle-Blower Honored in Texas, Fired in Pennsylvania
Allen Jones, the whistle blower whose testimony resulted in a $158 million settlement by Johnson & Johnson for fraudulent marketing of Risperdal in Texas,...
