Foster Youths Meet Psychiatry: First – Do No pHarm

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When a foster youth encounters a Psychiatrist, chances are high that s/he will get medicated. Traumatized foster youth are often prescribed powerful psychotropics due to exhibiting a wide variety of “normal reactions to abnormal events,” such as despair, agitation, anxiety and self-harm. The practice has been well documented; foster children are prescribed psychotropics at a 2.7 to 4.5 times higher rate than non-foster youth. The National Center for Youth Law aptly summarizes the problem as; too many (25% of foster youth medicated), too soon (300 children under the age of 5 in California are given psychotropics annually) too much (adult dosages) and for too long (no planning or reviews for possible discontinuation).

SCOTUS Declines Risperdal Appeal, J&J to Pay $124 M

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On Monday, the US Supreme Court declined to hear Johnson and Johnson’s final appeal, forcing the company to pay $124 million for the deceptive marketing of the antipsychotic Risperdal. In 2011, South Carolina ordered the company to pay $327 million for pursuing “profits-at-all-costs” in its efforts to persuade doctors to prescribe their drug, but the fine was lowered to $136 million last year. The company had hoped to argue that the remaining penalties constituted an “excessive fine” and was supported by PhRMA, the Washington Legal Foundation, the Cato Institute and the Chamber of Commerce.

New Research Documents Widening Mortality Gap for Bipolar and Schizophrenia

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Analysis of longitudinal data from 2000-2014 demonstrate mortality gap is widening between persons with a diagnosis of bipolar or schizophrenia compared to the general population

Type 2 Diabetes and Antidepressant Use: Is There a Causal Link?

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From EndocrinologyAdvisor: A recent meta-analysis suggests that antidepressant drug use may increase patients' risk of diabetes. According to the lead investigator, over 1 million diabetes...

More Evidence That Physical Activity Prevents Depression

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Higher levels of physical activity serve as a protective factor for the future development of depression.

Researchers Search for Subgroups Where Antidepressants Are More Effective

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The researchers theorized that this increased effectiveness was due not to “antidepressant” properties, but rather to the drug’s side effects, which include insomnia, drowsiness, and nausea.

Over Ten Thousand Unfiled Claims Against Risperdal Over Breast Growth in Young Boys

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Johnson & Johnson is exposed to personal injury and product liability lawsuits over the failure to warn about Risperdal gynecomastia side effects in boys.

We Need Ecstasy and Cocaine in Place of Prozac and Xanax

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From Aeon: While psychiatric drugs are often ineffective and can have serious side effects, there are many psychedelics and other illicit substances that have proven...

Researchers Test Harms and Benefits of Long Term Antipsychotic Use

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Researchers from the City College of New York and Columbia University published a study this month testing the hypothesis that people diagnosed with schizophrenia treated long-term with antipsychotic drugs have worse outcomes than patients with no exposure to these drugs. They concluded that there is not a sufficient evidence base for the standard practice of long-term use of antipsychotic medications.

Overprescribing for Medicaid Kids Due to Shortage of Alternatives

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From Modern Healthcare: Physicians may be overprescribing psychotropic medications to children on Medicaid or CHIP, which may be partly due to inadequate access to alternatives...

“The Rise and Fall of the Blockbuster Antipsychotic Seroquel”

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Martha Rosenberg highlights how the popular antipsychotic Seroquel is a perfect example of how direct-to-consumer advertising made billion dollar blockbuster drugs possible before side-effects...

“Protect California Foster Youth from Dangerous Psychiatric Drugs”

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The Santa Cruz Sentinel reports on legislation being passed in California to go after physicians who overprescribe psychiatric drugs to foster youth. The proposed legislation also targets government agencies that fail to offer nondrug alternative therapies to help foster youth recover from traumatic childhoods.

Danish Study Finds Better 10-year Outcomes in Patients Off Antipsychotics

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Study finds that 74% of patients with a psychotic disorder off antipsychotics at end of 10 years are in remission.

Addressing Depression and Heart Disease with Exercise and Physical Activity

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A new study examines the effects of midlife exercise on depression and cardiovascular health later in life.

Claims That Long-term Antipsychotic Use Leads to Better Outcomes are Misleading, Researchers Argue

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Researchers reveal the limitations and misleading interpretations of two recent studies that claim to demonstrate that long-term antipsychotic use leads to better outcomes.

Dr. Nardo’s Series on Use of Antipsychotics for Depression

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On his website, Dr. Nardo details the hidden risks and bad science behind the growing practice of using atypical antipsychotics to augment antidepressant treatment for severe depression. The story of Atypical Antipsychotic Augmentation of Treatment Resistant Depression is a “prime example” “to illustrate how commercial interests have invaded medical practice.” “Besides the obvious dangers of the Metabolic Syndrome and Tardive Dyskinesia, these drugs don’t really do what they’re advertised to do – make the antidepressants work a lot better.”

Low-Carbohydrate Diet Superior to Antipsychotic Medications

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From Psychology Today: Research and case studies show that the ketogenic diet may be a promising treatment for psychosis and other mental health challenges. The ketogenic...

“Why Are So Many Children on Antipsychotic Drugs?”

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“Do they make people less aggressive? Yes, sometimes they do. Will they sedate people? Absolutely. Will they make kids easier to manage? They will,” Robert Whitaker tells Liz Spikol for Philadelphia Magazine. “But I know of no study that shows that medicating these kids long-term will help them grow up and thrive. The developing brain is a very delicate thing. The narrative is that these side effects are mild, and that’s just not true, and that the benefits are well-established, and so often they’re not.”

Do Voice Hearers Have the Right to Refuse Psychiatric Drugs?

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In this piece for STAT, Shirley S. Wang discusses the Hearing Voices Network and its non-pathologizing, rights-affirming approach to hearing voices and alternative realities. "Many recovered...

Everything Matters: a Memoir From Before, During and After Psychiatric Drugs

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Psych meds can not only put weight on regardless of how you otherwise care for yourself, they also tend to make people feel gravely lethargic and vaguely sick all the time. I could not exercise as I had before. Could not. It doesn't matter how much mental health professionals try to tell us that if we just exercised we'd be okay in the face of neurotoxic drugs that cause weight gain, because the fact is the drugs impede that capacity. This is not widely appreciated or understood and people on psych meds are again traumatized and made to feel guilty for something that is truly outside of their control as long as they are taking these medications.

Meta-Analysis Finds Exercise Improves Cognition in Individuals with Schizophrenia

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A new review, published in Schizophrenia Bulletin, examines the effects of exercise on cognition in individuals diagnosed with 'schizophrenia.' The results of the meta-analysis...

Kids Diagnosed with Autism More Likely to Get Psychotropic Drugs

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Children diagnosed with an Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) are much more likely to be prescribed a psychotropic medication.

ADHD Medication Slows Growth, Increases Obesity

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Treating attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) with stimulants affects growth and is likely to cause a higher BMI in later adolescence, according to research from...

No Metabolic Risk for Antipsychotic-Naive Patients

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An Austrian study of the baseline prevalence of metabolic abnormalities and changes following treatment with five commonly-used antipsychotic drugs (haloperidol, amisulpride, olanzapine, quetiapine or...

Withdrawing From Psychiatric Drugs: What Psychiatrists Don’t Learn

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“What I’d really like to do is stop everything,” I say. The reality is that psychiatrists are not the experts when it comes to getting people off psychiatric drugs.