Cymbalta Withdrawal Lawsuit Moves Forward
The warning label for the antidepressant Cymbalta downplayed the risks of withdrawal effects, according to consumer lawsuits being filed in courts across the country. “An estimated 44% to 78% of people who stop taking Cymbalta (also known as duloxetine) will suffer from withdrawal reactions,” yet the warning label “suggests the risk is greater than or equal to 1%.”
“Childhood Poverty Linked to Brain Changes”
“Children from poorer families are more likely to experience changes in brain connectivity that put them at higher risk of depression, compared with children from more affluent families,” according to new research covered by Medical News Today. "Poverty doesn't put a child on a predetermined trajectory, but it behooves us to remember that adverse experiences early in life are influencing the development and function of the brain. And if we hope to intervene, we need to do it early so that we can help shift children onto the best possible developmental trajectories."
“Woman Wins Epilepsy Drug Warning Fight”
A UK mother has won a three-year battle to have warning labels put on epilepsy drugs which cause birth defects, heart problems, and learning disabilities.
Brain Prepares Multiple Actions Before Decision
According to new research summarized by ScienceDaily, there is evidence that the brain prepares for multiple possible actions before a decision is made.
“Income Inequality Is a Health Hazard – Even for the Rich”
“Wealth in the United States can buy many things: education, homes, vacations. It can even buy the best doctors and diet, but it can't buy health.” Why not? Asks Yessenia Funes. Researchers find that inequality in society leads to shorter lives for everyone.
“When the Brain is Under Attack”
The Boston Globe reports on the discovery of a newly recognized neurological disease, anti-NMDA receptor encephalitis. The disease is believed to be caused when the body’s immune system attacks proteins in the brain associated with the communication of neurons.
“Social Factors Influence Schizophrenia?”
PsychCentral covers new research linking social deprivation, population density and inequality with higher rates of psychotic symptoms and diagnoses for schizophrenia. “This is important because other research has shown that many health and social outcomes also tend to be optimal when societies are more equal.”
“The Guardian’s Bad Hair Day”
“No, cortisol in hair can’t ‘reveal future mental health risk’ in children.” HealthNewsReview gives a low rating to a recent story in the Guardian that reported that cortisol levels in children’s hair might be a useful mental health screening tool.
“Drug Overdoses Propel Rise in Mortality Rates of Young Whites”
“The rising death rates for those young white adults, ages 25 to 34, make them the first generation since the Vietnam War years of the mid-1960s to experience higher death rates in early adulthood than the generation that preceded it,” the ‘Times reports.
“6 Hospitalized, One of Them Brain-Dead, After Drug Trial in France”
Six men were hospitalized and one was pronounced brain dead after participating in a phase 1 clinical drug for a mood, anxiety, and motor dysfunction drug manufactured by Bial and administered by Biotrial. Carl Elliott, a bioethicist at the University of Minnesota, said investigators should look into questions like how much the men were paid and whether they properly consented to the trial. “Many Phase 1 trial volunteers are poor and unemployed, and they volunteer for trials like this because they are desperate for money,” he said. “This means they are easily exploited.”
“Federal Judge Declines to Toss Paxil Suicide Case, Setting GSK up for September Trial”
Wendy Dolin sued GSK after her husband committed suicide after taking a generic version of Paxil. The US District Court has declined GSK’s motions...
Mindfulness of Body Linked to Heightened Resilience
“To handle stress and adversity more effectively, we should probably pay closer attention to what is happening inside our bodies,” Gretchen Reynolds writes in the New York Times Well blog. “To me, this study says that resilience is largely about body awareness and not rational thinking,” said Dr. Martin Paulus, the scientific director of the Laureate Institute for Brain Research in Tulsa, Okla., and the senior author of the study.
“West Virginia Allows Painkiller Addicts to Sue Prescribing Doctors”
“CBS News went to West Virginia, a state that is attempting a drastic solution: allowing addicts to sue the doctors who got them hooked.”
“Cortisol Levels in Children’s Hair May Reveal Future Mental Health Risk”
The Guardian covers research out of Australia that found that levels of the “stress hormone” cortisol in the hair of 70 nine-year-old children corresponded to the number of traumatic events experienced by the child. “Childhood is an imperative and sensitive period of development, and when things go wrong it can have lifelong consequences, not just on mental health, but also on general health.”
“David Bowie, Psychosis and Positive Nonconformity”
For MinnPost, Susan Perry discusses the late singer-songwriter and actor David Bowie and his experiences with psychosis. She highlights the work of psychologist Vaughan Bell, who details how Bowie’s family history of psychosis is reflected in his work, and Stephanie Pappas, explaining “why Bowie’s positive expression of nonconformity has helped so many people who feel like misfits.”
“Does Animal-Assisted Therapy Help Adolescents With Psychiatric Problems?”
The Pacific Standard covers a study out of Florence, finding that adolescents in mental health crisis who received animal-assisted therapy had better school attendance, higher global functioning, and spent less time in the hospital.
“Where Police Violence Encounters Mental Illness”
In The Opinion Pages of the New York Times, Matthew Epperson discusses the devastating results of police acting as the primary responders to mental health crises. “If we are to prevent future tragedies, then we should be ready to invest in a more responsive mental-health system and relieve the police of the burden of being the primary, and often sole, responders.”
“Under Gun Rules, F.B.I. Will Receive Health Data”
“We are concerned about the implications of this rule,” said Jennifer Mathis, a lawyer at the Bazelon Center for Mental Health Law, an advocacy group for patients. “It points a finger inappropriately at people with mental illness as a source of gun violence. It’s a bad precedent to start creating exceptions to the privacy law for people with mental illness, who are responsible for about 4 percent of incidents of gun violence.”
“Veterans Let Slip the Masks of War: Can This Art Therapy Ease PTSD?”
“Service members suffering from PTSD often feel like they’re wearing a mask,” Samantha Allen writes in Invisible Wounds. Melissa Walker, an art therapist, asks them to make one. “The results are stirring. One mask, striped in red and black with hollow chrome-colored eyes, is wrapped in razor wire with a lock where its mouth should be.”
“Alternative Therapies Should Be Considered Before Antipsychotics for Children”
The official voice of the American Psychiatric Association covers the short and long term side-effects of antipsychotics and promotes the use of therapeutic alternatives...
“How We Learned to Stop Worrying About People and Love the Bombing”
For Tom Dispatch, historian Rick Shenkman “explores the biological phenomena that may well underpin our appalling lack of empathy, the animal instincts that allow so many of us to stand by in the face of unspeakable acts,” and “how the stories we tell ourselves and others might offer us a path to overcome our utterly human inhumanity.”
“Obama Gun Regs Ease Mental Health Reporting to FBI”
"HHS said it took pains to avoid any change to gun check reporting that would weaken physician–patient confidentiality and deter individuals from voluntarily seeking...
“Taking Media Out of Social Occasions”
“Social media’s link to jealousy and depression is well-chronicled,” Kara Baskin writes in the Boston Globe, “and the recent holidays — when all sorts of unsavory emotions bubble forth anyway — amplify it.”
“Therapy Wars: The Revenge of Freud”
Writing in The Guardian, Oliver Burkeman discusses the comeback of Freud’s psychoanalysis, along with humanistic therapy, interpersonal therapy, transpersonal therapy, and transactional analysis and...
“Psychotic Symptoms in Children on Stimulants. What are the Implications for the Clinician?”
“A little background digging revealed to me that this study is the tip of a new iceberg relative to ADHD diagnosis, stimulant treatment, and...