Prozac Preschool
From Pacific Standard: Young children are increasingly being prescribed psychiatric drugs. However, there is very little research on the safety and efficacy of psychotropic drugs...
Researchers Faked Data on Epigenetics of Bipolar Disorder
The British Journal of Psychiatry has issued a retraction of an article purporting to have identified evidence of the epigenetic aspects of bipolar disorder,...
One-third of Youth Treated for Bipolar Developed Schizophrenia Symptoms
Over one-third of young people who were treated for bipolar disorder developed schizophrenia within eight years, according to a study in Schizophrenia Research. In...
45% of Children and Adolescent Inpatients Prescribed Antipsychotics
In a rare long-term study of antipsychotics used in children and adolescent inpatients, the Institute of Living in Hartford, CT followed 3,851 consecutive admissions...
“What if the Central Premise of Bipolar Disorder Is Wrong?”
"Always appending disorder to the word bipolar is akin to always appending accident to the end of automobile. In other words, saying 'bipolar disorder'...
Teen Brain Develops Differently in Bipolar Disorder, When Medicated
The brains of adolescents diagnosed with bipolar disorder develop differently than the brains of teens without the disorder, according to a study in Biological...
Psychotropic Drugs and Children
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Psychotropic Drugs and Children
June 15, 2010
Robert Whitaker, author of Anatomy of an Epidemic, discusses the disturbing effects of psychotropic drugs...
âDrugs, Greed and a Dead Boyâ
New York Times columnist, Nicholas Kristof, relates the story of Andrew Francesco, a boy who began taking Ritalin at age five and died from complications with Seroquel when he was fifteen. His father, a former pharmaceutical industry executive, reveals the industryâs greed in his memoir âOvermedicated and Undertreated.â Now the industry is pushing for a first-amendment right to market its drugs for off-label uses.
Over 16,000 Australian Children Prescribed Antipsychotics
From The Sydney Morning Herald: New data from Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme shows that a total of 16,570 Australian toddlers, children, and teens under 17 were...
Bipolar, AKA Unipolar Mania
Teens may have mania without depression, making their bipolar illness harder to classify, according to a new NIMH study. Interviews with 10,213 teens found...
Nevada Legislation Aims to Curb Psychotropics in Foster Children
A touching article in the Las Vegas Sun follows one child from abandonment through foster placements, polypharmacy, suicidality, delinquency and homelessness to stability off...
âWhy Are So Many Children on Antipsychotic Drugs?â
âDo they make people less aggressive? Yes, sometimes they do. Will they sedate people? Absolutely. Will they make kids easier to manage? They will,â Robert Whitaker tells Liz Spikol for Philadelphia Magazine. âBut 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 thatâs just not true, and that the benefits are well-established, and so often theyâre not.â
âGeneration Meds: the US Children Who Grow Up on Prescription Drugsâ
âIn America, medication is becoming almost as much a staple of childhood as Disney and McDonaldâs,â writes Sarah Boseley in the Guardian. In this piece photographer Baptiste Lignel follows six boys and girls to examine the long-term effects of these drugs.
Association Between ADHD and Bipolar Disorder
Researchers in London review the literature on attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and bipolar disorder (BD), finding that "comorbidity and family studies appear to...
Will Disruptive Mood Dysregulation Disorder (DMDD) Reduce False Diagnosis of Bipolar Disorder in Children?
Neuroskeptic takes on a new paper that proposes a new DSM-5's diagnosis will reduce the epidemic of bipolar diagnosis in children, comparing it to fighting...
ï»żHypotheses, Scientific Evidence, and On Being Compared to an AIDS Denier
In todayâs Boston Globe (April 14), Dr. Dennis Rosen, a pediatric lung and sleep specialist at Childrenâs Hospital in Boston, reviews my new book,...
Hospital Stays for Juvenile Bipolar Jumped 434% from 1997 to 2010
A report from the Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project finds that hospital stays for a diagnosis of bipolar disorder in children aged 5-9 increased...
FDA Approves Another Antipsychotic for Children
The FDA has approved the atypical antipsychotic Saphris (asenapine) for use in children on the basis of one trial.
“ADHD, Bipolar Disorder and the DSM: A Need for Uncertainty?”
Claudia M. Gold, a psychiatrist who writes for the Boston Globe, takes on The New Republic's article ADHD Does Not Exist, which, she says,...
Trauma and Misdiagnosis in Childhood Bipolar Disorder
Psychology Today offers a psychoanalytic perspective on childhood bipolar disorder that finds trauma at the root, a view that sees Beyond Meds as extending beyond the diagnoses...
âCalifornia Moves to Stop Misuse of Psychiatric Meds in Foster Careâ
On Tuesday, NPR told the story of DeAngelo Cortijo. DeAngelo became a foster kid at age 3 after his mother attempted suicide. He was âdiagnosed with bipolar and anxiety disorders, attachment disorder, intermittent explosive disorder or posttraumatic stress disorder,â and was prescribed âa combination of antipsychotics, antidepressants and stimulants, and was told that taking them was his only hope of being normal.â Through equine therapy, DeAngelo was eventually able to get off all of his medication. Now, California is hoping to pass reforms that would prevent foster kids, like DeAngelo, from being âprescribed antipsychotic drugs at double to quadruple the rate of that not in foster care.â
âMisuse Of ADHD Drugs By Young Adults Drives Rise In ER Visitsâ
"It's no secret that stimulant medications such as Adderall that are prescribed to treat symptoms of ADHD are sometimes used as 'study drugs' aimed...
“Emotional Child Abuse May be Just as Bad as Physical Harm”
Reuters covers a new study in JAMA Psychiatry that suggests that children exposed to physical abuse and emotional abuse suffer from similar psychological and behavioral problems. âEven though doctors and parents often believe physical or sexual abuse is more harmful than emotional mistreatment or neglect, the study found children suffered similar problems regardless of the type of maltreatment endured.â
Familial Factors Affect Depression, BD, OCD, PD, and Phobias
A study of 566 families with 1416 bipolar-disordered members, and 675 families with 1726 depressed members by researchers from Johns Hopkins and the University...
Madness Radio: Sharna Olfman on Medicating Children Diagnosed Bipolar
Professor Sharna Olfman has researched and written extensively about children in society, including education and sexuality, and her perspective on so-called bipolar disorder is...