Off-Label Antipsychotic Use Among Children Soaring
Researchers from Philadelphia and Baltimore find, in a study of Medicaid records for 50 states and the District of Columbia, that antipsychotic prescribing to...
Treating Schizophrenia Before Children Have It
NPR Shots discusses the plethora of new programs for early intervention for psychosis, with a focus on Ventura Early Intervention Prevention Services, operated by...
Experts Stress Importance of Social Networks for Psychosis and Bipolar Interventions
Researchers develop a novel approach to mapping personal well-being networks for those diagnosed with severe mental illness (SMI) that incorporates social ties, connections to place, and meaningful activities.
Different Antipsychotics Have Different Effects on Brain Volume
First generation antipsychotics seem to cause general brain volume loss, while second generation antipsychotics seem to both increase and decrease the thickness of different parts of the brain.
“How Poverty Affects Children’s Brains”
New research is investigating how “poverty reduction promotes cognitive and brain development.”
“Singulair, Montelukast: Asthma Medication Linked to Serious Psychotic Episodes in Children”
ABC News reports on almost 90 cases of children experiencing suicidal thoughts and other psychiatric side effects while taking the common asthma medication Singulair....
Neuroscientists Recreate Ghostly Presences in Laboratory
Neuroscientists have been able to consistently recreate in people the feeling of another person or ghostly entity hovering nearby, according to a study reported...
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...
DSM-5 Retreats from Some Controversial Diagnoses
The APA DSM-5 Development website announced today that "Psychosis Risk" and "Mixed Anxiety Depression" will not be included in the DSM-5 (apart from recommendations...
“New ‘Smart’ Drugs Tell Doctor You’re Not Taking Them”
The Washington Examiner reports that the manufacturer of the antipsychotic Abilify is seeking FDA approval for new digitized pills that would alert doctors if patients fail to take their drugs on schedule.
“Psychiatric Drug—Not Antibiotic—Messes with Gut Microbes, Spurs Obesity”
In a series of experiments in mice, researchers found that the drug risperidone alters gut microbes, which in turn profoundly influence metabolism, weight, and overall health.
How Can We Build a Better Evidence Base for Treating Psychosis with Therapy?
-A commentary suggests that the evidence to support the use of cognitive behavioral therapy for psychosis is tenuous, in part because CBT itself is so variable.
Perceived Social Status Impacts Early Psychosis
Writing in the British Journal of Clinical Psychology, London researchers find that perceptions of lower social rank and inferiority amongst 24 individuals with early...
In Patients Diagnosed with Schizophrenia, Depression Linked to More Accurate Assessments
Participants diagnosed with schizophrenia with higher levels of self-reported depression have more accurate assessments of abilities.
“Forget the Headlines – Schizophrenia is More Common Than You Might Think”
Despite the headline, this article in The Guardian reviews the notion that schizophrenia is "a wide range of often unrelated conditions, all of which...
Hidden Invaders
From Discover Magazine: Some children's symptoms of psychiatric disorders, including OCD, psychosis, and eating disorders, are caused by an autoimmune response to infections resulting in brain inflammation.
"PANS...
Psychotic Symptoms/Childhood Trauma Common in Primary as Well as Psychiatric Care
Researchers in Finland reviewed questionnaires filled out by 911 primary and psychiatric care patients over 16 years of age. They found that more than...
“The Search for Schizophrenia Genes”
MIA contributor Jonathan Leo, writing for Slate, weighs in on the research that claims to have discovered a genetic basis for schizophrenia. “We now...
Pressuring Parents to Drug Children
Jim Gottstein on Pressuring Parents to Drug Children
How Can Two Such Radically Different Experiences Both Be Called “Schizophrenia”?
-Psychiatrist Jose Andres Saez Fonseca disposes with the language of the diagnostic manuals, and tries to grapple with different ways of seeing.
“Robert Neugeboren, Survivor of Psychiatric Abuses, Dies at 72”
Robert Neugeboren, who “spent most of his adult life in institutions, often subject to isolation, physical punishment and numbing medication,” was “a celebrity of sorts in the world of the mentally ill: a survivor of the horrors of mistreatment, a case history for those who point to the positive effects of kindness and talk therapy, and, perhaps most of all, the embodiment of the bottomless mystery of the human mind.”
“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.”
Study Explores Correlates of Low-Level Physical Activity and Psychosis
A study examines the variables correlated with low levels of physical activity in persons diagnosed with psychosis in low and middle-income countries
“Drugs, Greed and a Dead Boy”
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 industry’s greed in his memoir “Overmedicated and Undertreated.” Now the industry is pushing for a first-amendment right to market its drugs for off-label uses.
Hearing Voices Researched at Edinburgh Book Festival
Researchers from Durham University's Hearing the Voice project are attending the Edinburgh International Book Festival through August as part of a study, asking both...
