Disorders

The safety of our children is a sacred obligation we strive to preserve. Anything or anyone that harms them becomes the object of our...

Although psychotic experiences (PEs) and schizophrenia are thought to share similar etiological risk factors, PEs also co-exist with depression and, according to research from...

Research from Australia asks the question noted above, and answers "subtle, but diverse, structural brain alterations, altered electrophysiological functioning and sleep patterns, minor physical...

Subsidiaries of Johnson & Johnson have agreed to pay $5.9 million to settle Montana's lawsuit over the company's fraudulent marketing of Risperdal.  According to...

Research from the Netherlands finds, in a nationwide survey of 1929 young adults, that cigarette smoking and cannabis were equally strongly associated with the...

Children who reported experiencing frequent nightmares between 2.5 and 9 years of age were significantly more likely to report psychotic experiences at age 12, regardless...

Prior admissions with stimulant disorder, but not a prior cannabis disorder diagnosis, are a negative prognostic sign in first-episode psychosis according to new research...

According to the University of South Dakota's The Volante, "In 1993, about four percent of American college students used prescription drugs for nonmedical uses, according...

Treatment by lay health workers is more effective than standard facility-based care at reducing disability and psychotic symptoms in people with schizophrenia diagnoses, according...

An NBC online News article dated October 15, 2010, carried the noteworthy title New blood test may help detect schizophrenia. The article was written by Natasha Allen, a freelance medical journalist. The gist of the article is that there is a new blood test called VeriPsych which "researchers say" is 83% accurate in discriminating people who are "schizophrenic" from people who are not.

Research has shown a correlation between schizophrenia and exposure to cat bites or scratches.  This has been theorized to be due to the effects...

Salon magazine reflects on "The Puzzling Reality . . . that human depression is increasing in an era when environmental conditions are relatively benign. The average citizen...

Research from the University of East Anglia find that children who experienced chronic, but relatively common, family difficulties - such as arguments, tension, or...

Like so many others, I have wanted to embrace the idea that research supports such beliefs as “ADHD is a chronic disease plaguing children”, and/or “Bigfoot exists”. I mean, who wouldn’t? We assume that research is based on sound evidence; information we can trust. Who wouldn't want to believe evidence that there is a simple medical explanation for those annoying behaviors exhibited by children in the process of developing into responsible young adults?

There's an interesting February 11, 2014, article on Peter Breggin's website: $1.5 Million Award in Child Tardive Dyskinesia Malpractice. Apparently the individual in Dr. Breggin's paper was diagnosed with autism as a child and was prescribed SSRI's before the age of seven. The SSRI's caused some deterioration in the child's behavior and mental condition, to combat which his first psychiatrist prescribed Risperdal (risperidone). Subsequently a second psychiatrist added Zyprexa (olanzapine) to the cocktail. Both Risperdal and Zyprexa are neuroleptics (euphemistically known in psychiatric circles as antipsychotics), and are known to cause tardive dyskinesia.

In a few days, I will turn 65. Aside from asking myself, “Where did the time go?" I am reminded that my becoming a senior citizen is a part of a greater phenomenon--the aging of the baby boomer generation. While much attention has been focused on the rise of dementia and Alzheimer’s that will accompany the graying of America, there exists another equally significant hazard of growing old in our culture - the increasing number of older Americans who are attempting suicide - and succeeding. Given that I have battled depression my entire life, this trend takes on personal significance for me.

Researchers from Boston Children's Hospital analyzed data from 4297 children surveyed over 3 time points (fifth, seventh and tenth grades) to find that bullying...

A Chicago jury awarded $1.5 million to an autistic child who developed irreversible and disabling tardive dyskinesia and tardive akathisia while treated with Risperdal,...

TMS is a psychiatric treatment that uses a rapidly alternating magnetic field to induce electric currents in the brain. These currents stimulate neurons, causing them to "fire." When used repetitively, TMS is said to alter the excitability of the brain area that has been stimulated. In the psychiatric field, TMS is being used increasingly as a treatment for depression, particularly with so-called treatment-resistant clients. I Googled the string "TMS + depression" and got 1.35 million hits. So the idea is attracting attention.

Furthering findings that social adversity and urbanicity increase the risk of psychosis, research in Child & Adolescent Psychiatry finds that moving schools, family adversity,...

A Hong Kong study links short "Duration of Untreated Psychosis" (DUP) to better long-term outcome.  The authors propose that factors linked to long DUP...

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,...

Recently, I have been the target of much wooing by my local Sunovion rep. I think he leaves messages for me almost weekly and he sends me missives - glossy brochures and reprints from major psychiatric journal. What is the subject of this attention? The drug - lurasidone (Latuda).

My last blog raised issues about the involvement of Shire Pharmaceuticals in lobbying for the inclusion of mandatory screening of children for ADHD in...

Amidst a reported leveling in medication usage among young children, a disturbing side trend has emerged. Antipsychotic medication use in preschoolers has soared over the past decade, to the upwards tale of a two- to five- fold increase despite lack of FDA approval in almost all of these medications for this age group and little to no information about long-term side effects. In addition, researchers have noted that most antipsychotic medications were being used off-label, and increasingly for the treatment of behavioral issues that many argue are both developmentally inherent and often a product of significant environmental dysfunction.