Antidepressants Worsen Rapid Cycling in Bipolar Depression

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-SSRI antidepressant medications contribute to a significant worsening of emotional "rapid cycling" in patients diagnosed with bipolar disorder.

Slew of New Studies Spot Links Between Psychiatric Medications and Bone Loss, Fractures

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Four different studies conducted in different ways examining different groups have linked use of certain psychiatric drugs to bone fracture risks and negative impacts on human bone development.

Reasons Not to Believe in Lithium

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I Don’t Believe in God, But I Believe in Lithium’ is the title of Jamie Lowe’s moving account of her manic depression in the New York Times. The piece reminds us how devastating and frightening this condition can be, so it is understandable that the author put her faith in the miracle cure psychiatrists have been recommending since the 1950s: lithium. The main problem is that there is no study in which people who have been started on lithium have been compared with people who haven’t.

Antidepressant-linked Suicide Data Doctored In Seminal Study

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Several years after the information was first revealed, a published study has shown how an influential NIMH study doctored the real data about antidepressants and suicidal events in youth.

Clozapine-induced Stuttering Affects 1% Of Patients

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A team of psychiatrists reviewed 654 cases in West Ireland to find that nearly 1% of all patients taking the antipsychotic clozapine had experienced clozapine-induced stuttering.

Antipsychotic Dose Reduction Linked To Long-term Improvements In First-Episode Schizophrenia Patients

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Careful reductions in dosage levels of antipsychotic medications over time improved long-term rates of recovery and functional remission in patients diagnosed with a first-episode psychosis.

No Treatments Have “Clinically Meaningful” Impacts On Negative Symptoms of Schizophrenia

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While most treatments have had "statistically significant" success in clinical trials, no common psychiatric or psychological treatments improve the negative symptoms of schizophrenia at levels that are "clinically meaningful."

Pennsylvania Latest State To Try To Curb Psychotropic Prescribing To Foster Children

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Foster children in Pennsylvania are being given psychotropic drugs by physicians at rates that are "disturbing" and "unacceptable," according to the state's Department of Human Services.

One-quarter of Ohio-area Children With Down Syndrome Are Being Prescribed Psychotropics

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The odds of a child with Downs Syndrome being on a psychotropic medication increase steadily with age.

Antidepressants During Pregnancy Do Not Appear To Reduce Relapses And Hospitalizations

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Continuing to take antidepressants during pregnancy was associated with higher rates of depressive relapses and hospitalizations than discontinuing.

Not an Onion Study: Underpowered Analysis Of Poor Quality Data Finds Antipsychotics Actually Aren’t...

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University of Groningen researchers analyzed only small, short-term clinical trials of generally poor quality to determine that antipsychotics are not linked to increased risk of death in elderly people with dementia.

Many Teens Start Misusing Stimulants By Age 13

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An equal percentage of young people will start misusing ADHD-related and other stimulant drugs for the first time at age 13 as will start at age 20.

Internal Pfizer Report Warned of Zoloft and Birth Defect Link

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"A Pfizer Inc. report shows a scientist warned executives last year about a potential link between the anti-depressant drug Zoloft and birth defects."

Psychotropics Linked to Worse Physical Problems and Mortality in Psychiatric Patients

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Common psychotropic medications may be contributing to the higher rates of physical illnesses and mortality in people diagnosed with mental illnesses.

Antidepressants Tied To Increased Risk of Homicide “Only Modestly”; Benzodiazepines More So

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Taking antidepressant or benzodiazepine medications increases the risks that a person will commit a homicide, according to a study from Finland published in a World Psychiatry letter.

Evidence Strengthening that Common Benzodiazepine Sedatives May Cause Dementia

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A meta-analysis of studies found that the risk of dementia increased 22% for every additional twenty daily doses of benzodiazepine medications annually.

SSRI Antidepressants Appear to Raise Risk of Serious Respiratory Disease in Newborns

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A new study has reinforced earlier warnings that taking SSRI antidepressants late in pregnancy appears to put mothers at a slightly increased risk of having newborns with persistent pulmonary hypertension.

How Should We Understand the Link Between ADHD and Early Death?

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Alarming headlines, based on a recent study, declare that diagnosis with ADHD doubles the risk of early death. Psychiatrist Stephen Faraone, commenting on the original study published in the Lancet, concludes that: “for clinicians early diagnosis and treatment should become the rule rather than the exception.” This conclusion represents a false assumption that the deaths occurred in cases that were not treated.

Teen Brain Develops Differently in Bipolar Disorder, When Medicated

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The brains of adolescents diagnosed with bipolar disorder develop differently than the brains of teens without the disorder, according to a study in Biological...

Not an Onion Study: First Three-month Injectable Antipsychotic Better Than Acute Withdrawal

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Not an Onion Study: The first-ever injectable antipsychotic that lasts for three months was approved based on one clinical trial in which it prevented relapses better than putting people into sudden withdrawal.

3 Facts All Parents Should Know About ADHD Stimulant Drugs

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Medicating children for a host of mental disorders has become very popular in some parts of the USA. More than 8 million kids from 6 months to 17 years of age are on pharmaceutical drugs in this wonderful country. We lead the world in drugging youth for behavioral, cognitive and attention issues. We are once again #1. But I would like to share with parents as well as adults working with children a few not so readily available facts related to medicating kids for behavior issues.

Chemicals Have Consequences: Antidepressants, Pregnancy, and the New York Times

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Depressed pregnant women need good care.  They should not be made to feel guilty for the choices they make concerning their depression or lectured to by those who don’t understand the area or lack compassion for them.  In that sense, Andrew Solomon does the public a service by turning his attention and writing talents to the topic of depression and pregnancy this week in the New York Times.  However, a crucial part of providing good care to depressed pregnant women is to give them accurate information on the topic.  In this sense, Andrew Solomon falls short.

Antidepressants Do Work Well — We’ve Simply Been Evaluating Them Incorrectly

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Not an Onion Study: SSRI antidepressants did consistently outperform placebo in clinical trials, researchers discovered, so long as 16 of the 17 questions about patients' feelings are ignored.

Children’s Positive Responses to Antidepressants “Minimal” After Four Weeks

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Children's positive responses to SSRI antidepressant treatments for depression are even less significant than adult responses, and do not last beyond four weeks.

Neuroleptic Drugs And Mortality

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In November of last year, Schizophrenia Bulletin published a research study that, on the face of it, would seem to upset the notion that neuroleptic drugs are toxic and that their use markedly reduces life expectancy. There are, however, some problems with the study that need to be considered.