Military Study May Show Medication/Suicide Link
A large-scale study of depression-related brain activity may also reveal whether a connection exists between the high rates of both psychotropic medication and suicide...
Robot Bullies Rats into Depression to Test Antidepressant Medication
Japanese engineers have devised a robotic rat that bullies laboratory rats into a state of depression, creating a model of human depression they deem...
Benzos Alter Fish Behavior
Drugs that pass into the water supply can alter the behavior of fish, according to a paper published today in Science magazine. Experiments using...
Fox News Interviews Psychiatrist Peter Breggin on Drugs & Violence
Tom Sullivan of Fox News asks psychiatrist Peter Breggin, author of Medication Madness, whether drugs rather than guns are at the heart of mass...
A Brief History of Prozac
Prozac, having failed as an antihypertensive then anti-obesity drug, was marketed as an antidepressant after it lifted the spirits of five mildly depressed volunteers...
Psychotropics Significantly Increase Falls in the Elderly
Psychotropic medications, including short-acting benzodiazepines, strongly increase the frequency of falls in the elderly, according to research from the Netherlands published in Maturitas: The...
Antipsychotics are Common for the Mechanically Ventilated
Annals of Pharmacotherapy reports in a study of patients undergoing mechanical ventilation that 39% were given antipsychotic medication to prevent or treat delirium despite...
Violence, Depression in Parents Linked to Kids’ ADHD, Depression
A prospective study of 2,422 children from 2004 to 2012 found that children whose parents reported Intimate Partner Violence (IPV) and depressive symptoms were...
“Special K” as Antidepressant: Short-term Gain; Long-term ?
Ketamine (known in social circles as "Special K") has been touted as a rapid-acting and "profound" treatment for depression. The Journal of Psychosocial Nursing...
Rethinking Psychiatry in Asheville, North Carolina
"Asheville psychiatrist Daniel Johnson didn't set out to transform his profession," says an article in North Carolina's Mountain Xpress, "But heās now part of...
Tension Over Clinical Trial Data Disclosure Escalates
Pharmalot reviews the escalating tension over clinical trial data disclosure. The PhRMA trade group has come out in opposition to AllTrials, a petition drive...
Conflict of Interest Disclosure Far Less Likely in Psychiatric Journals
A review of 285 review articles from 10 top psychiatric and 2 general medicine journals finds that reviews in psychiatric journals were far less...
“You Keep Giving Adderall to my Son, You’re Going to Kill Him”
The New York Times, in an extraordinarily lengthy front-page article, chronicles the descent of popular college class president, athlete, and aspiring medical student into...
Pharma Says Its Antidepressant Fails to Beat Placebo
Vanda Pharmaceuticals, Inc., announced this week that its new antidepressant Tasimelteon failed to beat placebo in trials, and that it has hence ended its...
Antidepressants Linked to Heart Arrhythmias
Researchers from the Mass General and Brigham & Women's Hospitals and the Mt. Sinai School of Medicine find, using data from electronic health records...
Pfizer Sued Over Zoloft’s Failure to Beat Placebo
A lawsuit filed Wednesday in San Jose, California seeks federal approval for two class-action lawsuits representing all U.S. users of the antidepressant Zoloft, accusing...
Published Clinical Trials are Misleading, PLoS Says
Research from the Center for Clinical Trials at Johns Hopkins finds troubling differences between publicly available information on medications and the information that pharmaceutical...
Effects of Stress Can Cross Generations
Researchers from the University of Cambridge have found, for the first time, that genes affected by stress during life can be passed to the...
Pfizer Settles Chantix Lawsuit: Keeps CEO Off the Stand
One week before its court date, Pfizer settled with plaintiff Billy G. Bedsole Jr., who claims that Chantix triggered his suicidal thoughts and other...
Forbes Unpublishes Commentary on Medication/Violence Link
A google link to a Forbes magazine article titled "Psychiatric Drugs, Not A Lack Of Gun Control, Are The Common Denominator In Murderous Violence"...
“Substantial” Relapse After ECT, With or Without Medication
The Journal of ECT, looking at the question of whether antidepressant medications at the start of ECT reduced post-ECT relapse in a sample of...
Nursing Home Director Sentenced to 3 Years in Prison for Medicating Residents With Psychotropic...
The former director of a California nursing home has been sentenced to 3 years in prison for inappropriate medication of 23 individuals. All of...
Increasing Use of Antipsychotics for Disruptive Behavior in Children
Canadian researchers systematically reviewed all randomized controlled trials of second-generation antipsychotics (SGAs) and placebo in the treatment of disruptive behavior disorders in children, finding...
Majority of Anorexia Patients are Prescribed Psychotropics Despite Lack of Data
Research from the medical schools of Harvard University and the University of Melbourne, reported in the December International Journal of Eating Disorders, found that...
Journal Chooses Not to Retract “Misleading” Paxil Study Despite Criminal Conviction
The Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry has chosen not to retract Martin Keller's study of Paxil in children ("Study...
