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...
Trauma, First-Episode Schizophrenia, and Brain-Derived Neurotrophic Factor
A team of Egyptian researchers found, in a sample of 74 outpatients, a relationship between trauma and first-episode schizophrenia, with a "mediating" role of...
Benzodiazepines May Double the Risk of Pneumonia
An editorial in Thorax reviews the evidence for an association between mental illness, benzodiazepine use, and pneumonia. The authors find an equally augmented rate...
Sudden Death of a Relative in Early Childhood Increases Risk of Psychotic Disorder
A team from Ireland, Finland and Sweden found, in a study of all those born in Helsinki in a 30-year period (1960 to 1990)...
No Metabolic Risk for Antipsychotic-Naive Patients
An Austrian study of the baseline prevalence of metabolic abnormalities and changes following treatment with five commonly-used antipsychotic drugs (haloperidol, amisulpride, olanzapine, quetiapine or...
Australian Hospital Locks Up & Injects Wrong Man
An unidentified man who matched the description of an "eloped" patient was brought to Graylands Hospital in Perth, where he was injected with an...
White House Blocks Petition Seeking Investigation into Psychiatric Drugs and Violence
A petition on the White House web site which calls for an investigation into the link between psychiatric medication and violence has been blocked...
Therapy Without Drugs May Ward Off Psychosis
A double-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled study comparing outcomes from risperidone, cognitive therapy, and supportive therapy in a cohort of 115 at-risk young adults over a...
More Lawsuits Likely in Zoloft-Related Birth Defects
Injury Lawyer News reports on the many lawsuits filed in relation to Persistent Pulmonary Hypertension of the Newborn (PPHN), a birth defect linked to...
Four Leading Antipsychotics Aren’t Safe or Effective in Older Adults
A 5-year study funded by the National Institute of Mental Health and conducted by U.C. San Diego School of Medicine, Stanford University and the...
NY Supreme Court Awards $1.5 M in Antidepressant-Related Suicide
The New York State Supreme Court found in favor of Janice Mazella, widow of basketball coach and teacher Joe Mazella, in a malpractice suit...
