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...
Pentagon Was Warned Off Antipsychotic for PTSD
Despite 2004 clinical guidelines issued by the Veterans' Administration that "there is insufficient evidence to recommend atypical antipsychotics for the treatment of PTSD," ...
Glaxo Claims Contrition and Changes in its Sales Practices
Following a record-setting spate of settlements, GlaxoSmithKline North America President Dierdre Connelly touts Glaxo's move away from a sales model that encourages the misbehavior...
Director Tony Scott had Antidepressant – Not Cancer – at Time of Suicide
The Los Angeles County coroner's department reported yesterday that Tony Scott, the director of films such as "Top Gun" and "Beverly Hills Cop II,"...
Canadian Who Killed Son While on Medication Joins Forces With U.S. Dad Who Killed...
David Crespi is serving a life sentence following his 2006 slaying of his five-year-old twin girls while being treated with antidepressant medications. David Carmichael,...
Antipsychotics Change the Architecture of the Colon
Researchers in Singapore find that antipsychotic medications are associated with changes to colonic architecture, which could result in difficult colonoscopy and increased colonoscopy-related risks....
Genetic Markers do not Predict Response to Antidepressants
Researchers from 11 nations in Europe and North America find, in the largest study to date of possible links between genetic markers and antidepressant...
Pfizer Settles First of 2,600 Claims Regarding Chantix and Suicide
After failing to win a postponement earlier this week, Pfizer settled with the widow of Minnesota man who suicided while using the stop-smoking drug...
SSRIs Increase Risk of Brain Hemorrhage
Canadian researchers, publishing in Neurology, find in a meta-analysis of controlled observational studies comparing SSRI therapy with a control group that SSRI exposure increased...
New IRIS Guidelines for Early Intervention in Psychosis
The 'Initiative to Reduce the Impact of Schizophrenia" (IRIS) has updated its 1998 guidelines for early intervention in psychosis to state that not all people...
“Serious Breakdown” on Cymbalta Withdrawal Warnings
"The last four years have seen a 90% increase in the number of serious adverse drug reports received by the Food and Drug Administration," according to a report by the Institute for Safe Medication Practices." Among them, a "signal" that Cymbalta causes "an array of problems such as crying, suicidal ideation, and anger, and other symptoms including effects on appetite and weight gain."
The Putative Neurobiology of SSRIs and Aggression
“It’s happening," said researchers at Northeastern University, "Kids are becoming irritated, aggressive, impulsive, agitated, hostile. So you ask the question: Why?” They found (through study...
ADHD Drugs Compensate for a Deficit of Attention to Schools
The New York Times describes a growing trend among doctors: prescribing medication to fix a "made up" diagnosis in children, in order to compensate...
Crowdfunding Science
Scientific American explores a crowdfunded approach to researching methamphetamine addiction, suggesting the approach is adaptable to pursuing other questions that are challenged to find...
Psychiatry is “Committing Professional Suicide”
David Healy "likened psychiatry’s attitude toward its faltering legitimacy to the Vatican’s widely derided response to its child sex abuse scandal by priests —...
J&J Settles Five Cases After Former FDA Chief Says It Illegally Marketed Risperdal for...
Former FDA Commissioner David Kessler testified in an "Expert Report" submitted for a trial set to begin Oct. 9 that "(Johnson & Johnson subsidiary) Janssen's promotion...
Abbott to Pay $700 Million for Off-Label Marketing of Depakote
Pleading guilty to marketing Depakote for behavioral problems in dementia patients, a purpose for which the drug was not approved, a federal judge has...
