āCDC Warns that Americans May be Overmedicating Youngest Children with ADHDā
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) released new data indicating that as many as 75% of young children who are diagnosed with...
ADHD in DSM-5: Lower Specificity, Increased Rates
Research from Iran points out that "there is no empirical literature about the American Psychiatry Association proposed new diagnostic criteria for attention deficit disorder."...
Janssen to Pay $11M for Failure to Warn of Topamax Birth Defects
A Philadelphia jury yesterday orderedĀ Johnson & Johnson subsidiary Janssen to pay $11 million to the parents of a five-year-old boy for failure to warn...
Mental Health Disability Claims Continue to Climb
According to new research by Joanna Moncrieff and SebastiĆ£o Viola, mental health problems have become the leading cause of disability claims in the UK. While the overall number of claims for other conditions has decreased by 35%, claims related to āmental disordersā have increased 103% since 1995.
Death of a Child Linked to Onset of Psychosis
Using data from the National Comorbidity Survey, researchers found that individuals with a psychotic disorder who had lost a child had a significantly later...
Quality of Relationship to Doctor Significantly Improves Antidepressant Efficacy
The more that patients feel that they have a high-quality relationship with their prescribing physician, the more likely that they will regard their own responses to antidepressants as positive.
GAO Calls for Patient-Centered Research, Public Comment
The Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI)'s Methodology Committee released a report dated July 23, 2012, calling for "Standards for Patient-Centered Outcomes Research." Ā In a...
ADHD Medication Does Not Improve School Achievement
The journal Science reviews the current state of research on ADHD medication, finding that the drugs do not improve school performance or achievement in...
NY Times: “A Call for Caution in the Use of Antipsychotic Drugs”
Professor of psychiatry Richard Friedman traces the history of antipsychotics in the New York Times Health section yesterday, finding that the promise of atypical...
Adderall Blamed for Leap into Tiger’s Den
The mother of a man charged with trespassing for leaping from a monorail into a tiger's den at the Bronx Zoo, where he was...
More than Half of UK Antipsychotic Prescribing is Not for Authorized Conditions
More than half of the prescriptions for antipsychotic drugs in the UK are being issued "off-label" to treat conditions other than those for which the drugs are approved, according to a large study published in the British Medical Journal Open. Researchers also found significantly higher levels of prescribing of the medications to poorer people.
Sales of Antipsychotics Predicted to Drop, Then Hit a High by 2021
After a drop to $6.5 billion in 2014, due to the loss of patent protection by the Seroquel, Zyprexa, and Abilify, sales of antipsychotics...
Experts Demand Shutdown of ECT Study
A group of mental health experts are calling for Manchester University and the UK National Institute for Health Research to immediately suspend and investigate...
Global Survey: Do Antidepressants Work?
The Guardian and its partners in Europe - Le Monde, El Pais, La Stampa, Gazeta Wyborcza and Suddeutsche Zeitung - are conducting a global...
Company Suing to Prevent Increased Drug Trial Transparency
A company that conducts clinical drug trials for pharmaceutical companies is taking legal action against the UK government over transparency requirements.
Obama Administration to Require Mental Health Insurance “Parity”
The Obama administration will announce today, according to the New York Times, regulations that will require insurers to offer care for mental health issues...
American Psychological Association Begins Inquiry into Torture Allegations
"The American Psychological Association (APA) last week named a former federal prosecutor to lead an investigation into its role in supporting the U.S. governmentās...
A Father Grievesa Rush to Medicate
"Diagnosis: Human", a New York Times op-ed, deftly and stirringly captures the paradoxes of the ADHD medication explosion: "My son was no angel (though...
Children on Antipsychotics 50% More Likely to Develop Diabetes
Antipsychotic drugs increased the risk of children developing diabetes by 50%, and with an antidepressant added, their risk doubled.
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...
Clinical Judgment, Evidence-Based Medicine, and Psychiatry
Longtime critic of psychiatryĀ Giovanni Fava comments, in what he refers to as "probably the most radical criticism of evidence-based medicine so far,"Ā on the "increasing...
Systematic Review of Systematic Reviews Finds Systematic Under-Reporting of Adverse Events
A systematic review by researchers from Canada, the U.K., and China finds that the 4,644 systematic reviews studied "compounded the poor reporting of harms...
New “Binge Eating Disorder” Drug Generating Controversy
The US Food and Drug Administration has expanded the approved uses of an ADHD drug to make it the first-ever drug
treatment for "binge-eating disorder."
Psychotropics Drive Record 4.02 Billion U.S. Prescriptions in 2011
With drugs for ADHD increasing 17%, and an "unprecedented increase in patients taking antidepressants and antipsychotics," overall prescription drug sales in the United States...
APA Recommends Reducing Antipsychotics for Children and Elderly Without Psychosis
The American Psychiatric Association, as part of the American Board of Internal Medicine's "Choosing Wisely" initiative, released new practice guidelines yesterday that advise against...
