Multiple Medications Associated With Poorer Outcomes
Research from Germany finds that people with schizophrenia or schizoaffective diagnoses given multiple medications - an antipsychotic plus a benzodiazepine or more than one...
Researcher: 60,000 Americans Now Taking Antipsychotics Will Die Prematurely
-A fired government health economist says that his research was showing that 60,000 Americans now taking antipsychotic medications will die prematurely.
Utah Supreme Court Allows Lawsuit for Psychotropic-Induced Murder
Ruling that health care providers, while important, "are not entitled to an elevated status in tort law that would categorically immunize them from liability...
Childhood Bipolar Disorder More Rare Than Previously Claimed, Study Finds
Re-examination of meta-analytic claims finds the prevalence of pediatric bipolar disorder is close to zero.
Medications May Add to Mortality Rate in Schizophrenia
Dutch researchers write in the Journal of Clinical Psychopharmacology that, in a prospective study of 7415 persons with diagnoses of schizophrenia, use of a first-generation...
Vitamin B6 Effective in Reducing Antipsychotic Induced Akathisia
A recent RCT showed that vitamin B6 is as effective as propranolol for the treatment of akathisia.
Did You Ever Stop Taking Antipsychotics? – World Survey on Withdrawal
Antipsychotics are big business, professionals are often at a loss as to how to help people going through disturbing experiences, the voices of patients are crowded out of the equation — there are many reasons for the lack of real education and informed consent around antipsychotics. To address this gap in knowledge, we launched a world study on antipsychotic medication withdrawal.
Weaning the Elderly off Sleeping Pills
In a follow-up to an earlier commentary on the topic, Paula Span discusses the widespread use and negative effects of sleeping pills among the...
Antipsychotic Trial Designs Still Not Reaching Scientific Standards
Too many studies of atypical antipsychotic medications are still not meeting even the minimum scientific standards of the internationally agreed-upon CONSORT guidelines for drug trials.
Lawyers Starting to Blame Military’s Psychotropic Drugs For Aberrant Behavior
Military psychiatrists and judges are beginning to see the effects of an eightfold increase of SSRI use in the military since 2005, according to...
Antipsychotics, Restraints, and Seclusion Raising Concerns
From ABC Australia: Australia's high rate of antipsychotic prescriptions, as well as the frequent usage of restraints and seclusion, has raised concerns among Australian mental health advocates, researchers,...
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...
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 Easy Answer to the Question of Forcible Medication”
Nathaniel Ayers, the violin-playing subject of the 2009 film "The Soloist," continues to fight against efforts to compel him to take antipsychotic medication. "....
Kids Diagnosed with Autism More Likely to Get Psychotropic Drugs
Children diagnosed with an Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) are much more likely to be prescribed a psychotropic medication.
“Robert Neugeboren, Survivor of Psychiatric Abuses, Dies at 72”
Robert Neugeboren, who “spent most of his adult life in institutions, often subject to isolation, physical punishment and numbing medication,” was “a celebrity of sorts in the world of the mentally ill: a survivor of the horrors of mistreatment, a case history for those who point to the positive effects of kindness and talk therapy, and, perhaps most of all, the embodiment of the bottomless mystery of the human mind.”
Mental Health Nurses Do Not Routinely Assess for Effects of Antipsychotic Medications
Researchers believe that side-effect monitoring is critical because of the increase in the use of antipsychotics
Unhelpful Utterances: 6 Comments We Should No Longer Hear From Mental Health Professionals
Professionals are paid to share their wisdom with those who are, typically, less informed. But, when dealing with mental health professionals in the psychiatric arena, it is wise to retain a degree of skepticism about the words spoken by the doctors and nurses commissioned to help reduce human misery and suffering.
Patients With Schizophrenia Show Better Work Functioning Off Antipsychotics
20-year follow-up study finds that after four years, patients not prescribed antipsychotics have significantly better work functioning.
Your Pills Are Spying On You
From Pacific Standard: The new Abilify MyCite pill, which contains a digital sensor that tracks whether a patient has ingested the drug, has the potential...
When university attorneys play hardball with patients
Everyone knows that some attorneys have a reputation for playing hardball. In fact, many of us even seek out attorneys who play hardball. But...
Authors of BJP Editorial Critical of Antipsychotics Urge Reader Comment
The authors of a recent editorial in the British Journal of Psychiatry that urges a rethinking of the use of antipsychotics are asking that readers...
Psych Meds Found in the Home of Woman Killed in D.C. Car Chase
Miriam Carey, who was shot and killed yesterday by D.C. police after she attempted to drive through a White House barricade with her 1-year-old...
Big Pharma Meets Big Diagnosis, Big Courts, and Big Psychiatric Hospitals
Gottstein’s book is The Pentagon Papers of the traditional mental health system, because he exposes a mind-blowing number and variety of cold-blooded, calculating actions on the part of Eli Lilly in trying to hide what it knew to be the devastating effects of its hugely profitable Zyprexa.
Daughter of a Psychiatrist
Here I was, 15 years old and already in a long-term treatment facility. I was, on paper: crazy! This entire time, all the adults in my life had been speaking for me. I never felt like I was any of the things they said, but I went along with it. What else could I have done? Every time I rebelled, it only confirmed to my mother what she thought of me.
