Alberta Long-term Care Homes Reduce Antipsychotic Use by 50%

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The provincial government health service of Alberta, Canada recently concluded a successful pilot project that reduced the use of antipsychotic medications for patients with...

VA Hospitals Perform Worst on Inpatient Psychiatric Care

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The results of the cross-sectional study show that U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) owned hospitals perform worst on most measures.

Long-Term Antipsychotics: Making Sense of the Evidence in the Light of the Dutch Follow-Up...

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In the 1950s, when the drugs we now call ‘antipsychotics’ first came along, psychiatrists recognised that they were toxic substances that happened to have the ability to suppress thoughts and emotions without simply putting people to sleep in the way the old sedatives did. The mental restriction the drugs produced was noted to be part of a general state of physical and mental inhibition that at extremes resembled Parkinson’s disease. Early psychiatrists didn’t doubt that this state of neurological suppression was potentially damaging to the brain.

2nd-Generation Antipsychotics Cause Extrapyramidal Side Effects as Much as 1st-Generation

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According to researchers from Yale and the U.K., the improvements in extrapyramidal side effects expected from 2nd-generation antipsychotics has not been realized, while the...

The Once and Future Abilify: Depot Injections for Everyone?

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This column is partly a report on the marketing of Abilify, the atypical antipsychotic that has become America’s best-selling drug.   It’s also an appeal for advice and feedback from the RxISK and Mad in America communities, and a call for some brainstorming about strategy.  The plans laid out by drugmakers Otsuka and Lundbeck for Abilify’s future, and the cooperation they’re getting from leading universities, are alarming enough to me that reporting on them seems inadequate.  We need action, although I’m not sure exactly what kind.

BPS Releases Review of Alternatives to Antipsychotics

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BPS releases report encouraging behavioral interventions for people with dementia, rather than antipsychotics

The Recovery After an Initial Schizophrenia Episode (RAISE) Study: Notes from the Trenches

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I was a psychiatrist who participated in the Recovery After an Initial Schizophrenia Episode Early Treatment Program (RAISE ETP). Although I welcomed the positive headlines that heralded the study's results, the reports left me with mixed feelings. What happened to render the notion that talking to people about their experiences and helping them find jobs or go back to school is something novel?

Long-Term Social Supports Needed After Onset of Psychosis

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New data on the effects of social support after early onset of psychosis suggests that patients with intense social support function better than those without such help, but than once supports are removed the effects diminish.

The Other Big Drug Problem: Older People Taking Too Many Pills

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From The Washington Post: In addition to the opioid crisis, America has one other prescription drug epidemic — older Americans are taking far too many unnecessary...

University of Minnesota Ends Recruiting of Research Subjects on Involuntarily Holds

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The University of Minnesota announced a change to its research ethics policies this month after coming under criticism “following the recruitment of a schizophrenia...

A Daughter’s Call for Safety and Sanity in Mental Health

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My mother was once a bright, creative, beautiful young woman, a promising artist and a poet, who was captivated by the hippie movement. She was a creative bohemian artist, defying the conventions of our middle-class Jewish Midwestern family, which had carried a tradition of holding emotions inside and acting stoic. One day, soon after my grandparents’ divorce, she left. She hitched a ride to California, and from that point on, was never the same. The police picked her up on a park bench in Arizona, and she was committed for the first time at age 18. She rotated in and out of mental hospitals, the streets, and jail until her death.

CAFÉ Study: Real Science or Marketing Exercise?

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I received the following question from a reader regarding the controversial CAFÉ – Comparisons of Atypicals in First Episode of Psychosis - study. (This was the study in which Dan Markingson committed suicide.) "It appears that there was no head-to-head with a control group taking a placebo pill. Nor was there a control group featuring 'old' types of 'antipsychotic'. If that was the case then it is very poor study . . . what on earth can you hope to show from the data?" I started to write a response, but the subject is complex, and my response became the following article.

New Research Documents Widening Mortality Gap for Bipolar and Schizophrenia

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Analysis of longitudinal data from 2000-2014 demonstrate mortality gap is widening between persons with a diagnosis of bipolar or schizophrenia compared to the general population

Assessing the Cost of Psychiatric Drugs to the Elderly and Disabled Citizens of the...

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ProPublica is well known for creating interesting data bases that allow anyone hooked up to a computer to see by name whether a physician is accepting Big Pharma payments — from dinners to speaking engagements to consulting services. What may be lesser known is that occasionally ProPublica will publish other data that when carefully mined can reveal even more about the use of psychiatric drugs especially when there is a public funding source available.

In Ireland, Antipsychotic Drugs Used Extensively On People With Learning Disabilities

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Over half of people with learning disabilities living in residential centers in Ireland are being prescribed antipsychotics.

No Proven Treatments of Any Kind for Psychosis or Schizophrenia in Children or Youth

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There are no proven treatments of any kind for children or adolescents experiencing psychosis or schizophrenia, according to a meta-analysis of randomized comparison trials published in PLOS One.

Atypicals Associated with Diabetes in Adults Without Schizophrenia or Bipolar Diagnoses

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Writing in Evidence Based Mental Health, researchers from Harvard Medical School and Massachusetts General Hospital found that use of medication for diabetes was significantly...

Forbes Unpublishes Commentary on Medication/Violence Link

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A google link to a Forbes magazine article titled "Psychiatric Drugs, Not A Lack Of Gun Control, Are The Common Denominator In Murderous Violence"...

Family Economic Context Linked to Adolescents’ Antipsychotic Use

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In a study of the Swedish Medical Birth Registry published in the British Medical Journal, researchers identified all 324,510 single children born between 1988...

Authors of BJP Editorial Critical of Antipsychotics Urge Reader Comment

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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...

Day Two of the Philly J&J Trial: “Risperdal Popcorn” & Other Perks

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Testimony at day two of the Philadelphia trial concerning a 17-year-old Texas boy who grew breasts after taking Risperdal from the age of five...

“Do We Have to Wait Until He Kills Himself or Someone Else Before Anyone...

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In the "agreement for corrective action" against CAFE study coordinator Jean Kenney last week, the Board of Social Work cited Kenney's failure to respond to "alarming voicemail messages" from family members of Dan Markingson. Presumably, the Board is referring to a message left by his mother, Mary Weiss, which warned, "Do we have to wait until he kills himself or someone else before anyone else does anything?" The failure of Kenney and Stephen Olson to take the warnings of Mary Weiss seriously has been one of the most disturbing aspects of this case. In a deposition for the lawsuit filed by Weiss, Kenney was questioned about her response. Here is an excerpt. (The initial questions come from Gale Pearson, an attorney for Mary Weiss.)

Autism’s Drug Problem

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From Scientific American: Many autistic children are prescribed multiple psychiatric medications, which can lead to serious adverse effects and are often ineffective. "Multiple diagnoses lead to...

Antipsychotics Increase Mortality Risk in Patients with Parkinson’s Disease

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A new study in JAMA Neurology finds that the use of antipsychotic drugs more than doubled the risk of death in patients with Parkinson’s...

“6 Prescription Drugs That Aren’t as Safe as the Government Claims”

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“A quick look at drugs or drug uses that later turned out to be risky shows a disturbing trail of ‘bought’ science in major medical...