Psychiatric Medications Heighten Risk for Major Bone Fractures
Important assessment tool found to underestimate the risk for fracture in patients on psychiatric medication.
Psychiatric Drug Ads Lead to More Prescriptions and Worse Treatment
A new analysis published in the The Journal of Clinical Psychiatry investigates the public health effects of direct-to-consumer advertisements for psychiatric drugs. The researchers...
Pfizer to Pay $325M for False Neurontin Marketing
After ten years of litigation, Pfizer has agreed to pay $325 million for marketing its anticonvulsant Neurontin for unapproved purposes. The settlement comes six...
Major Risks from Drug Interactions in Common Psychiatric Polypharmacy
It is very common for psychiatric patients, especially those diagnosed with schizophrenia, to be prescribed two or more psychiatric medications at once, and this...
Psychologist Rethinks Psychotropic Medications, Calls for Renewed Dialogue
Psychologist and Professor Amber Gum has published the story of her personal journey of rethinking psychotropic medication in a special issue on "The Politics of Mental Health" in The Journal of Medicine and the Person. Influenced by Mad in America and the work of Robert Whitaker, Gum became aware of evidence that “suggests that psychotropic medications are less effective and more harmful than most believe” and now hopes to encourage other mental health professionals and researchers to engage in open-minded, critical self-assessment of standard practices.
Long-term Use of Lithium Can Cause Kidney Failure
A third of patients who have taken the common psychiatric medication lithium for over ten years have developed "chronic renal failure" from the drug.
The Issue of Over-Diagnosing in Psychiatry
From The Concordian: On October 30th, Dr. Joel Paris, a professor of psychiatry at McGill University, gave a lecture about the dangers and consequences of...
“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...
Psychiatric Drugs: an Increasing Portion of Prescription Costs
Rising prescriptions for psychiatric medications are partly a result of longer-term treatment and increasing population, according to an article by Joanna Moncrieff and Stephen...
Shooter in Family Murder/Suicide on High Level of Antipsychotics
Denis Bay had high levels of prescription drugs used to treat schizophrenia and bipolar illness in his blood on February 3, when he shot...
Study Explores Meanings of Bipolar Disorder to Those Diagnosed
The narratives about Bipolar Disorder promoted by drug companies may influence how those diagnosed understand themselves.
Lithium May Cause Sexual Dysfunction — More Research Needed
Lithium appears to reduce libido and sexual function, and more research into the problem is needed.
What If We Are All Wrong About Mental Illness?
From Thoughtful Living: The biomedical model of psychiatry, along with the DSM, is deeply flawed and can often be misleading. To improve, mental health services...
Prenatal Valproate Exposure Linked with ADHD Diagnosis in Children
Children who were exposed to anti-seizure drug valproate in utero were 48% more likely to develop ADHD, according to a new study.
Sinead O’Connor Announces: “I’m Not Bipolar . . . I Should Never Have Been...
Singer Sinead O'Connor announced on her website that after several "second opinions" she has learned "I do not in fact suffer from Bi Polar...
Abbott to Pay $1.6 Billion for “Elder Abuse”, Off-Label Marketing
Abbott Laboratories has pled guilty to civil and criminal charges of illegally marketing Depakote for the control of agitation and aggression in elderly patients...
Valproate Linked to Decreased Brain Volume in Children Diagnosed with Bipolar Disorder
Researchers find that valproate decreases brain volume in a region associated with emotion processing across all participants.
“FDA Forced to Release Adverse Event Reports on Psychiatric Drugs”
Following a lawsuit brought by Andrew Thibault of Parents Against Pharmaceutical Abuse (PAPA), the FDA has produced adverse event and severe adverse event reports...
Antipsychotics Rise in Youth, But Hospitalization Rates Stay the Same
Researchers from Tufts and Harvard find in a review of 233 medical charts of psychiatrically hospitalized youth at three points in time (1991, 1998...
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...
Lithium
In this piece for Healing Journey, Anne O'Beirne briefly summarizes the history of the medical usage of lithium and describes the impact that the drug has...
Jury Awards $4M for Topamax Birth Defect
After an hour of deliberation, jurors decided that the anticonvulsant Topamax (topiramate) had, in fact, caused April Czimmer's son to be born with a...
A Journey Into Madness and Back Again: Part 3
The idea of spending more time as a bureaucrat in the US Embassy in Iceland did not appeal to me. I longed for the freedom that academics have. While pursuing that dream I stumbled into the world of international media, “chemical imbalance”, book publishing and a greedy professor of psychiatry which was a prelude to my second annus horribilis.
Antidepressants Associated with Increased Risk for Manic Symptoms
An analysis of medical records in the UK reveals that the use of certain antidepressants for depression is linked to a heightened risk for mania and bipolar disorder. The research, published this week in BMJ Open, found the strongest effect for serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) and the antidepressant venlafaxine.
