Might Antidepressants Create Treatment Resistance?
From Psychiatric Times: A recent study of individuals diagnosed with bipolar II disorder found that patients who have taken antidepressants in the past are less likely to respond...
In Memory of Julie Greene
With deep regret, Mad in America announces another loss in our contributor community. Julie C. Greene, writer and antipsychiatry advocate, lost her battle with kidney disease on November 29 at her home in Beaver Falls, Pennsylvania. Julie had been an MIA blogger since 2014, including several pieces on the dangers of lithium.
Psychiatric Medications Heighten Risk for Major Bone Fractures
Important assessment tool found to underestimate the risk for fracture in patients on psychiatric medication.
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.
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...
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.
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.
Nevada Legislation Aims to Curb Psychotropics in Foster Children
A touching article in the Las Vegas Sun follows one child from abandonment through foster placements, polypharmacy, suicidality, delinquency and homelessness to stability off...
Michael Samuel Bloom
by Chaya Grossberg
July 25, 2012
He also told me the shrinks were changing around his drugs and adding more. They added an antidepressant or two to the Lithium and increased doses and eventually he seemed to have very little life left in him. Our phone calls became trying for he was so down, practically dead sounding a lot of the time, and I felt unable to do anything or say anything to make a difference. To even try felt futile and I wondered if talking to me at all was becoming the burden of yet another person he couldn't connect with.
In the early years, he liked to think of us as being in the same boat, both mentally ill, since I'd also had a meltdown and I also am extremely sensitive and go through extreme states. But as the years went by, especially towards the end, I seemed to be in the ever growing “other” camp in his eyes, which meant I was yet another person who didn't get what it was like to be him. And at that point I can confirm I did not, and perhaps did not want to.
The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly: An Infographic on Bipolar Drugs
Bipolar drug therapy is a balancing act of benefits vs. harms. Odds of attributable benefit cluster in a 15-25% band, so 75%-85% don’t see substantial benefit. Stated differently, if five people take a bipolar drug, only one is likely to see substantial improvement due to it, but all five will have side effects.
Anticholinergic Medications Linked to Dementia Similar to Early Alzheimer’s
A new study, published in the Journal of Clinical Psychiatry, investigates the effects of anticholinergic medications, such as antidepressants and antipsychotics, on cognition in older adults diagnosed with schizophrenia.
Anticonvulsant Implicated in Birth Defects in up to 4,100 Children, French Study Finds
Between 2,150 and 4,100 children suffered from severe malformations connected to valproate prescription.
Pfizer Loses Appeal of Neurontin
On Monday the U.S. Supreme Court rejected Pfizer's appeal of a $142 million award to the Kaiser Foundation for illegal marketing of Neurontin. The...
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...
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...
Children Diagnosed with ADHD Younger are More Likely to get Multiple Medications
New research demonstrates that children diagnosed with ADHD at younger ages are more likely than those diagnosed later to receive multiple medications within five years of their diagnosis.
“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...
Infants Exposed to Psychotropic Drugs During Pregnancy At Risk
New research published in the July issue of The Journal of Clinical Psychiatry found that the use of mood stabilizers, antipsychotics, antidepressants, and hypnotics during pregnancy is associated with increased health risks to the infant.
Lowering the Threshold for Bipolar: “More Harm Than Good”
Researchers publishing in the Journal of Clinical Psychiatry argue that broadening the diagnostic criteria for bipolar disorder would result in a greater increase in...
Janssen to Pay $11M for Failure to Warn of Topamax Birth Defects
A Philadelphia jury yesterday ordered Johnson & Johnson subsidiary Janssen to pay $11 million to the parents of a five-year-old boy for failure to warn...
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...
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...
Missouri Sued for Over-Drugging Foster Children
From Reuters: Two youth legal advocacy groups have filed a lawsuit against Missouri for over-exposing foster children to psychotropic drugs. The lawsuit seeks a court...
Call for an Investigation Into Psych Meds and Violence
The killing of 20 children and six adults in Newtown has triggered a search for some way of preventing these kinds of tragedies. The...