RxISK Adds Prescription Withdrawal Resource
This week the drug monitoring and patients' rights website, RxISK, launched the Centre for Medication Withdrawal, a page dedicated to establishing what causes dependence and how to treat it.
āStudy: Psychiatric Drugs Linked to Violent Crimeā
Writing for the conservative website The New American, C. Mitchell Shaw reports that more and more evidence is pointing to psychiatric drugs as a potential cause of mass shootings. āOf course anecdotes are not proof, and most people who regularly take antidepressants do so without becoming violent,ā but, he adds, it appears āthat young people are particularly at risk of developing violent tendencies, suicidal tendencies, or both while taking these drugs.ā
RAISE Study Out Of Sync With Media Reports
Writing on his 1 Boring Old Man blog, Dr. Mickey Nardo reflects on the media frenzy around the RAISE study and asks why the prescription data has not been released. He adds skepticism about the political motives of the potentially overblown results, which he sees as a clear push for increased mental health funding.
Massive Number of Antidepressant Meta-Analyses Biased By Industry
A massive number of meta-analyses of antidepressant clinical trials have financial conflicts of interest and are unduly influenced by pharmaceutical companies, according to a review to be published in an upcoming issue of the Journal of Clinical Epidemiology. Researchers also found that meta-analyses with industry ties almost never report any negative findings in their abstracts.
UK Woman Speaks Out About 22 Year Addiction With Prescribed Ativan
ITV features and article and video today about the widespread problem of addiction and withdrawal from benzodiazepine drugs used to treat anxiety, including Ativan, Librium, Diazepam and Temazepam. Mother of three Sandra Minshull shares her story and discusses how Ativan ārobbed her of her life.ā
$8 Million Awarded to Family Of Man Who Died in Risperdal Trial
A California jury ruled that Johnson & Johnsonās Janssen Pharmaceutical and a psychiatrist were responsible for the death of 25-year-old Leo Liu. During a clinical trial for Risperdal, Liu died of a heart injury that was āfurther complicatedā by the drug and ignored by the study doctors. Janssen was found 70% responsible for Liuās death and ordered to pay $5.6 million to the family.
āMany Antidepressant Studies Found Tainted by Pharma Company Influenceā
The Scientific American reports on a new analysis of antidepressant trials revealing that the vast majority of meta-analyses have industry links and suppress negative results.
Confusion Over Antipsychotic Dosing Data in RAISE Study
Yesterday, the New York Times reported that schizophrenia patients in an experimental treatment program (RAISE) who experienced better outcomes had been on lower doses of antipsychotics than normal. However, the article published in the American Journal of Psychiatry on Tuesday did not divulge any data on the varying antipsychotic drug doses in the different study groups.
Landmark Schizophrenia Study Recommends More Therapy
Results of a large government-funded study call into question current drug heavy approaches to treating people diagnosed with schizophrenia. The study, which the New York Times called āby far the most rigorous trial to date conducted in the United States,ā found that patients who received smaller doses of antipsychotic drugs with individual talk therapy, family training, and support for employment and education had a greater reduction in symptoms as well as increases in quality of life, and participation in work and school than those receiving the current standard of care.
Brain Response to Antidepressant Mirrors Placebo Effect
People diagnosed with severe depression show the same changes in brain scans when they respond to a placebo as they do when they take an actual antidepressant, according to a new study. Researchers also found that those whose symptoms were decreased by a placebo were more likely to report relief from antidepressant drugs.
āControversial āFemale Viagraā Hits the Market, New Questions Ariseā
Despite concerns about the drugās necessity, effectiveness, and side-effects, Flibanserin (Addyi) has come to market as the first drug designed to increase sexual desire in women
Study 329: Conflicts of Interest
The BMJĀ states that it takes on average eight weeks from submission of an article to publication. The review process for Restoring Study 329 took a year, with a three-month review process involving six reviewers to begin with, and then a further four reviews in a four-month process, leading to a provisional acceptance in March that was withdrawn.
Over Ten Thousand Unfiled Claims Against Risperdal Over Breast Growth in Young Boys
Johnson & Johnson is exposed to personal injury and product liability lawsuits over the failure to warn about Risperdal gynecomastia side effects in boys.
āHolding Big Pharma Accountable: Why Suing the Pharmaceutical Industry Isn’t Workingā
Writing for the Huffington Post, Caroline Beaton looks into how drugs continue to make billions in sales even after they lose lawsuits for fraud and misconduct. āThe persistence of Big Pharma's fraud despite ubiquitous legal action suggests that our present efforts to hold the industry accountable are ineffective,ā Beaton writes. āNew polices in motion will make potentially unsafe drugs even easier to bring to market and promote.ā
Mental Health Professionals Critique the Biomedical Model of Psychological Problems
While a great deal of the excitement about advances in psychological treatments comes from the potential for research in neuroscience to unlock the secrets of the brain, many mental health experts would like to temper this enthusiasm. A special issue of the Behavior Therapist released this month calls into question the predominant conception of mental illnesses as brain disorders.
SSRI Antidepressants Increase Surgery Risks
There is accumulating evidence that taking SSRI antidepressants increases the risk of bleeding and other complications during surgery, according to a review published in the British Journal of Anaesthesia.
āMore Patients in Scotland Given Antidepressantsā
The BBC reports that the number of people in Scotland taking antidepressants has increased by 5% in the past year with most of the patients being women and those in the poorest parts of the country. āWe are now looking at the flabbergasting statistic of more than one in seven people in Scotland being prescribed antidepressants this year,ā Conservative health spokesman Jackson Carlaw said. āWe urgently have to look at better alternatives than simply parking people on medication in the hope things don't get any worse, with no aspiration for complete recovery."
Report Calls For Policy Changes In Response To Dependence and Withdrawal From Prescribed Drugs
Statistics from the UK reveal that prescriptions for painkillers and antidepressants continue to rise despite concerns over dependence and debilitating withdrawal effects. The British Medical Association (BMA) Board of Science has released a report that acknowledges changes to medical practice, research and policy necessary for addressing the dependence and withdrawal effects of benzodiazepines, opioids, and antidepressants.
On the Link Between Psychiatric Drugs and Violence
One of psychiatry's most obvious vulnerabilities is the fact that various so-called antidepressant drugs induce homicidal and suicidal feelings and actions in some people, especially late adolescents and young adults. This fact is not in dispute, but psychiatry routinely downplays the risk, and insists that the benefits of these drugs outweigh any risks of actual violence that might exist.
University Owes Mistreated Psychiatric Subjects an Apology
The University of Minnesota recently announced that it is ending the controversial practice of recruiting study participants from patients involuntarily being held in their psychiatric unit. In a commentary for Minnesotaās Star Tribune, bioethicist and MIA contributor Carl Elliot reports that the university has still not apologized to the patient who spoke out against this practice. Instead, āthe university has done its best to discredit him.ā
Benzodiazepines Linked to Treatment Resistant Depression
Prior use of benzodiazepines, such as Xanax, Librium, or Ativan, may increase the risk of treatment-resistant depression (TRD), according to a new study published in The Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease.
Questions Remain About New “Smart Drug” Modafinil Safety
A number of news outlets have been reporting on a review of modafinil, labeled the new "smart drug," this week. The review in question summarized the recent literature on the drug but others have claimed that the authors underestimated potential side-effects.
āUS Opioid Epidemic Fueled by Prescribing Practicesā
Medscape Psychiatry reports that the āman-made epidemicā of opioid abuse in the United States is the result of over-prescription and poor research.
GSK to Face Lawsuits Over Antidepressant Paxil and Birth Defects
The antidepressant Paxil has been linked to birth defects. "An Ohio federal judge on Wednesday ruled that GlaxoSmithKline must face a product liability suit brought by a woman whose child was born with heart defects after she took the antidepressant Paxil during her pregnancy, ruling that she had successfully pled fraud."
āTreating Parkinson’s Psychosis With Antipsychotics May Boost Death Riskā
The Psychiatric Advisor reports on new research from Kingās College London that suggests that antipsychotics can cause serious harm to people with Parkinsonās.