Killer Brain Candy: One Woman’s Odyssey Through Benzodiazepine Addiction and Withdrawal or How Chicken...
I have almost four months to go until I am done with the little pills. After that, I’m told it will take two to nine months until my brain will regulate, until I will be able to eat normally, to stand without shivering, to hold my children without fear of falling. I will make it. But I am here to state the obvious: Benzodiazepines are dangerous. We need more research. We need to know that an invisible epidemic is in our midst and there is much that can be done.
One in Seven Scots Take Antidepressants
Following a fourfold-increase in antidepressant use in Scotland over the last two decades, one in seven Scots are taking the drugs. Prescriptions for antipsychotics...
NY Times: “A Call for Caution in the Use of Antipsychotic Drugs”
Professor of psychiatry Richard Friedman traces the history of antipsychotics in the New York Times Health section yesterday, finding that the promise of atypical...
J&J CEO Does Not Have to Testify in Risperdal Gynecomastia Trial
In a victory for Johnson & Johnson, a Philadelphia judge ruled that CEO Alex Gorsky cannot be called as a witness by the plaintiff,...
Family Economic Context Linked to Adolescents’ Antipsychotic Use
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...
J&J CEO Too Busy to Testify in Gynecomastia Trial
David Sell writes in the Philadelphia Inquirer about the travels and tribulations of Johnson & Johnson CEO Alex Gorsky, who will be too busy...
Profile of J&J CEO Alex Gorsky
1 Boring Old Man reviews the rise, and possible fall and its implication, of Johnson & Johnson CEO Alex Gorsky; who has built his...
Ritalin Increases Risk-Taking in Women
Women who were asked to play a gambling were significantly more likely to keep betting when the stakes increased if they had taken Ritalin...
Woman “Jacked Up” on Zoloft Kills Baby
Saying that she had been "jacked up" on a new medication (Zoloft) and had not slept for five or six days, a Milwaukee man...
2nd-Generation Antipsychotics Cause Extrapyramidal Side Effects as Much as 1st-Generation
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...
Sales of Antipsychotics Predicted to Drop, Then Hit a High by 2021
After a drop to $6.5 billion in 2014, due to the loss of patent protection by the Seroquel, Zyprexa, and Abilify, sales of antipsychotics...
Texas Teen’s Lawyers Seek Testimony From J&J CEO
Lawyers for a Texas teenager whose lawsuit, one of 400 Johnson & Johnson faces over personal injuries caused by Risperdal, is set to begin...
Class Action Lawsuit Granted Over Pfizer Antidepressant’s Effects on Heart, Liver and Profits
Pfizer will face a class action lawsuit by investors who claim that the drugmaker's Wyeth unit failed to disclose information about its antidepressant Pristiq's...
J&J CEO Avoids Testimony in Philadelphia Risperdal Case
Chief executive Alex Gorsky was once proud enough of Risperdal to put its sales numbers on his resume, according to the Philadelphia Inquirer today,...
Risperdal Whistle-Blower Honored in Texas, Fired in Pennsylvania
Allen Jones, the whistle blower whose testimony resulted in a $158 million settlement by Johnson & Johnson for fraudulent marketing of Risperdal in Texas,...
Neuroleptic Drugs: Patient vs. Provider Perspective
In January 2012, The Journal of Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology published a study which suggests that providers who prescribe neuroleptics are unaware of how impacted their patients are by the adverse effects of these drugs. Now more than ever we need to reevaluate the benefits and harms that can come with psychiatric drugs. The power inherent in this kind of practice -- exercising a marginalized voice or tending to our mistakes -- is the very essence of healing.
Surgeon General Targets Rising Suicide Rate, But Not Drugs Linked to Suicide
An Op-Ed in Op-Ed News discusses the disconnect between concern about rising suicide rates in the general population (and the military) and awareness of...
Who Determines Efficacy?
1 Boring Old Man reflects on his work with children and adolescents, in which he directly observes the troubling effects of antidepressants, and the...
Benzodiazepines Associated With 3.5x Greater Dementia Risk
Researchers in the U.K. find in a 22-year prospective study of 1134 men, 103 of whom took benzodiazepines regularly for one or more period...
Is the GSK Settlement Sufficient
An article in the New England Journal of Medicine asks whether settlements such as the $3 billion GlaxoSmithKline agreed to last July regarding off-label...
Antidepressants Associated With Increased Driving Risk
Researchers from the Taiwan and the United States find through a study of 5,183 subjects with motor vehicle accidents (MVAs) and 31,093 matched controls...
Things Your Doctor Should Tell You About Antidepressants
The conventional wisdom is that antidepressant medications are effective and safe. However, the scientific literature shows that the conventional wisdom is flawed. While all prescription medications have side effects, antidepressant medications appear to do more harm than good as treatments for depression.
Psychotropics Drive Record 4.02 Billion U.S. Prescriptions in 2011
With drugs for ADHD increasing 17%, and an "unprecedented increase in patients taking antidepressants and antipsychotics," overall prescription drug sales in the United States...
Off-Label Antipsychotic Use Among Children Soaring
Researchers from Philadelphia and Baltimore find, in a study of Medicaid records for 50 states and the District of Columbia, that antipsychotic prescribing to...
Former FDA Counsel: J&J Settlement ‘Is Huge’
In an interview with Pharmalot, former FDA associate chief counsel Arnie Friede discusses the impact of last month's $181 million Risperdal settlement on pharmaceuticals'...
