US Government Proposes Stronger Rules for Disclosure of Medical Trial Results
The US government is proposing to toughen the rules governing medical trials involving human subjects, to help ensure the trials are registered in advance...
Psychiatrists and Psychologists Not Reliable Expert Witnesses
Psychiatrists and psychologists who work as expert witnesses for the courts are generally no more scientifically knowledgeable or accurate about issues that involve human...
Nature Neuroscience Dedicates Special Issue to Big Data Efforts
The November issue of Nature Neuroscience is focused on discussions of "big data" initiatives for mapping the brain, finding genetic clues to psychology questions,...
Psychiatric Medication Use Associated with Triple the Risk of Stroke
Common psychiatric medications double the risk of heart attack and triple the risk of stroke, according to research presented at the Canadian Cardiovascular Congress...
Completely New Naming System for Psychotropic Drugs Proposed
A group of influential organizations are beginning an effort to change the entire way that psychiatric medications are named, according to a press release...
High-profile Psychiatrist Criticized for Remote, Politicized Diagnosing
The Associated Press reports on Fox television and Tufts University psychiatrist Keith Ablow, who routinely diagnoses President Barack Obama without ever having met him,...
Robin Williams On Antidepressant at Time of Suicide
Robin Williams had "therapeutic" levels of the tetra-cyclic antidepressant mirtazapine in his blood at the time of his suicide, according to the coroner's report...
One-quarter of Physicians Say Medical Research is “Sick”
In a survey of 315 medical scientists in the Netherlands, 15% "admitted to recently fabricating or falsifying research data," while more than 25% "admitted...
Common Parkinson’s Drugs Linked to Pathological Gambling and Hypersexuality
"Pathological gambling, hypersexuality, compulsive shopping and other impulse control disorders were associated with the use of dopamine receptor agonists, often prescribed for Parkinson’s disease,...
FDA Pans Depression Patch For Children and Teens
The FDA released a report in July of a trial on children and adolescents of the selegiline (Emsam) transdermal patch for treatment of depression,...
“Deadly Medicines and Organised Crime” Wins Book Award From British Medical Association
Peter Gøtzsche's Deadly Medicines and Organised Crime has won first prize in the "Basis of Medicine" category of the British Medical Association's annual book...
Researchers Struggle as Placebos Becoming More Effective & Antipsychotics Losing Power
Since the 1960s, the positive response rates to antipsychotic medications have been dropping steadily, according to a meta-analysis published in JAMA Psychiatry by Columbia...
Benzodiazepine Use of 50% of Elderly Patients is Not Monitored
The American Psychiatric Association (APA) publication Psychiatric News has released an article about the recent British Medical Journal study finding strong links between long-term...
ADHD Stimulant Use Again Strongly Linked to School Accountability
Wealthier children are more likely to take stimulants only during the school year and not during the summer, according to a study in American...
Previous Experiences with Treatments Influence Effectiveness of New Treatments
Previous experiences of treatments working or not working significantly influence the effectiveness of new treatments on clinical trial participants and patients, even in relation...
Authorities Ignoring Deaths, Forced Electroshock in Irish Mental Health System
An internal government investigation found that authorities did not investigate 50% of deaths that occurred inside mental health services in Ireland, reports the Irish...
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...
Australian Physicians Launch “No Drug Ads” Campaign
A group of physicians and academics in Australia has launched a campaign to ban all pharmaceutical company sales representatives from visiting any medical doctors...
People Reporting More Depressive Symptoms than 30 Years Ago
Americans today, especially teens, are reporting having far more psychological problems that resemble "depressive symptoms" than they did in the 1980s, according to an...
Europe Issues Policy on Access to Clinical Trial Data, Criticisms Continue
The European Medicines Agency has announced in a press release its final policies on the open publication of data from clinical trials. Ed Silverman...
Antipsychotic Medications Are Causing Obsessive Compulsive Disorders
Common second-generation antipsychotic medications are causing symptoms of obsessive-compulsive disorder to emerge in many people who previously only had schizophrenia symptoms, according to a...
Therapy More Effective than Medications for Anxiety — Placebos Also Effective
One-on-one Cognitive Behavioral Therapy is better than psychiatric medications or other common psychotherapeutic interventions for severe anxiety disorders in adults, according to a large...
We Believe Drugs with Simpler Names are Less Hazardous
People tend to strongly believe that pharmaceutical drugs with simpler and easier-to-pronounce names have fewer dangerous side effects, according to a study in the...
Pharma Gave US Doctors $3.5 Billion in 5 Months
"Opening the book on long-hidden industry relationships, the federal government revealed nearly $3.5 billion worth of payments and other ties that U.S. doctors and...
Only One-quarter of US Children Taking ADHD Stimulants Get Any Psychotherapy
Most US children and youth diagnosed with ADHD are taking stimulant medications, but less than one-quarter are receiving any amount of concurrent psychotherapy of...
