Thomas Szasz, April 15, 1920 – September 8, 2012
Thomas Szasz, relentless "critic of coercive psychiatry, the 'therapeutic state,' and the war on drugs," died at his home in Manlius, N.Y. over the...
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...
J&J Settles Risperdal Lawsuit on Opening Day
Johnson & Johnson settled one of about 420 Risperdal-related lawsuits on the trial's opening day. "The case is resolved and the client is satisfied,"...
Link Between Childhood Adversity and Psychosis Withstands Scrutiny
Researchers from Spain, Belgium and the Netherlands find, in a study of 226 monozygotic twins, that where there is a correlation between childhood adversity...
Louisiana Court Rejects J&J’s Bid to Throw Out $258 million Risperdal Award
The state appeals court of Lake Charles, Louisiana found that "the trial court was not manifestly erroneous in casting (Johnson & Johnson owner) Janssen...
Eli Lilly is Overvalued
The investment newsletter Seeking Alpha reports that Eli Lilly's research woes, including the halting of research into a new antipsychotic, mean that Lilly's stock...
More Evidence That Antipsychotics Shrink the Brain
European researchers who reviewed 43 imaging studies of first-episode psychosis found evidence that antipsychotics cause a decrease in gray matter volumes in the brain....
ProPublica Offers Searchable Database of Nursing Home Inspection Reports
ProPublica now offers a searchable database of 20,000 nursing home inspection reports, a service which may assist in determining homes that have violated guidelines...
Cortisol Levels Increased in Youth at Risk for Psychosis
Researchers from Columbia University and the Institute of Neurosciences in Barcelona assessed cortisol levels in 33 patients at clinical high risk of psychosis. Cortisol...
Type of Treatment for Depression is Less Important than Engagement
An international team of researchers (including Irving Kirsch) found in a review "of 62 pivotal antidepressant trials consisting of data from 13,802 depressed patients"...
Pediatric Drugs: More Illness, But Less Research
An international team of researchers identified all drug trials registered in ClinicalTrials.gov between 2006 and 2011 and tracked the resulting publications, finding that although...
Happiness and First-Episode Schizophrenia
Canadian researchers find that 31 people with first-episode schizophrenia diagnoses were as happy as 29 controls, according to a self-reported questionnaire measuring happiness, life...
“Grief is Good News for Pharmaceutical Companies”
The U.K.'s Guardian writes today that "the proposal by the American Psychiatric Association to create a new illness – prolonged grief disorder – and...
Top Docs Call Psych Diagnoses by Brain Scans “Modern Phrenology”
The Washington Post profiles Daniel Amen, "the most popular psychiatrist in America," who claims in copious books, DVDs, television and speaking engagements to be...
South Dakota Court Revives Cymbalta Suicide Case
A federal appeals court has reversed a lower court's summary judgment in favor of Eli Lilly, Â allowing the parents of a South Dakota...
NIH Defends Nemeroff Grant, Issues Talking Points
When it awarded yet another multimillion-dollar grant to Charles Nemeroff, a key figure in the controversy over conflicts of interest involving pharmaceutical research, U.S....
GAO Calls for Patient-Centered Research, Public Comment
The Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI)'s Methodology Committee released a report dated July 23, 2012, calling for "Standards for Patient-Centered Outcomes Research." Â In a...
NE Journal of Medicine Backs Congressional Call for Research Transparency
Rep. Ed Markey (D-MA) introduced the Trial and Experimental Studies Transparency (TEST) Act into congress on August 2, 2012; a bill aimed at closing...
Nineteen New Zoloft Birth Defect Lawsuits Filed
Nineteen defective drug product liability cases against Prizer have been filed in West Virginia state court by mothers alleging that their children suffered from...
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...
BJP Announces “The End of the Psychopharmacological Revolution”
The editor of the British Journal of Psychiatry, in a comment on Morrison et al.'s "Antipsychotics: is it Time to Introduce Patient Choice," announces...
Social Phobia is Not a Neuropsychological Deficit
Researchers at the University of Central Florida, saying "there are relatively few existing studies examining neuropsychological functioning in social phobia," found no difference across...
Only One in Seven Authors Disclose Conflict of Interest
Researchers from Harvard and the University of Melbourne identified physicians and scientists who had financial relationships with pharmaceutical companies named as defendants in U.S....
SSRIs Can Harm Babies Prior to Conception
In addition to the increased risk of respiratory and heart troubles known to accompany SSRI use during pregnancy, SSRIs have been linked to an...
Antipsychotics for Childhood “Behavioral Problems” Skyrocket
Researchers from Columbia University and other New York institutions found a dramatically increasing use of antipsychotics to treat ADHD and other behavioral problems in...
