AztraZeneca Struggling as Generic Seroquel Gets the Green Light
With a U.S. judge refusing to grant an injunction against generic versions of it's top-selling drug Seroquel last Friday, the Wall Street Journal reports...
Psychiatric Drugs, Especially Antipsychotics, Contribute to Increasing Drug Costs
Antipsychotics have overtaken antidepressants as the most costly class of psychiatric medication in England, according to a study by Stephen Ilyas and Joanna Moncrieff...
Arkansas’ $1.25 Billion Risperdal Trial Starts Today
Arkansas' lawsuit against Johnson & Johnson for false and misleading claims regarding Risperdal is set to begin today, the fourth time J&J has a...
Pharmas Exiting Antidepressant Market
As patents expire on current antidepressants pharmaceutical companies are getting out of the market, according to an article in yesterday's Vancouver Sun. In the latest...
“Come Out for Health Week”: March 26-30, 2012
My personal + professional advocacy and mission work didnât start with mental illness.
I Chaired the University of Washingtonâs Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender student...
Rejecting Illness as Chronic Contributes to Better Outcomes
Swiss researchers investigated the paradox that both low and high levels of "insight" are a risk factor for poor outcomes such as depression, hopelessness,...
Hypertension in Pregnancy 50% More Likely With SSRIs
Researchers in Montreal found in a sample of 1,216 pregnant women that those who used antidepressants were at least 50% more likely to experience...
Recovery-Oriented Services Benefit Providers As Well
In a study of 114 case managers in Ohio, researchers from Bowling Green State University found that those working at a recovery-oriented center reported...
Living Alone Nearly Doubles Antidepressant Use
Finnish researchers found that in a study of 3471 men and women, those living alone were almost twice as likely to use an antidepressant....
Pharmaceutical Trial Database Mysteriously Disappears
The Public Library of Science (PLoS) revealed today that the lead author of a study identifying publication bias (released this week in PLoS Medicine) has...
Publication Bias in Antipsychotic Trials
Researchers in Oregon looked for discrepancies between published and unpublished FDA-registered trials. They found that four of the 24 FDA-registered trials of second-generation antipsychotics identified...
Mindfulness Decreases Depression & Anxiety, Increases Hope
In a sample of 56 participants who met criteria for a mood disorder, anxiety disorder, and/or substance dependence, researcher from the Emory School of...
Theory of Mind and Emotion Processing Training for Schizophrenia
Impairments in social cognition are critical predictors of social functioning in patients with schizophrenia. Emotion processing (EP) and theory of mind (ToM) are hypothesized...
Spontaneous Improvement in Depression, With and Without Placebo
Researchers at Columbia University and Queens College reviewed 10 trials of antidepressants that used wait-listed controls in order to determine the contribution of spontaneous...
Contribution of Antipsychotics to Suicidality and Depression
Peter Lehmann reviews the contribution of antipsychotics to suicide and depression in schizophrenia in the current International Journal of Psychotherapy. Publications about the intrinsic effects of...
Seroquel Abuse Rising, Along With Ambulance Calls
Australian researchers have uncovered an alarming increase of Seroquel-related ambulances calls. Rising prescriptions of of the drug along with its developing use as a drug...
International Society Removes “Schizophrenia” From Its Name
Calling "schizophrenia" an unscientific and stigmatizing construct - with little or no reliability or validity - that implies people with the diagnosis have an irreversible brain...
High Cost to Medicaid Programs For Off-Label Use of Antipsychotics
A study of 42 state Medicaid programs found that 58% of prescriptions for antipsychotics were not for schizophrenia or bipolar disorder. Off-label prescribing was most prevalent...
Rampant Prescription Errors in CA Nursing Homes
Recent investigations by the California Department of Public Health found that in 18 of 31 nursing homes in San Francisco (plus one outside of...
Mother Sues Pfizer for Alleged Zoloft-Related Birth Defects
The latest in a series of Zoloft-related birth defect lawsuits was filed in St. Louis yesterday, by a firm that claims to represent hundreds...
Millionaire Psychiatrist Accused of Deliberate Misdiagnosis for Gain
Multimillionaire U.K. psychiatrist Dr. George Hibbert is being investigated - potentially by Parliament - for deliberately misdiagnosing hundreds of parents with 'personality disorders' in order to...
Polypharmacy and Excessive Dosing
Researchers in Japan investigated 139 patients with schizophrenia diagnoses due to be discharged from 19 acute psychiatric units in Japanese hospitals. Polypharmacy and excessive...
Brain Science Doesn’t Explain All
In an essay in the Sydney Morning Herald, a psychiatrist explores how the same blind faith in reductionist economic models that lead to a global...
45% of Children and Adolescent Inpatients Prescribed Antipsychotics
In a rare long-term study of antipsychotics used in children and adolescent inpatients, the Institute of Living in Hartford, CT followed 3,851 consecutive admissions...
Vermont Moves to Community Care After Hurricane Destroys State Hospital
Vermont Governor Peter Shumlin "is going to use this tragedy of losing our State Hospital during (hurricane) Irene as an opportunity to deliver the...
