Science of Psychiatric Drugs

Genetic testing may help reduce the length of time people experience the harmful effects of antidepressant drugs, but it is not helpful for predicting efficacy.

World Psychiatry article challenges conventional antidepressant prescription practices.

A new Cochrane review details the lack of evidence for antidepressants in the treatment of chronic pain.

New research by Jim van Os and Peter Groot finds that using hyperbolic tapering to discontinue antidepressants reduces withdrawal effects.

Males taking antidepressants were at 100 times the risk of erectile dysfunction compared with the healthy population and more than three times the risk even after controlling for other variables.

Only 4 of 188 antipsychotic trials assessed blinding, and in all 4 cases, the blind was broken, potentially leading to an overestimation of the drug effect.

Study reveals most patients are dissatisfied with prescribers' support when discontinuing antidepressants.

New study finds polypharmacy for 73% of older adults on antidepressants, with 56% at risk of harmful drug interactions.

New guidance for primary care doctors in the UK on antidepressant discontinuation acknowledges severe and long-lasting withdrawal symptoms.

Post-SSRI sexual dysfunction (PSSD) may be a common adverse effect of antidepressants. Researchers are now attempting to understand the neurobiology behind it.

A new study promotes the use of a standardized approach to antidepressant tapering.

Combining drugs and therapy also did not lead to better depression outcomes than therapy alone.

Leading ADHD researchers outline four mistakes that turned ADHD from a description of behavior into a medical disease.

Also, male mice born to mothers with an immune response exhibited “autistic-like” behaviors, scientists report.

Paroxetine, SNRIs, and MAOIs were associated with the highest risk of withdrawal, as was long duration of use and whether the person experienced withdrawal in the past.

A new study in rats found that those exposed to antidepressants in utero had an impaired ability to nurture their own children in later life.

Adults receiving ADHD medications and therapy frequently experience adverse events that interfere with employment and daily life.

A new literature review reinforces the need to “down-titrate” or taper antidepressants, especially drugs like Celexa and Paxil.

New evidence suggests that lithium, commonly prescribed for bipolar disorder, can increase the risk of chronic kidney disease.

Researchers suggest that antidepressant withdrawal can be a possible precipitant of suicide.

A study finds that commonly prescribed antidepressants are associated with the development of diabetes, hypertension, and other diseases.

Babies born to mothers taking antidepressants during pregnancy were more than six times as likely to have neonatal withdrawal syndrome—including breathing problems, irritability/agitation, tremors, feeding problems, and seizures—than those born to mothers taking other types of drugs.

Researchers can’t predict the 15% who benefit from antidepressants, and the other 85% are unnecessarily exposed to the harms of the drugs.

In a real-world setting, less than a quarter of patients diagnosed with depression improved with medication, hospitalization, and therapy.

Nassir Ghaemi: “Most psychiatric medications are purely symptomatic, with no known or proven effect on the underlying disease. They are like 50 variations of aspirin, used for fever or headache, rather than drugs that treat the causes of fever or headache.”