Antipsychotics

A new study published in JAMA Psychiatry connects antipsychotics with damage to the brain in multiple areas.

Jeffrey LIeberman and colleagues have published a paper in the American Journal of Psychiatry stating that there is no evidence that psychiatric drugs cause long-term harm, and that the evidence shows that these drugs provide a great benefit to patients. A close examination of their review reveals that it is a classic example of institutional corruption, which was meant to protect guild interests.

Psychiatry is now claiming that research has shown that antipsychotics reduce mortality among the seriously mentally ill. A critical review of the literature reveals that this claim is best described as the the field's latest "delusion" about the merits of these drugs.

Researchers studied whether antipsychotics could prevent transition to full psychosis and found that the drugs worsened outcomes.

This review of the scientific literature, stretching across six decades, makes the case that antipsychotics, over the long-term, do more harm than good. The drugs lower recovery rates and worsen functional outcomes over longer periods of time.

People who take anticholinergic drugs, such as antidepressants and antipsychotics, are at a 50% higher risk of dementia.

A review of the scientific literature related to the withdrawal of antipsychotics: animal studies, withdrawal symptoms, tapering success rates, and consumer accounts of discontinuation.

Researchers discuss the evidence that antipsychotic medications may cause brain atrophy in children, whose brains are still developing.

Study finds that reduced cortical thickness and brain surface area associated with 'schizophrenia' may result from antipsychotic drug use.

New research counters the long-held assumption that a longer duration of untreated psychosis is associated with worse outcomes.

Finnish reseachers report in Schizophrenia Research that antipsychotic use is associated with cognitive and memory impairments. The University of Oulu team studied forty people...

A new survey exploring antipsychotic user experience finds that more than half of the participants report only negative experiences.

With increasing evidence that psychiatric drugs do more harm than good over the long term, the field of psychiatry often seems focused on sifting through the mounds of research data it has collected, eager to at last sit up and cry, here’s a shiny speck of gold! Our drugs do work! One recently published study on withdrawal of antipsychotics tells of long-term benefits. A second tells of long-term harm. Which one is convincing?

A new systematic review finds that patients report reduced symptoms but also loss of self and agency while taking antipsychotics.

The researchers found that while antipsychotic drugs may be slightly more effective than alternative antidepressants, they come with a much higher side effect burden.

A new review of antipsychotic trials conducted over the last 24 years finds that the placebo response rate is steadily increasing, and drug response is decreasing.

A large observational study published in CNS Drugs sheds light on serious adverse effects of the ‘gold standard’ antipsychotic Clozapine.

Study finds that 74% of patients with a psychotic disorder off antipsychotics at end of 10 years are in remission.

In a systematic literature review, researchers from Canada and Japan found that the antipsychotic aripiprazole (Abilify) was significantly and causally related to increased increased...

Researchers found some antipsychotics to be worse than others for causing sexual dysfunction.

A systematic review published this week in the British Journal of Clinical Pharmacology found that patients taking antipsychotic drugs were at nearly twice the risk...

Reduced usage of antipsychotics in first-episode psychosis was associated with improved executive functioning.

A new meta-review examines the experiences of antipsychotic drugs use among people diagnosed with a psychotic disorder.

Results of a large government-funded study call into question current drug heavy approaches to treating people diagnosed with schizophrenia. The study, which the New York Times called “by far the most rigorous trial to date conducted in the United States,” found that patients who received smaller doses of antipsychotic drugs with individual talk therapy, family training, and support for employment and education had a greater reduction in symptoms as well as increases in quality of life, and participation in work and school than those receiving the current standard of care.

The researchers find that the drug effects for reducing psychosis are small and that treatment failure and severe side effects are common.