Randomized Controlled Trial Confirms That Antipsychotics Damage the Brain

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

Antipsychotic Trials Show Increasing Placebo Response and Declining Drug Response

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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.

Does Longer Duration of Untreated Psychosis Cause Worse Outcomes?

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

Largest Survey of Antipsychotic Experiences Reveals Negative Results

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

Review Explores First-Person Experiences of People Taking Antipsychotics

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

Relapse in Antipsychotic Drug Trials is Poorly Defined

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There is a lack of consensus in the definition of ‘relapse’ across randomized controlled trials of antipsychotic maintenance treatment for schizophrenia and psychosis.

How Do We Test the Effects of Long-Term Exposure to Antipsychotics?

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A new attempt to study the neurological effects of long-term exposure to antipsychotics uses healthy volunteers on minimal doses for 15 days.

How Exercise Can Help With First Episode Psychosis

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New study examines the experiences of people utilizing an exercise program following a first-episode psychosis.

Review Finds FDA Approval of Digital Antipsychotic Misguided

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The approval of the digital antipsychotic may open the door for more pharmaceutical company profits without evidence of benefits to patients.
A box of Zyprexa pills.

Lack of Clear Guidelines Prevent Clinicians from Reducing Antipsychotics

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A recently published study from noted critical psychiatry expert Joanna Moncrieff explored the barriers that prevent clinicians from helping service users in discontinuing or...

Anticholinergic Psychiatric Drugs Linked to a 50% Increase in Dementia

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

Service-Users See Long-Term Antipsychotic Use as Compromising Recovery, Review Finds

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

Better Outcomes Off Medication for Those Recovered from First-Episode Schizophrenia

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A new study has found that of 10 people who were fully recovered from their first episode of schizophrenia (FES), those not taking antipsychotics did better in terms of cognitive, social, and role functioning—and reached full recovery more quickly.

Antipsychotics Associated with High Risk of Death in Children

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A new study has found that children and adolescents taking a high dose of antipsychotics are almost twice as likely to die of any cause than children on other types of medications.

Claims That Long-term Antipsychotic Use Leads to Better Outcomes are Misleading, Researchers Argue

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Researchers reveal the limitations and misleading interpretations of two recent studies that claim to demonstrate that long-term antipsychotic use leads to better outcomes.

Researchers Warn of “Brain Atrophy” in Children Prescribed Antipsychotics

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

Two-Thirds of Schizophrenia Patients Do Not Remit on Antipsychotics

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A new analysis of antipsychotic treatment of schizophrenia (published in Schizophrenia Bulletin) has found that two-thirds of patients treated this way do not experience symptom remission.

New Review of Antipsychotics for Schizophrenia Questions Evidence for Long Term Use

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A systematic review of the limited research available on the long-term effects of antipsychotics finds fewer symptoms in those off of the drugs.

Call to Monitor Adverse Effects of Antipsychotics in Youth

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Researchers point to the risks of using antipsychotics with youth and caution against the practice.

Study Reduces Over-prescription of Antipsychotics in Older Adults

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New intervention shows promise in reducing over-prescription of off-label antipsychotics in older adults.

New Research Suggests Brain Abnormalities in ‘Schizophrenia’ May Result From Antipsychotics

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

FDA Defends Decision to Approve Digital Aripiprazole

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Members of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s Psychiatry Products division go on the defensive in a new article, responding to concerns about the agency’s approval of digital aripiprazole.

Effort to Tackle Overuse of Antipsychotics in Older Adults Backfires

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A partnership designed to decrease antipsychotic use in elderly patients may have led to increased use of medications with even worse risk/benefit profiles.

A Tale of Two Studies

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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?

Researchers Challenge Industry-Friendly Depression Guideline

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Review of a new mixed depression guideline reveals financial bias of guideline developers and lack of evidence supporting recommendations for prescribing of antipsychotics.