A Guide to Minimal Use of Neuroleptics
This guide, by psychiatrists Volkmar Aderhold and Peter Stastny, provides a comprehensive review of antipsychotics and an evidence-based rationale for avoiding their use in first-episode psychosis, and for minimizing their long-term use.
Risk of Death in the Elderly Trebled With Antipsychotics
In a nine-year study of all 2,224 residents of Leppävirta, Finland who were 65 years old or older, researchers found that the 332 residents...
Discontinuation of Antipsychotics Improves Cognitive Functioning
A study, recently published in Psychological Medicine, examined the cognitive functioning of individuals with schizophrenia who discontinued antipsychotics, and those who maintained their antipsychotic...
Antipsychotic Medications Are Causing Obsessive Compulsive Disorders
Common second-generation antipsychotic medications are causing symptoms of obsessive-compulsive disorder to emerge in many people who previously only had schizophrenia symptoms, according to a...
Sexual Dysfunction from Antipsychotics Common — But Poorly Monitored by Physicians
Describing the prevalence and management of adverse effects from antipsychotics as "a neglected area" of study, a team of researchers from the UK has published a systematic review in the Journal of Psychopharmacology. They aimed to identify the prevalence of, and management strategies for nine categories of adverse effects, including sedation, weight gain, metabolic syndrome, sexual dysfunction and cardiovascular effects.
Alberta Long-term Care Homes Reduce Antipsychotic Use by 50%
The provincial government health service of Alberta, Canada recently concluded a successful pilot project that reduced the use of antipsychotic medications for patients with...
Antipsychotics During Pregnancy Linked to Infant Problems
“Live, healthy babies are the most common outcome following the use of antipsychotic medication in pregnancy,” conclude Australian researchers in a study that was...
Large Study Confirms Elevated Risk of Diabetes When Prescribed Antipsychotics
A large longitudinal study finds once more that being prescribed antipsychotics significantly increases the risk of diabetes.
“Antipsychotic Use in Youth Without Psychosis: A Double-edged Sword”
This month’s issue of JAMA Psychiatry ran an editorial commenting on recent research revealing that the majority of youth prescribed antipsychotics have not been diagnosed with a mental disorder.
Anticholinergic Psychiatric Drugs Linked to a 50% Increase in Dementia
People who take anticholinergic drugs, such as antidepressants and antipsychotics, are at a 50% higher risk of dementia.
A History of Rapid Tranquilization
A paper by Joanna Moncrieff and Laura Allison in the journal History of Psychiatry reviews "the theory and practice of emergency sedation for behavioural...
Patients Complain about Antipsychotic Medications Inducing “Zombie-like” State
People who take antipsychotic medications experience many side effects which have "major disruptive impact on their lives," according to research in the Journal of Mental Health Nursing.
Antipsychotics Linked to Cognitive & Memory Impairments
Finnish reseachers report in Schizophrenia Research that antipsychotic use is associated with cognitive and memory impairments. The University of Oulu team studied forty people...
Antipsychotics During Pregnancy Raise Diabetes Risk
Swedish researchers find, in a study of all women giving birth in Sweden from July 1, 2005 through December 31, 2009 that those taking...
Baseline Lipid Monitoring with Antipsychotics “Disappointingly Low”
"Even in an academic setting with active discussions among psychiatrists regarding issues of metabolic risk ... baseline lipid monitoring is disappointingly low" according to...
Elderly With Dementia can be Withdrawn From Antipsychotics
The Cochrane Library reports that "many older people with Alzheimer's dementia and NPS (neuropsychiatric symptoms) can be withdrawn from chronic antipsychotic medication without detrimental effects...
Discontinuing Psychotropics Reduces Falls in Elderly
Australian researchers look at the literature on the effect of psychotropics on falls in the elderly; largest effect of any randomized trial was achieved...
Majority of Anorexia Patients are Prescribed Psychotropics Despite Lack of Data
Research from the medical schools of Harvard University and the University of Melbourne, reported in the December International Journal of Eating Disorders, found that...
Antipsychotics Increase Mortality Risk in Patients with Parkinson’s Disease
A new study in JAMA Neurology finds that the use of antipsychotic drugs more than doubled the risk of death in patients with Parkinson’s...
Antipsychotics and Drug Addiction
Dopamine supersensitivity as a result of sustained antipsychotic treatment can lead to compulsive drug seeking and drug-taking behavior, according to the theory offered by...
Researchers Discover How Antipsychotics Lead To Parkinsonism
A new study published this month in the journal Neuron identifies the mechanism by which antipsychotic drugs can induce parkinsonism, a condition involving movement...
Scant Evidence for Combining Antipsychotics
Researchers in Barcelona, Spain retrospectively reviewed the use of antipsychotics in 117,811 patients, of whom 9,855 were given combinations of antipsychotics and 13,763 were...
Four Leading Antipsychotics Aren’t Safe or Effective in Older Adults
A 5-year study funded by the National Institute of Mental Health and conducted by U.C. San Diego School of Medicine, Stanford University and the...
Long-acting Injection No Better than Oral Antipsychotic
A study of 5-year outcomes for people taking either an ordinary oral antipsychotic or a long-acting injection of an antipsychotic found no differences between the two.
Antipsychotics do not Result in Neurocognitive Improvement
Researchers in London and Spain, in a prospective, randomized, study of long-term (3 year) effects of first- and second-generation antipsychotics on neurocognition in 79...
