Some Avoid Antipsychotics Because They Value Psychosis
Side effects, mistrust, stigma, forgetfulness and lack of insight have all been studied as reasons that up to 75% of people with a schizophrenia...
Nurses Confront the Myths of Psychiatric Drugs
The July issue of Nursing Ethics takes on the myths of psychiatric drugs, saying that "psychiatric drugs are used only to control āpatientā behaviour...
Antipsychotic Risperidone Raises Risk of Male Breast Enlargement
Taking the antipsychotic medication risperidone significantly increases men's chances of developing gynecomastia, or breast enlargement, according to a study by University of British Columbia...
Alarm About Antipsychotics as Sleep Aids
Canadian sleep researchers, writing in The Lancet, warn that weight gain, lipid and glucose dysregulation, restless leg syndrome, sleep-walking and eating while asleep, and...
Antipsychotics for Childhood “Behavioral Problems” Skyrocket
Researchers from Columbia University and other New York institutions found a dramatically increasing use of antipsychotics to treat ADHD and other behavioral problems in...
20-Year Data Show Antipsychotics Do Not Reduce Psychosis
Martin Harrow's study tracing the effects of antipsychotics on 139 schizophrenia (SZ) and mood-disordered patients over 20 years, just published in Psychological Medicine, finds...
Major Risks from Drug Interactions in Common Psychiatric Polypharmacy
It is very common for psychiatric patients, especially those diagnosed with schizophrenia, to be prescribed two or more psychiatric medications at once, and this...
Children Diagnosed with ADHD Younger are More Likely to get Multiple Medications
New research demonstrates that children diagnosed with ADHD at younger ages are more likely than those diagnosed later to receive multiple medications within five years of their diagnosis.
Why the Delay Between Psychotropics’ Immediate and “Therapeutic” Effects?
Writing in Neuron that antipsychotics' "functional consequences and the subcellular sites of their accumulation in nervous tissue have remained elusive," researchers from Germany and...
Antipsychotics Linked to Increased Breast Cancer Risk
Long-term exposure to prolactin-increasing antipsychotics increases the odds of developing breast cancer.
Non-Drug Therapies Outperform Drug Therapies in Preventing Relapse
In a study of 597 outpatients who were perceived as likely nonadherers to oral antipsychotic interventions, Spanish researchers found that relapse was lower in...
Atypicals Associated with Diabetes in Adults Without Schizophrenia or Bipolar Diagnoses
Writing in Evidence Based Mental Health, researchers from Harvard Medical School and Massachusetts General Hospital found that use of medication for diabetes was significantly...
Little Evidence on Effectiveness or Risks of Antipsychotics in Young People
Evidence-Based Mental HealthĀ reviewsĀ studies (from 1987 to 2011) of antipsychotics in people under 24 years old, finding weak evidence on comparative effectiveness of antipsychotics or...
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...
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...
Antipsychotic Drug Associated with Potentially Fatal Skin Rash
The US Food and Drug Administration is warning the public that the antipsychotic medication ziprasidone "is associated with a rare but serious skin reaction...
Lower Education Linked to Higher Antipsychotic Use in Swedish Elderly
Elderly people in Sweden are five times more likely to be taking antipsychotics if they have a diagnosis of dementia, according to research published in Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavica. And among those people with dementia, the lower their education the higher the likelihood theyāre taking antipsychotics.
Smoking Cessation and Psychiatric Drugs Cause the Most Suicidal and Homicidal Reactions
The popular smoking cessation drug Chantix is the medication that most frequently makes people feel suicidal or homicidal, according to figures gathered by the...
Rise of Antipsychotics in Children
Researchers at Johns Hopkins explore the use of antipsychotics in children, finding a dramatic rise in off-label prescribing with little oversight or research into...
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...
Antipsychotics During Pregnancy Linked to Infant Problems
āLive, healthy babies are the most common outcome following the use of antipsychotic medication in pregnancy,ā conclude Australian researchers in a study that was...
Antipsychotic Dose Reduction Linked To Long-term Improvements In First-Episode Schizophrenia Patients
Careful reductions in dosage levels of antipsychotic medications over time improved long-term rates of recovery and functional remission in patients diagnosed with a first-episode psychosis.
No Metabolic Risk for Antipsychotic-Naive Patients
An Austrian study of the baseline prevalence of metabolic abnormalities and changes following treatment with five commonly-used antipsychotic drugs (haloperidol, amisulpride, olanzapine, quetiapine or...
Long-Acting Risperidone (Consta) Increases Costs, Lowers Outcomes
Writing in the Journal of Clinical Psychiatry, researchers from the Health Economics Resource Center studied the effects of long-acting injectable risperidone (Consta) onĀ 369 patients...
Anticholinergic Medications Linked to Dementia Similar to Early Alzheimerās
A new study, published in the Journal of Clinical Psychiatry, investigates the effects of anticholinergic medications, such as antidepressants and antipsychotics, on cognition in older adults diagnosed with schizophrenia.
