Antipsychotics Rise in Youth, But Hospitalization Rates Stay the Same
Researchers from Tufts and Harvard find in a review of 233 medical charts of psychiatrically hospitalized youth at three points in time (1991, 1998...
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...
Less-impaired Youth Using Antipsychotics with Other Medications More Often
Use of second-generation antipsychotics (SGA) alongside other medications is growing rapidly among youth who are less impaired, according to a study published online in...
Pharmacological Treatment of Schizophrenia: a Fifty-Year Review
Researchers in the U.S. and India reviewed the pharmacological treatment of schizophrenia since its introduction 50 years ago, trying to understand why it "remains...
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...
Therapy Without Drugs May Ward Off Psychosis
A double-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled study comparing outcomes from risperidone, cognitive therapy, and supportive therapy in a cohort of 115 at-risk young adults over a...
Increasing Use of Antipsychotics for Disruptive Behavior in Children
Canadian researchers systematically reviewed all randomized controlled trials of second-generation antipsychotics (SGAs) and placebo in the treatment of disruptive behavior disorders in children, finding...
Multiple Medications Associated With Poorer Outcomes
Research from Germany finds that people with schizophrenia or schizoaffective diagnoses given multiple medications - an antipsychotic plus a benzodiazepine or more than one...
WHO Says Newer Antipsychotics Most Costly, Least Effective Strategy
In an analysis of neuropsychiatric conditions in sub-Saharan Africa and South East Asia, the World Health Organization found that inpatient treatment of schizophrenia with...
High Cost to Medicaid Programs For Off-Label Use of Antipsychotics
A study of 42 state Medicaid programs found that 58% of prescriptions for antipsychotics were not for schizophrenia or bipolar disorder. Off-label prescribing was most prevalent...
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...
No Advantage for Second-Generation Antipsychotics
In a study of 720 consecutive hospital admissions in a specific catchment area from 1991 to 2005, researchers found that there was no difference...
Family Economic Context Linked to Adolescents’ Antipsychotic Use
In a study of the Swedish Medical Birth Registry published in the British Medical Journal, researchers identified all 324,510 single children born between 1988...
Antipsychotics for Dementia: Not Justified and Risky
In a study of antipsychotics used to treat 75,445 patients in nursing homes in the United States, researchers from Harvard Medical School, Columbia and...
Prenatal Antipsychotic Exposure Causes Neuromotor Deficits
Researchers studying 309 6-month-olds at Emory University's Infant Development Laboratory found that infants prenatally exposed to antipsychotics showed significantly lower scores on a standardized...
Psychotropics During Pregnancy Raise Risk of Babies with Low Birth Weight, Hospitalizations
The use by mothers of any of four major classes of psychiatric medications during pregnancy significantly raises the risk that their babies will be born with low birth weights and will need to be hospitalized.
Discussing The Meaning of Antipsychotics
Research published in the Journal of Psychiatric Practice finds that a "shared discussion of beliefs about medication between patient and care provider allows wider...
Pharmacology Gets More Cooperation Than Psychosocial Advice
In a study of conformance to evidence-based treatment recommendations at mental health clinics among people diagnosed with schizophrenia, Canadian researchers found that conformance to...
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...
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 theyâre taking antipsychotics.
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...
Antipsychotics Aren’t Helpful to Children
Researchers from London, writing in European Psychiatry, reviewed "all RCTs involving children and young people with a diagnosis of childhood onset schizophrenia comparing any...
APA Recommends Reducing Antipsychotics for Children and Elderly Without Psychosis
The American Psychiatric Association, as part of the American Board of Internal Medicine's "Choosing Wisely" initiative, released new practice guidelines yesterday that advise against...
Antipsychotics Increase Risk of Heart Attack in the Elderly
In a study of 10,969 older patients treated with antipsychotics in Quebec, Canada, researchers found a 2.19 times greater risk of heart attack in...
Little Evidence on Effectiveness or Risks of Antipsychotics in Young People
Evidence-Based Mental Health reviews studies (from 1987 to 2011) of antipsychotics in people under 24 years old, finding weak evidence on comparative effectiveness of antipsychotics or...
