Sleep Aid Melatonin May Not Be Safe for Children
Increasing numbers of children with sleep disorders are being treated with the hormone melatonin, but the medication has not been approved for such use.
Researcher Challenges Clinical Effectiveness of Antidepressants
A new article in BMJ Evidence-Based Medicine addresses common misinterpretations of the efficacy research on antidepressants.
Second-Generation Antipsychotics Just as Likely as Older Drugs to Cause EPS
In a study of an earlier randomized controlled trial of antipsychotics, researchers from Yale and the U.K found that second-generation antipsychotics were as likely...
Sodium Nitroprusside Shows No Efficacy in Schizophrenia Treatment
Researchers question biases of preliminary trials that found that sodium nitroprusside, an antihypertensive drug, has positive effects on schizophrenia symptoms.
Zoloft Causes Cells to Eat Themselves
Researchers at Princeton found that Zoloft accumulates in yeast cells, leading to curvature of the cellular membrane that triggers "autophagy," wherein cells eat themselves...
Meta-analysis Shows Antidepressants Offer Little to No Benefit to Well-Being of Depressed Children and...
Seeking to rectify the fact that "no meta-analysis has included measures of quality of life, global mental health, self-esteem, or autonomy" (or self-reports of...
“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.
Autism Linked to Antidepressants During Pregancy
A study of the Swedish medical birth registry, conducted by researchers from Sweden, the U.K., and the U.S.A., found a 3.3X greater risk of...
Researchers Investigate Antidepressant-Induced Suicidal Ideation
An increase in suicidal thoughts is a known and serious side-effect for various types of antidepressants. Recent studies suggest that there may be some...
Off-Label Antipsychotic Use Among Children Soaring
Researchers from Philadelphia and Baltimore find, in a study of Medicaid records for 50 states and the District of Columbia, that antipsychotic prescribing to...
Osteoporosis Associated with Antipsychotic Treatment
Chinese researchers find, in a literature review for the International Journal of Endocrinology find an increased rate of osteoporosis among people with a schizophrenia...
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...
Exposure to Antidepressants in the Womb Linked to Autistic Behavior in Mice
Researchers experimenting on mice found that exposure to fluoxetine (Prozac) in utero resulted in behaviors considered in animal studies to be analogous to autism in humans.
Schizophrenia Prevents Cancer; Antipsychotics May Cause It
In a review of all 59,233 individuals diagnosed with schizophrenia in Sweden between 1965 and 2008, researchers from Sweden and the U.S. identified 6137...
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...
Long-Term Benzos do not Help Schizophrenia
Researchers in Germany, China and Australia teamed up to find, through a meta-analysis of research pertaining to 1045 patients receiving antipsychotics, that augmentation with...
Smoking Cessation Drug Suspected in 30 Suicides in Canada
The Pfizer drug has also been linked to more than 1,300 incidents of suicide attempts or thoughts, depression, and aggression/anger across the country in the past seven years.
Benzos Alter Fish Behavior
Drugs that pass into the water supply can alter the behavior of fish, according to a paper published today in Science magazine. Experiments using...
Social Support Improves Antipsychotic Discontinuation, Study Finds
A new study explores how people manage to discontinue antipsychotic medication and examines how social supports may improve outcomes.
SSRIs Impair Learning From Negative Feedback
A study comparing the effects on cognition of major depression (MDD) vs. SSRIs finds that healthy subjects learn significantly better from positive feedback than...
Risk of Bone Fractures With SSRIs Greater Than Thought
Researchers from McMaster University's Department of Medicine, presenting at this year's American Society for Bone and Mineral Research's annual meeting, found that the magnitude...
Rethinking Madness and Medication: Researcher Discusses Psychiatric Drug Withdrawal and Survivor Movements
New understandings of medication and withdrawal experiences warrant rethinking conceptualizations of health and “madness."
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...
Prescription Drugs in Great Lakes Don’t Dilute as Expected
Concentrations of pharmaceuticals in Lake Michigan are undiluted two miles from treated sewage outfalls, according to research published in Chemosphere. Research has linked pharmaceuticals...
Therapy Better than Antidepressants for Staying Employed
Examining the link between depression and loss of employment, a study by American researchers in the British Journal of Psychiatry found that cognitive therapy...