Month: March 2009

Implications, NeuroPsyche

Study questions long-term ADHD med use (FiercePharma)

The latest data confirm that there are “no long-term differences between
children who were continuously medicated and those who were never medicated,”
the Washington Post reports, citing the
Journal of the American Academy of Child and
Adolescent Psychiatry
. Meanwhile, the number of scrips for ADHD meds grew
to 39.5 million last year from 28.3 million in 2004. …

Bureaucracy, NeuroPsyche

Approval process lowers the number of kids on atypical precriptions (St. Petersburg Times)

None of the atypicals have been approved by the FDA for use on
preschoolers, and Florida Medicaid guidelines recommend they be used on this age
group “only in the most extraordinary of circumstances.” But those warnings
didn’t slow a tsunami of atypical prescribing. Between 2001 and 2004, the number
of kids under 6 taking atypicals increased 300 percent. For all youths under 19,
the increase was about 250 percent.

Implications, NeuroPsyche, Toxicology

The fool on the hill: an essay sharply critical of the psychiatric industry (The Lancet)

Antipsychotics are, at times, cruel drugs. Some cause shaking, salivation,
restlessness, infertility, stiff ness, agitation, and frail bones; others cause
obesity, somnolence, and increase the risk of heart attack, diabetes, and
stroke. Antidepressants also have side-effects, although theirs are typically
less dramatic: sickness, sexual dysfunction, a feeling of being numbed, or
losing one’s personality, and acutely increased risk of suicide. …

Education, Implications

Burt’s Bees, Tom’s of Maine, Naked Juice: Your Favorite Brands? Take Another Look (AlterNet C/O OCA)

I began to wonder about the other products I liked, trusted and respected for
their independence and their social responsibility. How many were really owned
by big corporations, who were going out of their way to hide the link between
the big corporate company with the small, socially responsible brand? It didn’t
take long for my list of disappointments to grow and grow. …

Education, Technology

Simple Elixir Called a ‘Miracle Liquid’ (LA Times C/O Organic Consumers Association)

It turns out that zapping saltwater with low-voltage electricity creates a
couple of powerful, nontoxic cleaning agents. Sodium ions are converted into
sodium hydroxide, an alkaline liquid that cleans and degreases like detergent,
but without the scrubbing bubbles. Chloride ions become hypochlorous acid, a
potent disinfectant known as acid water. …