Some prominent psychiatrists have come under fire recently for thousands in
unreported income from drugmakers. Critics have said that these influential
doctor-researchers led the way toward off-label use of some powerful psychiatric
drugs–and perhaps their recommendations weren’t objective judgments but biased
by their financial ties to pharma. …
Category: 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. …
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. …
Harvard doc promised J&J ‘positive’ trial data (FiercePharma)
according to Biederman’s testimony, he prepared the presentation himself.
Another presentation promised that a study of J&J’s psychiatric drug
Concerta would “extend … positive findings” on the drug to adolescents. …
Pioneer Press: U doctor scrutinized over drug research
The results compelled AstraZeneca to look deeper into the data
for more positives. What they got were negatives. On a rating scale, patients in
these same four studies showed a greater reduction in behavioral symptoms when
taking Haldol instead of Seroquel, according to the analysis. …
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. …
Post resurrects “buried” Seroquel study (FiercePharma)
Meanwhile, AstraZeneca folks were worried about Study 15. As you know, internal
emails released as court documents show that higher-ups praised a company
doctor’s efforts to put a “positive spin” on “this cursed study.” Company
officials discussed their “cherry-picking” of data; one said, “Thus far, we have
buried Trials 15, 31, 56 and are now considering COSTAR” (which also produced
unfavorable results). In public, however, AstraZeneca publicized a less-rigorous
study showing that patients lost weight
on Seroquel. …
Research supports toxoplasmosis link to schizophrenia (FierceBiotech)
The parasite infects the brain by forming a cyst within its cells and produces
an enzyme called tyrosine hydroxylase, which is needed to make dopamine.
Dopamine’s role in mood, sociability, attention, motivation and sleep patterns
are well documented and schizophrenia has long been associated with dopamine,
which is the target of all schizophrenia drugs on the market. …
St. Petersburg Times:Seroquel maker wants to seal info from you, “for” you
The skirmish over document disclosure in Orlando is part of a hornet’s nest of
litigation against AstraZeneca, a British company with U.S. headquarters in
Wilmington, Del. More than 15,000 patients have filed over 9,000 personal injury
lawsuits. About 40 percent of these claims have been consolidated for pretrial
motions in U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida. …
NIDA Study Shows That Methylphenidate (Ritalin) Causes Neuronal Changes in Brain Reward Areas (FierceBiotech)
methylphenidate (Ritalin), which is commonly prescribed to treat
attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), can cause physical changes in
neurons in reward regions of mouse brains-in some cases, these effects
overlapped with those of cocaine. …