You may recall a study that hit the news last October, published in JAMA, on the use of four new generation antipsychotics—Zyprexa, Risperdal, Abilify and Seroquel—used to treat schizophrenia and bipolar I disorder in adults and adolescents. Long story short—it was not a good news story for the kids on these drugs, and most especially kids on Zyprexa.
Why not? Weight gain, increases in triglyceride levels and associated risks for diabetes and cardiovascular disease.
The average weight gain over the 12 week study period was the highest for Zyprexa—17 pounds. You’d be hard pressed to gain that kind of weight sport-eating your way through the holidays…
Suffice to say an editorial in JAMA called the study results “timely and sobering,” suggesting that the new generation of antipsychotics are not all they’re cracked up to be. “These results challenge the widespread use of atypical antipsychotic medications in youth,” University of Washington, Seattle child psychiatrists Christopher K. Varley and Jon McClellan wrote.
Well, maybe not. On January 29th, nearly three months after the study was published, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) issued a warning to doctors regarding prescribing information for Zyprexa, but it’s not exactly strong…here’s part of the FDA Safety warning:
“Section 1, Indications and Usage: When deciding among the alternative treatments available for adolescents, Read the rest of this entry »
Although the adverse effects of women taking psychiatric drugs while pregnant related to birth defects and infant withdrawal syndrome are often discussed or reported, the serious adverse effects on the sex lives and reproductive systems of millions of young couples are rarely mentioned.
Whatever the reason, due to the ever widening marketing campaigns by the psycho-pharmaceutical industry, young people need to be warned before they get conned into taking psychiatric drugs. Read the rest of this entry »
On April 21, 2009, the Miami Herald reported that a 7-year-old boy in Florida, Gabriel Myers, had committed suicide by hanging himself with a detachable shower head in a bathroom of the foster care home he was placed in three weeks earlier. Read the rest of this entry »
Psychiatry’s marketing strategy is to invent diagnoses out of thin air and call them diseases as an excuse to prescribe drugs, according to Dr Fred Baughman, author of The ADHD Fraud. Read the rest of this entry »
The National Alliance for Mental Illness is the latest member of the psycho-pharmaceutical cartel whose Big Pharma money trail is under investigation by the US Senate Finance Committee, with Iowa’s Republican Senator Chuck Grassley leading the charge. Read the rest of this entry »