Robert Farley of the St. Petersburg Times had an excellent in-depth piece about the war to increase prescriptions of atypical antipsychotics in America. I say “war,” because it really seems like there was a concerted, although perhaps not coordinated, effort to change the thinking about the best course of treatment for people with disorders like […]

If you suffer from a mental disorder maybe you’d feel more at ease at home — home on the range. At least that’s what a new study out of the Norwegian University of Life Sciences supports.
To assess the benefits of Green care, the researchers asked ninety patients (59 women and 31 men) with […]

Powerful antipsychotic medications have commonly been prescribed to people with Alzheimer’s disease and other serious cognitive dementias found amongst the elderly population, especially if they are in a nursing home or hospital environment. Why?

Almost all older dementia patients will experience, along with the cognitive and functional decline typical of the illness, some neuropsychiatric symptoms. These […]

Ahh, prior authorization. Those sweet, seductive words that insurance companies lull themselves to sleep at night with dollar signs jumping over a fence in a pasture.
“Prior authorization” means that a doctor can’t prescribe a particular medication (or type of medication) without — you guessed it! — prior authorization from the insurance company. This usually […]

For several weeks, the state of Alaska has been battling the maker of Zyprexa, Lilly, for Medicaid bills incurred when patients taking the drug for Schizophrenia developed diabetes. The NY Times reported on Friday that the $15 million is only “a fraction of the hundreds of millions of dollars in damages that Ed Sniffen, […]

As we reported last week (as did others), antipsychotics are not really a good treatment option for aggressive behavior, based upon the findings from a recently published study in the journal Lancet. Which begs the question: When were they ever?
Sadly, antipsychotics are not the first medications ever to be used to basically sedate people, so […]

Despite their widespread use amongst doctors who treat adults with developmental disabilities and mental retardation, a new study has found that a specific type of psychiatric medication — antipsychotics — to be ineffective in helping reduce these individuals’ aggressive behavior. Antipsychotics are generally not FDA-approved for the treatment of aggressive behavior, this has simply been […]

It’s a complicated story and one that I don’t think the Wall Street Journal really told all that well.
Their premise is simple — that antipsychotic medications, especially newer ones, are being over-prescribed in nursing homes. It starts off noting how many people in a nursing home are being prescribed antipsychotics (30%, which is an amazing […]

The Arkansas attorney general has filed a lawsuit against Janssen Pharmaceuticals and its parent company, J&J, over numerous allegations regarding its strong-selling Risperdal drug, one of a new class of drugs called atypical antipsychotics. It is commonly prescribed to treat bipolar disorder.
The allegations? According to Furious Seasons and CL Psych’s take, the lawsuit includes allegations […]

I have the same routine every week to find interesting and newsworthy topics for the psychology blog; look at a variety of web publications specializing in subjects of mental health, and Google any recent newsworthy mental health topics. The articles I write about on the blog are usually based on scientific research, which is […]

Why are pediatricians and psychiatrists prescribing powerful antipsychotic medications to children who are under age 5? Especially when no antipsychotic (except Risperdal) has been approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in terms of safety or efficacy for use in children. Why is the use of these unapproved-for-children medications so widespread (and growing)?
A […]

Zyprexa, the embattled antipsychotic drug made by drug giant Eli Lilly, made the news rounds again yesterday. Lilly announced it was adding more warnings to the drug regarding an increased risk of a number of side effects, including weight gain, higher blood sugar, metabolic problems and higher cholesterol. You can read Pharmalot’s take on the […]