Wednesday, October 31, 2007

Bipolar Disorder or Manic Depression Causes and Treatment

Bipolar disorder is a psychiatric condition defined as recurrent episodes of significant disturbance in mood. These disturbances can occur on a spectrum that ranges from debilitating depression to unbridled mania. Individuals suffering from bipolar disorder typically experience fluid states of mania, hypomania or what is referred to as a mixed state in conjunction with depressive episodes. These clinical states typically alternate with a normal range of mood. While dealing with bipolar disorder isn’t always easy, it doesn’t have to run your life. With proper treatment and a solid support system, people with bipolar disorder are capable of leading rich and fulfilling lives. They can hold jobs, sustain loving marriages, raise children, and be productive members of society. But in order to successfully manage bipolar disorder, it is essential to fully understand the condition and its challenges.

READ MORE @ AMERICAN CHRONICLE

Monday, October 29, 2007

Decision-makers Seek Internal Balance, Not Balanced Alternatives

A researcher at the University of California, San Diego (UCSD) School of Medicine suggests that psychiatrists may need to approach the treatment of psychiatric patients from a new direction -- by understanding that such individuals' behavior and decision-making are based on an attempt to reach an inner equilibrium.

Martin Paulus, M.D., professor in UCSD's Department of Psychiatry, has compiled a body of growing evidence that human decision-making is inextricably linked to an individuals' need to maintain a homeostatic balance.

"This is a state of dynamic equilibrium, much like controlling body temperature," said Paulus. "How humans select a particular course of action may be in response to raising or lowering that 'set point' back to their individual comfort zone. In people with psychiatric disorders or addictions, the thermostat may be broken."

READ MORE @ SCIENCE DAILY

Saturday, October 27, 2007

Forest Laboratories' Lexapro Still Leads First-Line Therapy in the Treatment of Major Depression, but Atypical Antipsychotics Are Coming On Strong

Decision Resources, one of the world's leading research and advisory firms focusing on pharmaceutical and healthcare issues, finds that Forest Laboratories' Lexapro leads first-line therapy in the treatment of major depression. According to the new report entitled Treatment Algorithms in Major Depression, selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs), which include Lexapro, serve 63.6 percent of patients on first-line therapy. Surveyed physicians say the reasons for SSRIs being so heavily used are efficacy, cost and physician familiarity. Eighty percent of surveyed psychiatrists and 70 percent of surveyed primary care physicians (PCPs) say they choose SSRIs over benzodiazepines because of efficacy. Forty-nine percent of surveyed psychiatrists cite cost as the prime reason they choose SSRIs over serotonin/norepinephrine reuptake inhibitors (SNRIs), while 49 percent of PCPs say they choose SSRIs over SNRIs owing to familiarity with the former class.

READ MORE @ EARTHTIMES

Friday, October 26, 2007

Confronting Sadness in Seniors

A bit of sadness is a common companion of aging. Over time, after all, seniors may lose vigor, independence, and even loved ones. But when melancholy becomes outright depression, the elderly are at risk of diabetes, heart disease, and even suicide. It's often up to their unofficial caretakers—their children—to spot depression's signs and take steps to address it.

Depression often manifests differently in the elderly than in younger people. Rather than expressing feelings of sadness, depressed seniors may describe physical complaints—increased aches and pains, headaches, weakness, and, commonly, trouble sleeping. "Look for changes in levels of interest, too," says Dan Blazer, professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at Duke University Medical Center. Increases in anxiety, irritability, withdrawal, and a decrease in attention to appearance are also common signs. Sometimes, depression arises because of a physical health problem, says Gary Moak, president of the American Association for Geriatric Psychiatry and a professor at the University of Massachusetts Medical School. For example, he says, "as many as 40 percent of stroke victims will develop depression, because many [strokes] occur in an area of the brain that's closely related to the processing and management of emotions." Overall, about 1 in 5 people age 65 and older has depression, according to Moak. The vast majority don't receive the professional treatment they need.

READ MORE @ US NEWS & WORLD REPORT

Thursday, October 25, 2007

Psychiatric Conditions Increase the Risk of Heart Disease

Although mortality rate among people suffering from cardiovascular diseases has declined in the United States over the past years, patients suffering from acute mental illness remain deprived of the benefits experienced by healthy individuals. These views were expressed in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) by a psychiatrist --John W. Newcomer at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis.

Newcomer, who is the professor of psychiatry and psychology and of medicine and medical director of the Center for Clinical Studies at Washington University, said that people suffering from mental ailments including schizophrenia, bipolar disorder and various forms of depression live 25 -30 years shorter than those with no such ailments. Though suicide remains one of the major causes of death among these individuals, but most of them die prematurely on account of cardiovascular diseases.

READ MORE @ MEDHEADLINES

Wednesday, October 24, 2007

Veterans are denied mental health help

After two combat tours in Iraq on a "quick reaction team" that picked up body parts after suicide bombings, Donald Schmidt began suffering from nightmares and paranoia. Then he had a nervous breakdown.

The military discharged Schmidt last Oct. 31 for problems they said resulted not from post-traumatic stress disorder but rather from a personality disorder that pre-dated his military service.

Schmidt's mother, Patrice Semtner-Myers, says her son was told that if he agreed to leave the Army he'd get full benefits. Earlier this month, however, they got a bill in the mail from a collection agency working for the government, demanding that he repay his re-enlistment bonus, plus interest — $14,597.72.

Schmidt, 23, who lives near Peoria, Ill., is one of more than 22,000 service members the military has discharged in recent years for "pre-existing personality disorders" it says were missed when they signed up.

"They used these guys up, and now they're done with them and they're throwing them away," Semtner-Myers said.

Her frustration extends to Capitol Hill, where the stage is being set for a confrontation between Congress and the Pentagon.

Rep. Bob Filner, D-Calif., chairman of the House Veterans Affairs Committee, calls the treatment of these troops "disgraceful."

READ MORE @ ST. LOUIS POST DISPATCH

Tuesday, October 23, 2007

Little evidence to support therapies for post-traumatic stress disorder

Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a severe and ongoing emotional reaction to an extreme psychological trauma; it affects significant numbers of people, in particular military personnel and veterans, who have seen active duty in war zones.

It also affects people who have suffered major injuries or illnesses.

As many as 25% or more of patients that suffer from PTSD will have attempted suicide.

It is thought to be basically an anxiety disorder and is different from normal grief and adjustment after traumatic events; symptoms which appear within the first month of the trauma are called acute stress disorder but if no improvement of symptoms are seen after a month, PTSD is diagnosed.

PTSD is divided into three categories: Acute PTSD which subsides within three months; if symptoms persist, the diagnosis is changed to chronic PTSD.

The third category, delayed-onset PTSD, may occur months, years or even decades after the traumatic event.

READ MORE @ NEWS-MEDICAL.NET

Sunday, October 21, 2007

Evidence unclear on treating US veterans' stress

Many U.S. combat veterans from Iraq and Afghanistan are clearly suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder but it is not at all clear which treatments work to help them, an Institute of Medicine panel said on Thursday.

The only therapies that have been shown to work are so-called exposure therapies, in which people are guided in a gradual, step-by-step confrontation with a fear or stressor, the expert committee said.

"At this time, we can make no judgment about the effectiveness of most psychotherapies or about any medications in helping patients with PTSD," said Dr. Alfred Berg of the University of Washington in Seattle.

READ MORE @ REUTERS

Saturday, October 20, 2007

How Schizophrenia Develops: Major Clues Discovered

Schizophrenia may occur, in part, because of a problem in an intermittent on/off switch for a gene involved in making a key chemical messenger in the brain, scientists have found in a study of human brain tissue. The researchers found that the gene is turned on at increasingly high rates during normal development of the prefrontal cortex, the part of the brain involved in higher functions like thinking and decision-making -- but that this normal increase may not occur in people with schizophrenia.

The gene, GAD1, makes an enzyme essential for production of the chemical messenger, called GABA. The more the gene is turned on, the more GABA synthesis can occur, under normal circumstances. GABA helps regulate the flow of electrical traffic that enables brain cells to communicate with each other. It is among the major neurotransmitters in the brain.

Abnormalities in brain development and in GABA synthesis are known to play a role in schizophrenia, but the underlying molecular mechanisms are unknown. In this study, scientists discovered that defects in specific epigenetic actions -- biochemical reactions that regulate gene activity, such as turning genes on and off so that they can make substances like the GAD1 enzyme -- are involved.

READ MORE @ SCIENCE DAILY

Friday, October 19, 2007

Schizophrenics gain by practice, not meds

A U.S. study suggested cognitive gains in schizophrenic patients treated with newer antipsychotic medications are due to practice effects, not the drugs.

Second-generation antipsychotic medicines were designed to improve the speed, clarity, and rationality of thought among people with schizophrenia and other psychotic illnesses.

But psychiatric researchers at the Zucker Hillside Hospital and the Feinstein Institute for Medical Research studied the cognitive performance of 104 people newly diagnosed with schizophrenia who were taking second-generation medicines.

READ MORE @ NEWS DAILY

Wednesday, October 17, 2007

Valdoxan(R), the First Melatonergic Antidepressant, Confirms its Efficacy in Preventing Relapse Whatever the Severity of the Depression

Valdoxan(R) (agomelatine), the first melatonergic antidepressant, is an effective, long-term treatment for Major Depressive Disorder (MDD) according to new data presented today at the European College of Neurospsychopharmacology(ECNP) annual congress. The new international study showed Valdoxan's efficacy in preventing relapse in out-patients with MDD over six-months, irrespective of the severity of depression(1).

"The short term efficacy of this novel antidepressant has already been demonstrated in several clinical studies", points out study investigator Professor Guy Goodwin from the Department of Psychiatry,University of Oxford, UK. "This new study demonstrated the long-term efficacy of Valdoxan in the prevention of depressive relapses, after an initial response to the drug, over a treatment period of six months. The results show that Valdoxan is a promising therapeutic agent for the short-and-long-term management of MDD, which offers remission to our depressed patients with very few adverse effects".

READ MORE @ JURA FORUM

Tuesday, October 16, 2007

Mental Disorders Are Disorders Of The Brain

Depression, anxiety disorders such as panic disorder and obsessive-compulsive disorders, alcohol and drug dependence, dementia and Parkinson's disease are just a few examples of "disorders of the brain."

The size, the burden and cost of brain disorders in the EU is immense, and has so far been underestimated," as Prof. Dr. Hans Ulrich Wittchen emphasized at the Official Press Conference to the 20th ECNP Congress for Neuropsychopharmacology in Vienna (October 13-17, 2007).

Increasing Lifetime Risk -- Unmet Needs

Mental disorders such as anxiety and depressive disorders are disorders of the brain and involve complex patterns of disturbances of cognition (such as perception, attention, memory), affect and emotion (such as depressed mood, panic), somatic functioning (e.g. appetite, heart rate variability) and behaviour. These patterns and disturbances are all associated with disturbances in the transmitter systems of the brain and the central nervous system. What is special about most mental disorders is that they predominantly manifest early in life, before the age of 20. They are also associated across the life span with a high risk of developing complications and other -- so called comorbid -- disorders.

READ MORE @ SCIENCE DAILY

Monday, October 15, 2007

Depressed at work? Get a new career

Child care workers, home health care aides and other people who provide personal services have the highest rates of depression among U.S. workers, according to a new survey to be published on Monday.

It found that 10.8 percent of personal care and service workers and 10.3 percent of food preparation and serving workers -- both usually low-paying jobs -- experienced one or more major depressive episodes in the past year.

The least depressing careers appear to lie in architecture, engineering, the sciences and in the installation, maintenance and repair fields, the survey from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration found.

READ MORE @ REUTERS

Sunday, October 14, 2007

A dark age for mental health - A therapy last used on a mass scale in China's cultural revolution is to be unleashed on the NHS

It looks like good news. In an era where psychological problems are increasingly explained in terms of biological deficits, the government has announced that it will spend £170m by 2010 on talking therapies for depression and anxiety. The scheme should pay for itself as better mental health will mean fewer sick days and benefits - £170m isn't much compared with an annual £12bn cost to the economy. But will it really help?

The answer, sadly, is negative. Talking therapy means not psychotherapy, but cognitive behavioural therapies (CBTs). These aim at the removal of symptoms and the return to work of sufferers, who will have learned to identify and manage patterns of undesirable behaviour. However, clinicians know that patients are likely to be back on a waiting list within a year to 18 months. Their underlying problems will not have been resolved, resulting in new symptoms or the return of old ones.

READ MORE @ THE GUARDIAN

Saturday, October 13, 2007

Report questions generic antidepressant - ConsumerLab.com finds cheaper drug may not work the same as brand

For seven years Linda Douglas has been treating her depression with the antidepressant Wellbutrin, first with a twice-a-day version and then later with a more convenient once-a-day pill called Wellbutrin XL. The drug, she says, "renewed my joy for living."

All that changed earlier this year when she switched to a generic version of Wellbutrin XL 300 milligrams to save money. Instead of paying $250 for a three-month supply of the brand drug, she was paying just $53. The cost savings were welcome, but Douglas, 48, a telecommunications project manager in Columbia, Md., says the depression returned during the six months she took the generic antidepressant.

READ MORE @ MSNBC

Friday, October 12, 2007

Antidepressants Emerge as Coolant for Hot Flashes

Doctors are writing a new prescription for menopause: the antidepressant.

It’s not that all menopausal women are depressed. Instead, the antidepressant has emerged as the drug of choice among women searching for new ways to cool the hot flash.

There is no way to track how often antidepressants are prescribed to treat hot flashes, the unpredictable, sticky wave of heat that for many women is the defining symptom of menopause. None are specifically approved for hot flashes, and doctors who prescribe them are doing so “off label.”

READ MORE @ NY TIMES

Thursday, October 11, 2007

The Politics Behind Despair and Depression

On September 14, 2007, New York Times reporters Alex Berenson and Benedict Carey foiled, at least temporarily, Big Pharma and its psychiatry allies' attempt to eliminate the U.S. Food and Drug Administration warning label about increased suicidal thoughts and behaviors in minors using antidepressants.

Berenson and Carey refuted a September 2007 American Journal of Psychiatry article that had claimed an increase in the youth suicide rate in 2004 was related to declining antidepressant prescriptions for that group (caused by the FDA warning). Berenson and Carey reported that, in fact, in 2004 the "number of prescriptions for antidepressants in that group was basically unchanged and did not drop substantially." The New York Times did not, however, report that the lead author of the American Journal of Psychiatry article had served as an expert witness for Wyeth Pharmaceuticals, makers of the antidepressant Effexor.

While the recent smoke and mirrors of Big Pharma and the American Journal of Psychiatry was detected by The New York Times, the media, once again, is losing sight of a more important revelation: scientists currently agree that "the neurotransmitter-deficiency theory of depression"--the rationale for antidepressants--has no validity.

READ MORE @ HUFFINGTON POST

Wednesday, October 10, 2007

Reported suicides – more than 80 percent got psychiatric drugs, well over 50 percent got antidepressants

Health care providers in Sweden are per a new law required to report all suicides committed in health care and up to four weeks after last health care visit. The reports are sent to the National Board of Health and Welfare for investigation.

367 suicides were reported per this law for 2006.

Data gotten via FOIA requests show: More than 80 percent of persons committing suicide were “treated” with psychiatric drugs; in well over 50 percent of the cases the persons got antidepressants, in more than 60 neuroleptics or antidepressants.

This information has been concealed by senior (psychiatric) officials at the National Board of Health and Welfare. It was contrary to the best interests of Big Pharma and biological psychiatrists. It blew the myths of antidepressants and neuroleptics as suicide protecting drugs to pieces. It would also have hurt the career of many medical journalists to take up this subject; journalists who for years have made their living by writing marketing articles about new antidepressant drugs. So nothing has been written about this in major media in Sweden.

READ MORE @ TRANSWORLDNEWS

Tuesday, October 9, 2007

Anti-depressants And Painkillers Combined Linked To Gastrointestinal Bleeding

New research shows that selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs), a group of drugs commonly used to treat depression, may double the risk of gastrointestinal bleeding, according to researchers from Wake Forest University School of Medicine and colleagues. When the drugs are taken with aspirin and other similar pain medications, the risk is more than 600 percent higher.

Painkillers such as ibuprofen are widely used by the public and can be purchased from supermarkets and pharmacies without prescription.

"Clinicians who prescribe these medications should be aware of the potential risk and may need to consider alternatives," said Sonal Singh, M.D., senior researcher and an assistant professor of internal medicine. "In addition, regulatory authorities should consider revising existing package inserts to highlight the magnitude of the risk."

READ MORE @ SCIENCE DAILY

Monday, October 8, 2007

New Medication For The Treatment Of Schizophrenia Significantly Reduces Symptoms And Improves Patients’ Daily Lives(1,2)

INVEGA™ controls symptoms around the clock and may reduce the risk of some drug interactions, which can be a problem in the treatment of schizophrenia

Toronto, ON .- Health Canada has approved INVEGA™ (paliperidone) for the treatment of schizophrenia.1 INVEGA™ is the only once-daily oral treatment for schizophrenia that uses a unique OROS® technology designed to deliver and sustain a controlled level of medication throughout the day.1 Moreover, INVEGA™ is not extensively metabolized in the liver, which may mean fewer drug interactions for patients.1,3

People with schizophrenia are often on more than one medication (called polypharmacy) for conditions including anxiety disorders, depression, cardiovascular disease, diabetes, HIV and hepatitis C.3 In fact, studies have shown that 43 per cent of patients on an atypical antipsychotic are on five or more other medications.4 Taking several drugs along with antipsychotic medication can alter the potency of the medication and may lead to serious and potentially life-threatening adverse events.3 Thus, reducing the risk of drug interactions in the treatment of schizophrenia is an important consideration.

READ MORE @ WEBWIRE

Sunday, October 7, 2007

Cognitive Behavioral Therapy Reduces Risks of Teen Antidepressant Use

The combination of fluoxetine (Prozac) and cognitive behavior therapy for depressed teens may accelerate treatment response and protect against suicidality.

In a randomized trial, combination therapy was not superior to fluoxetine or cognitive behavior therapy after 36 weeks, reported John S. March, M.D., M.P.H., of Duke here, and colleagues, in the October issue of Archives of General Psychiatry.

But a previously published analysis of the same patients, which showed an early advantage in response rate at 12 weeks with combination therapy (73% versus 62% and 48%), suggests that it may be a superior strategy, they said.

"Because accelerating symptom reduction by using medication is an important clinical outcome in psychiatry, as it is in other areas of medicine, use of fluoxetine should be made widely available, not discouraged," they wrote.

READ MORE @ MEDPAGE TODAY

Saturday, October 6, 2007

Antidepressant response may predict cardiac event

Among patients who have had a heart attack and subsequently develop depression, a lack of response to antidepressant treatment signals a high risk of another cardiac episode, according to a secondary analysis of data from Myocardial Infarction and Depression-Intervention Trial (MIND-IT).

MIND-IT involved 2,177 patients who were hospitalized with an acute heart attack. During follow-up, 375 patients developed post-heart attack depression. Two hundred nine of these patients were randomly assigned to receive mirtazapine, sold under the trade name Remeron, or to "care as usual."

If there was an inadequate response to mirtazapine after 8 weeks, the patients were switched to citalopram, sold under the trade name Celexa, according to the report in the American Journal of Psychiatry

READ MORE @ REUTERS

Friday, October 5, 2007

Lilly Adds Label Warnings for Mental Illness Drug

Eli Lilly today added strong warnings to the label of Zyprexa, its best-selling medicine for schizophrenia, citing the drug’s tendency to cause weight gain, high blood sugar, high cholesterol and other metabolic problems.

For the first time, Zyprexa’s label now acknowledges that the drug causes high blood sugar more than some other medicines for schizophrenia and bipolar disorder, called atypical antipsychotics.

Lilly previously argued that Zyprexa had not been proven to cause high blood sugar at a more frequent rate than its competitors.

Concern about Zyprexa’s side effects has been increasing since at least 2004, and Zyprexa’s prescriptions and market share have fallen sharply over the same period. As a result, the new warnings may have only a moderate impact among doctors and patients, said S. Nassir Ghaemi, director of the Bipolar Disorder Research Program at Emory University.

READ MORE @ NY TIMES

Wednesday, October 3, 2007

Anti-Anxiety Medications For Treating Anxiety Disorders

Everyone suffers a bit of anxiety on occasion. But does that mean you need anti-anxiety medication? Not necessarily.

Your palms begin to sweat and your stomach begins to flutter but you're fine. You're experiencing simple cases of nervousness and your body is responding in ways that are manageable. But, anxiety can explode into a serious problem.

Anxiety disorders, in addition to generalized anxiety, include phobias, panic disorder, obsessive-compulsive disorder, and post-traumatic stress disorder. For millions of sufferers anxiety disorders are disruptive, debilitating and often the reason for loss of job and serious problems in family relationships. So what can be done to control anxiety disorders?

READ MORE @ AMERICAN CHRONICLE

Tuesday, October 2, 2007

Drug firm, subsidiary settle suits for $515m - Pricing schemes, fraud alleged

Bristol-Myers Squibb and a subsidiary have agreed to pay more than $515 million to settle civil suits over fraudulent drug marketing and pricing schemes, including illegally promoting an anti-psychotic drug to children and the elderly, US Attorney Michael J. Sullivan said yesterday.

The settlement between the federal government and Bristol-Myers Squibb and Apothecon Inc. is the third-largest between a pharmaceutical company and the US Attorney's Office in Massachusetts, which has obtained more than $4 billion in healthcare fraud settlements since 2000 and acquired a national reputation for pursuing such cases.

As with many of the earlier settlements, the agreement came after several employees of the pharmaceutical giant turned whistleblowers and filed federal suits in Massachusetts, enticed in part by the track record of federal prosecutors here.

The agreement says Bristol-Myers Squibb gave kickbacks to physicians and healthcare providers from 2000 through mid-2003 to get them to prescribe the company's drugs. The kickbacks came in several forms, including consulting fees and trips to luxury resorts.

READ MORE @ BOSTON GLOBE

Monday, October 1, 2007

Drug Makers Seek Clues to Side Effects in Genes

Seven of the largest pharmaceutical companies have formed a group to develop genetic tests to determine which patients would be at risk from dangerous drug side effects.

The new group, the International Serious Adverse Events Consortium, is one of a wave of cooperative research efforts sweeping the drug industry, as companies come under pressure to cut costs and increase their success rates in developing medications. The Food and Drug Administration has encouraged the formation of such groups.

If drugs could be withheld from patients who have a genetic risk for serious side effects, it could not only protect the patients but might help manufacturers get their drugs approved or avoid having to remove them from the market.

READ MORE @ NY TIMES