Older schizophrenia drug works, costs less: study

A new study finds that an older antipsychotic drug is cheaper and equally effective for some patients with schizophrenia, sending makers of newer drugs scrambling to defend their products on Friday.

The American Journal of Psychiatry study concluded that the older, first-generation antipsychotic drug perphenazine was less expensive and as effective as newer medications such as AstraZeneca Plc's Seroquel and Eli Lilly and Co.'s Zyprexa.

Funded by the U.S. National Institutes of Health, the $42.6 million study suggests doctors should consider the use of older antipsychotics as a first choice for patients with schizophrenia, a group of psychotic diseases marked by delusions and hallucinations.

"There could be a very useful role -- from a clinical and cost-effectiveness standpoint -- for greater utilization of some older-generation medications," said Dr. Jeffrey Lieberman, a psychiatrist at Columbia University Medical Center and the study's lead author.

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Metformin slows antipsychotic drug weight gain

Metformin safely and effectively abrogates weight gain and adverse metabolic changes that occur with atypical antipsychotic drug therapy in children, a new study shows.

"Weight gain was shown recently to be the most important factor leading to noncompliance with these very effective medications," study leader Dr. David J. Klein, from Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center, Ohio, told Reuters Health.

Atypical antipsychotics generally have fewer side effects than some of the older antipsychotic drugs. Some of the drugs in this newer class of antipsychotics commonly prescribed include risperidone, sold as Risperdal; quetiapine, sold as Seroquel; and olanzapine, sold as Zyprexa.

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Primary text: American Journal of Psychiatry, December 2006

Fish oils, vitamins, herbs helpful for depression

Diet and nutrition may play a key role in helping people fight depression, Australian researchers report.

A number of nutrients, including polyunsaturated fatty acids, St. John's Wort and several B vitamins, have the potential to influence mood by increasing the absorption of chemical messengers in the brain, Dr. Dianne Volker of the University of Sydney in Chippendale and Jade Ng of Goodman Fielder Commercian in North Ryde, New South Wales note in the journal Nutrition and Dietetics.

There is a wealth of epidemiological, experimental and circumstantial evidence to suggest that fish and the oils they contain, in particular omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acid, are protective against depression, Volker and Ng write. They point out that the balance between omega-3 and omega-6 may also be important, given that the latter can prevent the body from absorbing the former.

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Antipsychotic drugs linked to sexual function

Sexual dysfunction and hypogonadism are common in patients taking antipsychotics for schizophrenia or schizoaffective disorder, according to findings published in the March issue of the Journal of Clinical Psychiatry.

In a cross-sectional analysis, Dr. Oliver D. Howes and colleagues from the Institute of Psychiatry, London, UK, examined rates of sexual dysfunction and hypogonadism in 103 patients with schizophrenia or schizoaffective disorder stabilized on antipsychotic medication for at least 6 months. They were compared with 62 normal controls recruited from primary care attendees and with 57 subjects recruited from a sexual dysfunction clinic.

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Primary text: J Clin Psychiatry 2007;68:361-367.

Drug Trials For Painkiller Addicts

Pill-popping addicts could get dope through NYU Medical Center and Bellevue Hospital - just like heroin junkies receive methadone - to wean them off the prescription pain killers that have bedeviled celebrities such as Anna Nicole Smith and Rush Limbaugh, The Post has learned.

The National Institute on Drug Abuse is launching its first large scale Prescription Opiate Addiction Treatment Study at 12 sites across the country, including the NYU/Bellevue primary-care clinic. The drug trials will test the effectiveness of buprenorphone/naloxone tablets - marketed as Suboxone - to break patients' addictions to painkillers such as Vicodin and OxyContin. The tablets will be accompanied by different levels of drug-abuse counseling, a key aspect of the study.

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JNJ's Janssen closer to new Invega OK

Diversified health-care products maker Johnson & Johnson on Friday said its Janssen-Cilag unit's schizophrenia drug candidate Invega received a positive recommendation from European regulators.

The Committee for Human Medicinal Products in the European Union gave the drug a positive recommendation for approval. The drug will likely be approved in the European Union based on the positive recommendation. Also Friday, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved the drug as a long-term treatment for schizophrenia. It had already been approved as a short-term treatment.

READ MORE @ Hemscott.com

Patients Diagnosed Schizophrenic and Bipolar to boost Seroquel Sales

For over a decade, drug makers have been influencing doctors to diagnose patients, especially those covered by public health care programs like Medicare and Medicaid, with mental illnesses to justify the over-prescribing of the new class of drugs known as "atypical" antipsychotics.

For instance, Seroquel, marketed by AstraZeneca, is only FDA approved to treat acute manic episodes associated with bipolar I disorder and schizophrenia, and yet it is one of the most widely prescribed drugs in the world.

Astra reports that over 16 million patients have taken Seroquel since it came on the market in 1997, and the drug had sales of close to three and a half billion dollars in 2006, according to SEC filings.

READ MORE @ Lawyers & Settlements

Vigilance Still Necessary for Atypical Antipsychotics

Atypical antipsychotic medications have improved adverse-event profiles compared with the older generation of antipsychotics, but careful attention to major side effects is still required.

The overall medication plan should address the major side effect concerns of each patient, said Daniel E. Casey, M.D., of the Oregon Health and Science University in Portland, in a presentation here at the U.S. Psychiatric and Mental Health Congress regional extension.

“Choose your medications with the principle ‘first do no harm’ in mind,” he said. “Chose the drug with the lowest side effect profile.”

READ MORE @ from Psychiatric Times

Primary source: U.S. Psychiatric and Mental Health Congress

Johnson n Johnson schizophrenia drug gets wider US approval

Johnson & Johnson said on Friday that U.S. health regulators have broadened the approval for its Invega antipsychotic drug as a long-term maintenance treatment for schizophrenia.

The drug, a longer-acting version of J&J’s Risperdal, was approved in December to treat acute, or short-term, schizophrenia.

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