Ashes of 2 Oregon mental-hospital patients laid to rest after six decades

For more than six decades, the cremated remains of brothers Robin and Wade Graham were stored in anonymous little copper canisters on shelves of the crumbling Oregon psychiatric hospital made famous as the movie set of "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest."

The Grahams were finally buried next to their parents in Grangeville's Prairie View Cemetery, after a service Sunday attended by more than 20 family members — some of whom never knew the two existed — after their years in exile at the former Oregon State Hospital in Salem, Ore.

The weekend burial in this north-central Idaho town comes after Oregon lawmakers in April passed a law making it easier for families of patients who lived out their lives at the mental hospital to reclaim their ashes. The unclaimed bodies of 3,600 mental patients were cremated and the remains put in copper canisters from the early 1900s to the 1970s.

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Oregon Hospital to End Psychiatric Program

Salem Hospital plans to end a 10-year-old program that provides outpatient psychiatric care for older adults.

The Psychiatric Geriatric Outpatient Consultation Clinic will cease operations by September, said Sherryll Johnson Hoar, spokeswoman for Salem Hospital. Staffing shortages led to the decision to close the clinic, she said.

Salem Hospital determined it had to focus its resources on those patients in an "emergent psychiatric crisis," who cannot be treated on an outpatient basis and require a hospital stay.

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Lilly Posts Ends Strong Numbers With Cialis, Cymbalta

Eli announced its second quarter results, reporting sales were up 20 percent, worldwide. Eli Lilly reported Q2 sales reached $4.63 billion, with volume up 11 percent, led by the antidepressant drug Cymbalta and the erectile dysfunction drug Cialis.

In January, Eli Lilly acquired Cialis' maker, ICOS Corp. for $2.3 billion. The second quarter return is the first full period incorporating Cialis profits into Eli Lilly's numbers. The take-over kicked marketing and administrative expenses up 23 percent to $1.52 billion.

"We are very pleased to have delivered another quarter of strong financial results," CEO Sidney Taurel said. "Our accelerated, double-digit sales growth in this quarter was fueled by increased volume, driven by several products launched this decade, most notably Cymbalta."

Russia: Activist Sent To Psychiatric Unit After Exposing Health Facilities

A Russian opposition activist has been locked in a mental-health institution in Murmansk Oblast for criticizing health professionals, her husband and human-rights groups claim.

Dmitry Tereshin has hardly slept since July 5, the day his wife, Larisa Arap, telephoned him from the local hospital in Murmansk to say doctors were forcibly admitting her to a psychiatric unit. She had gone to the hospital for a routine check-up she needed to renew her driver's license.

"In my opinion, it may have been because of the article, because the doctor had read the article Larissa wrote," said Tereshin. "The article was entitled 'Madhouse,' and it revealed what goes on in psychiatric clinics."

READ MORE @ RADIO FREE EUROPE - Russia: Activist Sent To Psychiatric Unit After Exposing Health Facilities
READ MORE @ BBC - Psychiatric abuse claim in Russia
READ MORE @ MOSCOW TIMES - Opposition Spokeswoman Sent to Psychiatric Hospital

The rise & fall of the prefrontal lobotomy

Lobotomy is a psychosurgical procedure in which the connections the prefrontal cortex and underlying structures are severed, or the frontal cortical tissue is destroyed, the theory being that this leads to the uncoupling of the brain's emotional centres and the seat of intellect (in the subcortical structures and the frontal cortex, respectively).

The lobotomy was first performed on humans in the 1890s. About half a century later, it was being touted by some as a miracle cure for mental illness, and its use became widespread; during its heyday in the 1940s and '50s, the lobotomy was performed on some 40,000 patients in the United States, and on around 10,000 in Western Europe. The procedure became popular because there was no alternative, and because it was seen to alleviate several social crises: overcrowding in psychiatric institutions, and the increasing cost of caring for mentally ill patients.

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Review of Precautions of Antidepressant Therapy

Antidepressants are useful in the treatment of various conditions, including mood disorders, anxiety disorders, eating disorders, impulse control disorders, and aggression. However, antidepressants are not without limitations and precautions. This article addresses the more serious problems to consider when using antidepressants to treat patients for psychiatric disorders.

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The atypical dilemma

More and more, parents at wit's end are begging doctors to help them calm their aggressive children or control their kids with ADHD. More and more, doctors are prescribing powerful antipsychotic drugs.

In the past seven years, the number of Florida children prescribed such drugs has increased some 250 percent. Last year, more than 18,000 state kids on Medicaid were given prescriptions for antipsychotic drugs.

Even children as young as 3 years old. Last year, 1,100 Medicaid children under 6 were prescribed antipsychotics, a practice so risky that state regulators say it should be used only in extreme cases.

These numbers are just for children on fee-for-service Medicaid, generally the poor and disabled. Thousands more kids on private insurance are also on antipsychotics.

READ MORE @ ST. PETERSBURG TIMES

PedMed: Multi-drug use questioned

Be it a sign of a growing dependency on drug treatments or increasing incidence of coexisting pediatric illnesses, the number of children taking multiple medications is rising at rates some deem unhealthy.

The National Center for Health Statistics reports some 3 million tykes and teens under 18 were taking three or more prescription drugs during the study month in 2002.

In some cases, youngsters suffer simultaneous conditions, so-called comorbidities, which call for separate medicines.

For example, studies show up to one in five children newly diagnosed with type 2 diabetes may also have a psychiatric condition, including depression, attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, autism, developmental delay, schizophrenia and bipolar disorder.

READ MORE @ UPI

The Right Rx for Sadness

In the 19th-century novel Hyperion, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow admonished his hero, unlucky in love, to "take this sorrow to thy heart, and make it a part of thee, and it shall nourish thee till thou art strong again." Had Paul Flemming been real and alive today, chances are he would have taken Prozac or Paxil instead. Last month, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced that antidepressants are the country's most commonly prescribed medication, accounting for 118 million prescriptions in 2005. A sign, some experts are wondering, that it's time to reassess?

Although many psychiatrists worry more about desperate souls not getting help, there's a growing concern that medicine often goes to people who shouldn't be taking it. And a consensus has formed that the estimate of how many people will develop depression at some point—1 in 6—might be greatly inflated. "There's no question that the availability of these drugs has increased the diagnosis of depression," says Jerome Wakefield, a professor of social work at New York University. Wakefield is coauthor of the new book The Loss of Sadness, which argues that selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors—Prozac, Paxil, Zoloft—are commonly overused to treat sadness, a normal and healthy response to divorce, sudden unemployment, the end of a friendship, a house foreclosure.

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Antidepressants and alcohol: Why can't they be taken together?

If you are taking antidepressants, you should talk to your doctor before drinking alcohol. The drug you are taking and your current emotional and physical state should be considered in deciding if you can safely drink alcohol while taking your medication. But generally, mixing antidepressants and alcohol is discouraged.

READ MORE @ MAYOCLINIC.COM

Experimental Medication Ketamine Relieves Depression In Just Hours: Points To Targets For New Medications

A new study has revealed more about how the medication ketamine, when used experimentally for depression, relieves symptoms of the disorder in hours instead of the weeks or months it takes for current antidepressants to work. While ketamine itself probably won't come into use as an antidepressant because of its side effects, the new finding moves scientists considerably closer to understanding how to develop faster-acting antidepressant medications -- among the priorities of the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH), part of the National Institutes of Health.

READ MORE @ SCIENCE DAILY

Child use of antidepressants up four-fold

The use of antidepressants and other mind-altering drugs among schoolchildren has more than quadrupled in the last decade, it is revealed today.

New figures show that GPs are prescribing pills in record numbers to combat stress, violent behaviour and even tiredness.

Under-16s were given drugs for mental health problems more than 631,000 times last year, compared to just 146,000 in the mid-Nineties.

The huge increase has been blamed on a rise in childhood mental illness sparked by family breakdown and high-stakes school exams.

But there are fears that family doctors are coming under pressure to prescribe drugs such as Prozac as a "quick fix" solution, when counselling would be better.

READ MORE @ TELEGRAPH

Should Adolescent Patients With Depression Be Given Antidepressants?

The National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE), UK, advocates antidepressants should only be given to adolescent patients with depression if accompanied with psychological therapy. A new study published in the British Medical Journal suggests SSRI treatment with cognitive behavioral therapy will most probably not improve outcomes for adolescent patients with moderate to severe depression.

The study contradicts what NICE has in its guidelines.

A BMJ editorial this week examines the evidence and explains what the implications might be for health care professionals treating adolescents with depression.

READ MORE @ MEDICAL NEWS TODAY

Improvement Following ADHD Treatment Sustained In Most Children

Most children treated in a variety of ways for attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) showed sustained improvement after three years in a major follow-up study funded by the National Institutes of Health's (NIH) National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH). Yet increased risk for behavioral problems, including delinquency and substance use, remained higher than normal.

The study followed-up children who had participated in the Multimodal Treatment Study of Children with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (MTA).

Initial advantages of medication management alone or in combination with behavioral treatment over purely behavioral or routine community care waned in the years after 14 months of controlled treatment ended. However, Peter Jensen, M.D., Columbia University, and colleagues emphasized that "it would be incorrect to conclude from these results that treatment makes no difference or is not worth pursuing."

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Bipolar Disorder: Psychiatrists Are Taking A New Approach That Aims To Treat Not Just Symptoms But The Whole Person

Bipolar disorder is the name now used to describe Manic Depression - the condition where mood veers between two poles or extremes - one of euphoria (mania) and the other of despair (depression). Most of us know of it - if only because of famous sufferers such as Vincent van Gogh - but although bipolar disorder is as common as diabetes, much of it goes unrecognised and inadequately treated. This is a pity because there are now good treatments available that can help keep the condition under control and, to a large extent, allow individuals to carry on normally.

Official estimates say bipolar illness affects 1 to 4 per cent of the population but some researchers believe the real figure is closer to 10 per cent (1). The World Health Organization says it is already the sixth leading cause of disability (2).

READ MORE @ MEDICAL NEWS TODAY

Risperdal Gave Kids Tooth Decay, Depression and Drowsiness

As drugmakers seek wider approval for their antipsychotics to be prescribed for youngsters, a new study finds some docs prescribed Risperdal for children 15 years old or younger who suffered insomnia or anxiety. Meanwhile, the med caused some kids to experience drowsiness, depression, tooth decay and weight gain. The findings were part of a national study in New Zealand and published in the latest edition of Drug Safety.

More than 90 per cent of prescriptions for the 420 children involved in the study were for Risperdal, where about 600 children are regularly prescribed the drug. The study by the Intensive Medicines Monitoring Programme found harmful side effects in 30 per cent of the children on the drugs classed as “atypical antipsychotics.” A third of these were linked to the drugs, say the researchers.

Read more @ PHARMALOT

Sertraline May Improve Function in Dementia

High-dose therapy with the selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor (SSRI) Sertraline resulted in statistically and clinically significant improvement in isolated impaired executive function in older patients.

Among 37 patients treated, 23 (62.1%) had clinically meaningful improvement, defined as a decrease of more than three points on the EXIT25 measure of executive function. Thirteen patients met EXIT25 criteria for clinical remission, according to results of a small retrospective study.

"Our mean improvement [on the EXIT25] is almost six points, which is the difference between two levels of care in a retirement community," said Donald R. Royall, M.D., of the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio.

READ MORE @ MEDPAGE TODAY

The Drug Advertising Debate

Some members of Congress want to limit Big Pharma's ability to promote products directly to consumers. But the roadblocks are high.

If Representative Henry Waxman (D-Calif.) had his way, the little butterfly used to advertise the insomnia remedy Lunesta might not be allowed to flutter all over our TV screens, as it has incessantly since the drug was approved in late 2004. Waxman believes the U.S. Food & Drug Administration should be able to forbid companies from advertising directly to consumers until new drugs have been on the market for at least three years. He tried to mandate such a restriction by attaching it to a drug-safety bill. But on July 11 he came up short. After a debate centered on drug companies' right to free speech, the bill passed with virtually all restrictions on drug advertising stripped out.

READ MORE @ BUSINESS WEEK

Gov. seeks to cut mental services for homeless

Schwarzenegger says ending the acclaimed program would save $55 million annually toward $3-billion budget gap.

A nationally lauded program that has helped thousands of mentally ill homeless men and women break the cycle of psychiatric hospitalization, jail time and street life is now on Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's list of budget cuts.

The governor has proposed eliminating Integrated Services for Homeless Adults With Serious Mental Illness, which receives $55 million annually, as part of his attempt to close a budget gap estimated at more than $3 billion.

Mental health advocates, clients and concerned legislators are lobbying fiercely to save the program, which served as the blueprint for California's ongoing efforts to radically retool the state's mental health system.

READ MORE @ LOS ANGELES TIMES

Requiem for the Paxilated

Prozac was introduced by Eli Lilly to the US market in January 1988. Zoloft and Paxil followed in 1991 and 1992, respectively. Some 45,000 reports of adverse reactions to Prozac have been filed with the FDA. These include reports of about 2500 deaths, with the large majority linked to suicide or violence.

READ MORE @ COUNTERPUNCH