Efexor* XL (venlafaxine) May Help Adult Patients Prevent Recurrent Episodes of Depression for Up to Two Years

Clinical trial data showing that Efexor* XL (venlafaxine) helped patients prevent the recurrence of depression for up to two years1a, was presented at the British Association for Psychopharmacology summer meeting in Harrogate. It is the first time that a modern antidepressant has demonstrated prevention of recurrence, versus placebo, over a two year period.2 These findings reinforce guidance from the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE), that anti-depressants should be continued for two years in patients who have had 2 or more episodes. 3

Results from the Prevention of Recurrent Episodes of Depression with VENlafaxine XR for Two Years (PREVENT)1b study demonstrated that 70% of patients continued to respond to treatment with venlafaxine at doses 225mg/day and less over 2 years1c, and were therefore significantly more likely to remain recurrence-free than patients taking placebo.

READ MORE @ HEALTHCARE REPUBLIC

Suicide risk in adults lowered by antidepressants

Adults with depression who are treated with a class of antidepressants called selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) have a lower rate of suicide attempts, the results of a new study indicate.

In October 2004, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) ordered drug labeling to warn of a possible link between antidepressant drug treatment and suicidal thoughts, or "ideation," and behavior in children and adolescents, the researchers note in the American Journal of Psychiatry. In May 2007, the warning was extended to include young adults.

Dr. Robert D. Gibbons, of the University of Illinois at Chicago, and colleagues examined the association between antidepressant treatment and suicide attempts in adult patients treated in the Veterans Administration health care system.

READ MORE @ SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN

Antipsychotics in the Treatment of Comorbid Anxiety in Bipolar Disorder

The comorbidity of anxiety disorders with bipolar disorder is a rule, not an exception, with a negative impact on both course and treatment outcome. So far, there are no guidelines or consensus for the treatment of this comorbidity. There are also no efficacy data that support the use of antidepressants or benzodiazepines in the treatment of anxiety disorder in this population. Benzodiazepines, the second-line agents for some primary anxiety disorders, may be riskier for patients with bipolar disorder because they are associated with a high rate of comorbid substance use disorder. Some preliminary data have shown that antipsychotics, especially atypical anti- psychotics, may be a viable alternative for patients with comorbid bipolar and anxiety disorders with or without substance use disorder.

READ MORE @ PSYCHIATRIC TIMES

Success Or Failure Of Antidepressant Citalopram Predicted By Gene Variation

A variation in a gene called GRIK4 appears to make people with depression more likely to respond to the medication citalopram (Celexa) than are people without the variation, a study by the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH), part of the National Institutes of Health, has found.

The increased likelihood was small, but when people had both this variation and one in a different gene shown to have a similarly small effect in an earlier study, they were 23 percent more likely to respond to citalopram than were people with neither variation.

The finding addresses a key issue in mental health research: the differences in people's responses to antidepressant medications, thought to be based partly on differences in their genes. Some patients respond to the first antidepressant they attempt, but many don't. Each medication takes weeks to exert its full effects, and patients' depression may worsen while they search for a medication that helps. Genetic studies, such as the one described here, may lead to a better understanding of which treatments are likely to work for each patient.

READ MORE @ SCIENCE DAILY

Are antidepressants taking the edge off love?

Sure, we know about the sexual side effects of SSRIs. But researchers now wonder if that's the only aspect of romance the drugs can influence.

LOVE'S first rush is a private madness between two people, all-consuming and, if mutually felt, endlessly wonderful.

Couples think about the other obsessively -- on a roller coaster of euphoria when together, longing when apart.

"It's temporary insanity," says Helen Fisher, an evolutionary anthropologist at Rutgers University.

Now, from her studies of the brains of lovers in the throes of the initial tumble, Fisher has developed a controversial theory. She and her collaborator, psychiatrist J. Anderson Thomson of the University of Virginia, believe that Prozac, Zoloft, Paxil and other antidepressants alter brain chemistry so as to blunt the intense cutting edge of new love.

READ MORE @ LOS ANGELES TIMES

RCP: Healthy siblings of people with schizophrenia have problems recognising facial emotion

People with schizophrenia and their healthy siblings have problems recognising facial emotion in others, according to a new study.

Research suggests that schizophrenia has a substantial genetic component. Cognitive and social abilities, as well as the volumes of brain regions involved in emotion processing, such as the amygdala, have been found to vary along a continuum when people with schizophrenia, their siblings and controls are compared.

This study, published in the August 2007 issue of the British Journal of Psychiatry, set out to establish whether facial expression recognition is impaired in healthy siblings of people experiencing their first episode of schizophrenia.

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Shire's new ADHD medication now available

Shire says Vyvanse, its once-daily medication approved to treat the symptoms of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, is now available in US pharmacies nationwide.

In a clinical study, Vyvanse provided consistent ADHD symptom control throughout the day based upon parent reports in the morning (approximately 10am), afternoon (approximately 2pm), and early evening (approximately 6pm).

READ MORE @ PHARMACEUTICAL BUSINESS REVIEW

BIPOLAR DISORDER: a new holistic approach

Treatment of mood disturbance in bipolar disorder is undergoing a paradigm shift. Traditionally, drug therapy has been focussed on efficacy in acute mania or depression. Now psychiatrists are realising the need to evaluate drug treatments from other perspectives, Their full effects as acute and mood-stabilising agents, side effect profiles, effects on neurocognitive functioning, quality of life, and on psychosocial functioning, are also important when considering therapy.

Bipolar disorder, the condition where mood swings between varying degrees of mania, hypomania, mixed states, depression and major depressive disorder, is now the sixth leading cause of disability according to the World Health Organization (1). But although bipolar disorder is as common as diabetes, much of it still goes unrecognised and inadequately treated. Official estimates put prevalence at between 1 to 4 per cent of the population but some researchers believe the real figure is closer to 10 per cent if the whole spectrum of bipolar disorder is included (2).

READ MORE @ PHARMWEB

Regional training to help law enforcement officers manage psychiatric crises

Some two dozen law enforcement officers from around the region will undergo intensive training this week in how to safely and effectively deal with people in psychiatric crisis.

Organizers hope to help them learn how to defuse the tension that often surrounds these crises and reduce the likelihood of a tragic outcome.

It’s something that’s needed, said Michele Periolat, a trainer with the Minnesota Crisis Intervention Team Officers Association.

READ MORE @ West Central Tribune

Kid has a problem? Put 'em on drugs

The number of Florida children taking powerful anti-psychotic drugs has increased about 250 percent in the last seven years, despite concerns about the long-term affects on children and the cost to state taxpayers, a newspaper reported Sunday.

Doctors are increasingly using drugs called "atypicals" to control aggressive children and calm kids with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, or ADHD, the St. Petersburg Times reported.

In Florida, more than 18,000 children on Medicaid were given anti-psychotic drugs last year, including 1,100 under the age of 6. The drug can be used on kids under 6 only in extreme cases.

READ MORE @ ST PETERSBURG TIMES

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.

READ MORE @ Associated Press
LEARN MORE @ Mental Health Association of Portland

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.

READ MORE @ SALEM STATESMAN JOURNAL

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.

READ MORE @ SCIENCE BLOGS

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.

READ MORE @ US NEWS & WORLD REPORT

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