Psych Observer – Exposing Bad Psychiatry

* Story Highlights
* Atypical antipsychotic drugs associated with higher risk of sudden cardiac death
* Atypicals were thought to be safer than older, so-called “typical” antipsychotics
* Three atypical antipsychotics are among the 10 top-selling drugs worldwide
* About 325,000 people in the U.S. die of sudden cardiac death each year

By Anne Harding

Susan Craig’s brother Roger died of a pulmonary embolism in 2007, at age 38. Diagnosed with bipolar disorder in high school, he had been on antipsychotic drugs for years. At the time of his death, he was carrying 280 pounds on his 6-foot-4-inch frame.

Craig, a public relations specialist who works at Columbia University in New York City, knew that Roger’s medications could cause weight gain. But she had never been told that the drugs he was taking might be harming his heart.

“We were never counseled by his psychiatrist or his primary care provider to watch for symptoms of heart disease or any risk of sudden death at all,” Craig says. There’s no evidence that Roger’s medications caused his death, but his family might have been able to get him help sooner if they had known about the risks, Craig explains.
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Nashville, TN, January 15: Atypical antipsychotics, a widely prescribed class of drugs that help combat psychiatric disorders like schizophrenia, autism and dementia, may actually double the patients’ risk of fatal heart attacks, just as the older drugs, a study has found.

The study conducted at the Vanderbilt University and the Nashville Veterans Affairs Medical Center analyzed Medicaid records (from 1990 to 2005) of nearly 277,000 people aged between 30 and 74 years. While one-third of the people were taking either a newer or an older version of the antipsychotics, two-thirds were nonusers.

For each antipsychotic drug user, two age and sex matched non-users were assessed. During follow-up period, 478 sudden cardiacdefine deaths occurred among those taking the drugs – twice the rate that occurred in the control group, researchers report.

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I guess Janssen ’s Haldol and Risperdal doesn’t truly cure schizophrenia after all so they need to create more phony drugs to beguile the public into believing that they have a cure for their so called mental illnesses.  Get ready for more drug commercials advertisements in the future  folks!

Jan 9 (Reuters) – Vanderbilt University will team up with Johnson & Johnson to develop new drugs to treat schizophrenia, according to a media report.

The Tennessee university will receive about $10 million from J&J over the next three years, plus as much as $100 million in additional payments if it meets certain research milestones, the Wall Street Journal said.

The deal is scheduled to be announced Friday, the paper said.
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By Bruce E. Levine, AlterNet
Posted on July 23, 2008, Printed on July 24, 2008

American psychiatry has been rocked by Congress. Congressional investigators first exposed the financial relationships between high-profile psychiatrists and drug companies. “But now the profession itself is under attack in Congress,” reported the New York Times on July 12, 2008.

Specifically under attack is psychiatry’s premier professional organization, the American Psychiatric Association. The New York Times stated, “In 2006, the latest year for which numbers are available, the drug industry accounted for about 30 percent of the association’s $62.5 million in financing. About half of that money went to drug advertisements in psychiatric journals and exhibits at the annual meeting, and the other half to sponsor fellowships, conferences and industry symposiums at the annual meeting.”

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The U.S. Food and Drug Administration today exercised its new authority under the Food and Drug Administration Amendments Act of 2007 (FDAAA) to require manufacturers of “conventional” antipsychotic drugs to make safety-related changes to prescribing information, or labeling, to warn about an increased risk of death associated with the off-label use of these drugs to treat behavioral problems in older people with dementia.

In 2005, the FDA announced similar labeling changes for “atypical” antipsychotic drugs. At that time, Boxed Warnings, the FDA’s strongest, were added. The Boxed Warning will now be added to an older class of drugs known as “conventional” antipsychotics. The warning for both classes of drugs will say that clinical studies indicate that antipsychotic drugs of both types are associated with an increased risk of death when used in elderly patients treated for dementia-related psychosis.

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New York psychiatrist Jeffrey Lieberman has heard Johnson & Johnson’s (JNJ) sales pitch for the new anti-schizophrenia drug Invega, but he’s not too impressed.

Problem is, Invega isn’t much different than one of J&J’s best-selling drugs, the antipsychotic Risperdal. In late June, Risperdal is scheduled to lose its U.S. patent protection, clearing the way for competing generic copies that are cheaper than Invega, which could further diminish Invega sales, already characterized as a disappointment by J&J.

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A Canadian study has found that prescribing antipsychotic drugs for elderly people may be dangerous.

Antipsychotic therapy is widely used to manage behavioural problems such as aggression which is sometimes associated with dementia; they are often prescribed prior to admission to a nursing home.

They are commonly used to treat psychosis with conditions such as schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, mania and delusional disorder.

The researchers from the Institute for Clinical Evaluative Sciences (ICES) in Ontario say elderly patients who are given antipsychotic drugs are at an increased risk of having an event that is serious enough to lead to hospitalization or death within a month of starting the therapy.

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Nothing more infuriates me then hearing someone harming a child or putting a child at risk for health problems. A child less then 15 years old can’t speak or defend for themselves when it comes to medical decisions by their parents. A friend of mine, Jane Alexander, explained on her Youtube videos about how you can get out of a psychiatric hospital in a legal and rational fashion. She explains the habeas corpus act, an act where you can legally request court intervention appeal and have your time in court to prove to yourself that you’re not insane and that you don’t belong in the psychiatric hospital to the judge.

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Obviously you can’t go in there cursing like a sailer and demanding to get released because it will not happen.

I was reading an article that I’m about to show to you below. This Psychiatrist named Thomas M. Peterson was accused of improperly prescribing medication to his 2 children patients. The medications that he was improperly prescribing were anti-psychotics. Go to my The Dangers of taking antipsychotics article to find out how dangerous Anti-Psychotics are. I can only speculate that the Anti-Psychotics that Tomas M. Peterson was giving these children were the prescription medication Risperdal, a now approved medication by the FDA to give to children.

He had his medical license taken away and now the state board of medical examiners are reinstating his medical license for some obvious reason.

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FDA website: FDA Approves Risperdal for Two Psychiatric Conditions in Children and Adolescents

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration today approved Risperdal (risperidone) for the treatment of schizophrenia in adolescents, ages 13 to 17, and for the short-term treatment of manic or mixed episodes of bipolar I disorder in children and adolescents ages 10 to 17. This is the first FDA approval of an atypical antipsychotic drug to treat either disorder in these age groups.

Until now, there has been no FDA-approved drug for the treatment of schizophrenia for pediatric use and only lithium is approved for the treatment of bipolar disorder in adolescents ages 12 and up.

“The pediatric studies of Risperdal provided an opportunity to assess the effectiveness, proper dose, and safety of using this product in the pediatric population,” said Dianne Murphy, M.D., director of FDA’s Office of Pediatric Therapeutics. “These data have permitted the identification of the effective pediatric dose ranges and have provided an evidence-based approach for treating these disorders in pediatric patients.”

The FDA first approved Risperdal in 1993 for the treatment of schizophrenia in adults. The drug later was approved for the short-term treatment of acute manic or mixed episodes associated with bipolar I disorder in adults and the treatment of irritability associated with autistic disorder in children and adolescents 5 to 16 years old.

Evidence to support this approval was collected through studies the FDA requested as part of its pediatric drug development initiatives.

The efficacy of Risperdal in the treatment of schizophrenia in adolescents was demonstrated in two short-term (6 to 8 weeks), double-blind, controlled trials. All patients were experiencing an acute episode of schizophrenia at the time of enrollment. Treated patients generally had fewer symptoms, including a decrease in hallucinations, delusional thinking, and other symptoms of their illness.

The efficacy of Risperdal in the treatment of manic or mixed episodes in children or adolescents with bipolar I disorder was demonstrated in a three-week, randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled, multicenter trial in patients who were experiencing a manic or mixed episode. Treated patients generally had fewer symptoms, including a decrease in their elevated mood and hyperactivity, and other symptoms of their illness.

Drowsiness, fatigue, increase in appetite, anxiety, nausea, dizziness, dry mouth, tremor, and rash were among the most common side effects reported.

Schizophrenia is a serious and disabling psychiatric disorder. Symptoms may include hallucinations, delusions, and disorganized thinking. Bipolar disorder, also known as manic-depressive illness, is a serious psychiatric disorder that causes wide shifts in a person’s mood, energy, and ability to function.

Risperdal is manufactured by Janssen, L.P. of Titusville, N.J.

For more information:

FDA Office of Pediatric Therapeutics
www.fda.gov/oc/opt/default.htm

National Institute of Mental Health—Schizophrenia
www.nimh.nih.gov/healthinformation/schizophreniamenu.cfm

National Institute of Mental Health—Bipolar Disorder
www.nimh.nih.gov/healthinformation/bipolarmenu.cfm