 | Novel Antipsychotics: Schizophrenia, Psychosis and Beyond
What is next for the novel antipsychotics? Read
it Here
|
|
Clinical Management of Bipolar Disorder
Paul E. Keck, Jr, MD, reviews the many facets of treatment of bipolar
disorder. Read
it Here
|
| New
research shows that antidepressants test groups would
exclude many and do not indicated that treatment
necessarily benefits all that are currently treated. |
| Evidence
shows that low prenatal vitamin D levels may be a risk factor for
Schizophrenia - International Society for Developmental Neuroscience
Conference. |
|
A recent study showed that four out of five patients suffering from panic
disorder remained symptom-free six months after they stopped taking medication
to treat the often-debilitating illness. |
| New book
releases: Madness: A Brief History by Roy Porter, and
Madness in America by Robert Whitaker. |
| SAMHSA
study:Nine out of 10 kids who need drug treatment are not getting
it, a comprehensive federal study of the nation's
drug use has found. |
| Recent
research suggests that people abused as children may be more prone
to developing schizophrenia. |
| Imaging
technology shows that even though both OCD and bipolar depression both respond
to SSRIs, they affect different regions of the brain. |
| An
understanding of the epigenetic regulation of reelin gene expression
and of the possible pathogenetic role of reelin deficiency in
schizophrenia, may become a major focus that will open new avenues for
the treatment of this disease. |
| Spinal
cord injury and mental illness is a difficult combination - a
student writes of current research after her brother who suffers from
mental illness became paralyzed. |
| Newly
Published Research in Mental Illness |
| Anticipating
incoming events: an impaired cognitive process in schizophrenia? |
| Community-Based
Treatment of Schizophrenia and Other Severe Mental Disorders:
Treatment Outcomes - recent advances in the community treatment of
persons with schizophrenia, including review of assertive community
treatment, family intervention, supported employment, skills training,
illness self-management, cognitive interventions (cognitive therapy and
cognitive rehabilitation). (Requires free Medscape registration to
review, hit cancel at the username prompt.) |
| The
Surgeon General released a supplement to his mental health report on
August 26 titled Mental Health: Culture, Race and Ethnicity.
NAMI
Executive Director Richard Birkel comments on Surgeon General's Mental
Health Report. |
| New
research indicates that there appears to be a developmental
discontinuity between juvenile and adult OCD: Developmental
aspects of OCD: findings in children and adults. |
| Pharmaceutical
lobbying blitz to stop Medicare drug benefit - Public Citizen (July 23,
2001) |
| Recent
research shows that analysis of the use of certain
words may uncover hidden signs of suicidal tendencies in
writers of poetry. |
| Neurosurgery
can dramatically benefit people suffering from some
movement disorders. |
| Schizophrenia
& Smell
(notice the use of non-people
first language in the article) |
| The
pharmaceutical industry spends about one-fifth of what
it says it spends on the research and development
(R&D) of new drugs, destroying the chief argument it
uses against making prescription drugs affordable to
middle and low-income seniors, a Public Citizen
investigation has found. |
| Forced
Treatment Debate was stoked anew Thursday, June 14, 2001, with the release of
a California study. The study by the Rand Corp., a think tank in Santa
Monica, found that mental patients might benefit from forced treatment
— if it is supplemented significantly with support services. One of
the report's main conclusions was that California's mental
health system is underfunded. |
| Drug-induced
movement disorders and tardive syndromes present a
unique challenge for neuroscience practitioners. |
| Testimony of Dr. Fred
Frese, NAMI national
board member, on June 20, 2001, before the House Veterans' Affairs Committee,
Subcommittee on Health. Dr. Frese testified on behalf of NAMI and the NAMI
Veterans Committee on the need to improve access to treatment and services for
our nation's veterans with severe mental illnesses and their family members. |
| Testimony
on Electro Convulsive Treatment by Leonard Roy Frank
on May 18, 2001, before the Mental Health Committee of the
New York State Assembly. |
| Sharp
Rise Reported in Multiple Prescriptions Study
Attributes Increase to Growing Number of Seniors,
Aggressive Marketing by Drug Companies - The Washington
Post (July 18, 2001) |
| Borna
virus linked to Mental Illness - Professor Ian Lipkin
at the University of California at Irvine is researching
the virus and a possible connection between infection with
it and mental illness. |
| A new report by the consumer health organization Families
USA refutes the pharmaceutical industry's claim that high and increasing
drug prices are needed to sustain research and development. |
| Dopamine agonist therapy might improve
cognitive function in patients with schizophrenia, according to a presentation
here at the 48th annual meeting of the Society of Nuclear Medicine in Toronto,
Canada. |
| Multipolar
Depression - Attendees at the Fourth International Conference on Bipolar held in June were
just settling into their seats when the first speaker, Guy Goodwin MD, head of
the Department of Psychiatry at Oxford, let drop: "There is a difference
between unipolar and bipolar depression." The conference also was
well attended by the pharmaceutical companies, with information
about treatment studies, including an update
on Geodon. |
| A
new report documents
that individuals
with severe disabilities face a worsened crisis accessing
affordable housing. |
|
In the upcoming issue of Administration and Policy Mental Health, researchers
will publish significant findings that integrated treatment models, which
include supported employment assistance, are effective in helping even those
people with severe mental illnesses who initially have little or no interest in
reentering the job market. |
| The
April
issue of the Journal of Clinical Psychiatry published
an article by researchers suggesting that although an
initial target dosage of resperidone of 6 mg/day is common
for treatment of schizophrenia, the real optimum may be
lower. Dr. Richard Williams of the Royal Jubilee
Hospital, in Victoria, British Columbia, found that an
initial target dose of 4mg/day is appropriate for most
patients. |
| Antipsychotic
drugs may cause heart damage, say researchers from New
Zealand and Sweden. Although they emphasize more studies
are needed to determine the role that these drugs play in
heart disease, researchers believe the findings send up a
red flag regarding the drugs' safety. |
| There's an extremely
important type of discontinuation syndrome that needs to be exposed -- that the
public, decision-makers, patients and their families desperately need to know
about. I'm referring to discontinuing "neuroleptics." Article by
David Oaks (June 6, 2001) |
| Double
blind study of 25 patients diagnosed with schizophrenia
supports the potential value of quetiapine for improving
cognitive impairment in patients with schizophrenia and
emphasize the importance of further research with this
promising atypical antipsychotic. |
| National
Suicide Prevention Strategy Released - May 2nd, 2001, Surgeon General David Satcher
unveiled a national
blueprint of goals and objectives to help prevent suicide - the eighth leading
case of death in the United States. The strategy emphasizes screening,
treatment and an end to stigma. (click
here for more) |
| New
Treatments for Depression - A number of companies are now marketing devices that can stimulate the brain
and have been shown to be effective in the treatment of depression. |
| Study
on the quality of care for depression & anxiety in the
U.S. revealed that 83% of adults with a probable
depressive or anxiety disorder saw a health care provider
and only 30% received some form of treatment. Of
those only 19% received appropriate care. (May, 2001) |
| Clozaprexin
reduces side-effects of Clozaril (Clozapine) -
Protarga, Inc. announced that researchers at Harvard
Medical School reported preclinical data suggesting that
Protarga’s novel antipsychotic agent, Clozaprexin may be
a safer and more effective treatment. |
| Diagnosing
Schizophrenia with a Blood Test - Israeli researchers
may have found a way to diagnose schizophrenia by
analyzing white blood cells. |
| Study
indicates presence of retrovirus in schizophrenia patients.
(April 10, 2001) |
| Older
fathers increase risk of child developing schizophrenia.
(April 12, 2001) |
| Mental
Health Disorders - Fact sheet published by NIMH with
statistics on incidence of mental illness in America.
(April, 2001) |
| Click
here
for a list of political contributions by major
pharmaceutical companies. |
| Study
shows that providing housing for the homeless is
cost-effective. (May, 2001) |
| New
Schizophrenia Treatments
- On March 25, 2000, the U. C. Davis School of Medicine
presented a conference on “Emerging New Clinical Treatment Strategies for Schizophrenia.”
(Dec., 2000) |
| RAND
Study: Effectiveness of Involuntary Outpatient Treatment
is Unclear - The California Senate commissioned a
study to investigate whether involuntary outpatient
treatment works. |
| HHS
issues preliminary report on the Olmstead Disability Community
Integration Plan. |
