Posts Tagged ‘anti-psychotics’

Antipsychotic drug deaths in California tie into nationwide abuse: FDA estimates antipsychotics kill 15,000 per year

Wednesday, January 6th, 2010

John Hendren
ABC World News
January 5, 2010

What happened in a bucolic nursing home nestled in the California mountains starting in 2003 shocked investigators. When residents at the Kern Valley Nursing Home complained or annoyed nursing director Gwen Hughes, prosecutors say she chemically restrained them with powerful anti-psychotic drugs. Her methods were so severe, three residents died.

Phyllis Peters’ mother Fannie Mae Brinkley was a feisty 97-year-old who suddenly lost energy. “I’d say, ‘I can’t get my mom awake,’” Peters remembers. “She just won’t rouse, she’s lethargic.”

No one told Peters that her mother had been given a powerful anti-seizure drug that prosecutors say killed her.

Peters says of her mother today, “I’m absolutely convinced she would have lived to be 100. Absolutely.”

Read entire article: http://abcnews.go.com/WN/abc-world-news-deadly-chemical-restraints-kill-california/story?id=9483981

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Rate of 2 to 5-year-old’s being given psychiatry’s most powerful/brain damaging drugs – antipsychotics – doubles.

Tuesday, January 5th, 2010

Jennifer Thomas
BusinessWeek
January 4, 2010

The rate of children aged 2 to 5 who are given antipsychotic medications has doubled in recent years, a new study has found.

Yet little is known about either the effectiveness or the safety of these powerful psychiatric medications in children this age, said researchers from Columbia University and Rutgers University, who looked at data on more than 1 million children with private health insurance.

“It is a worrisome trend, partly because very little is known about the short-term, let alone the long-term, safety of these drugs in this age group,” said study author Dr. Mark Olfson, a professor of clinical psychiatry at Columbia University in New York City.

Prescribing antipsychotics to children in the upper range of that age span — ages 4 and 5 — is justifiable only in rare, intractable situations in which all other treatments, including family and psychological therapy, have been tried and are not working, Olfson said.

And it’s questionable whether 2- and 3-year-olds should ever be prescribed antipsychotics, Olfson said.

Read entire article: http://www.businessweek.com/lifestyle/content/healthday/634536.html

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Just sickening: Cartoon drug brochures given to kids for antipsychotics (psychiatry’s most dangerous drugs)

Friday, November 20th, 2009

Jim Edwards
BNET
November 20, 1009

Britain’s National Health Service is losing a fight against the Bonkers Institute for Nearly Genuine Research — a web site that publicizes the underbelly of psychiatric medicine — over brochures for children that tell them how to take antipsychotic medicines such as Johnson & Johnson (JNJ)’s Risperdal (risperidone).

The Bonkers Institute added three leaflets — for risperidone, atomoxetine and olanzapine — to its gallery of advertising for kids’ mental health medicines. The NHS has asked the web site to take them down as they are intended for patients only.

The brochures say things such as:

Why am I taking risperidone?     It can help if you are having thoughts that leave you feeling frightened or confused, or if you are hearing upsetting or annoying voices when nobody is there. It can also help if you are worried or frightened, or confused, and if you are finding it hard to concentrate on doing normal everyday tasks.

Risperidone is not approved for children in the U.S., and its off-label use in kids is controversial.

Read entire article: http://industry.bnet.com/pharma/10005419/nhs-loses-fight-over-publication-of-antipsychotic-meds-brochures-for-kids/

See more cartoon kiddie drug promo for kids in Britain: http://www.bonkersinstitute.org/medshow/atomoxeteen.html

http://www.bonkersinstitute.org/medshow/risperrydone.html

http://www.bonkersinstitute.org/medshow/olanzapeen.html

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Antipsychotics Like Seroquel Blamed for Deaths and Strokes

Monday, November 16th, 2009

AboutLawsuits.com
November 16, 2009

According to a new report, side effects of antipsychotics, such as Seroquel, Zyprexa, Risperdal and Abilify, could be responsible for as many as 1,800 deaths and 1,620 strokes each year among the elderly with dementia in the United Kingdom.

The report, which was commissioned by the British government, found that the use of antipsychotics for dementia has been largely ineffective, resulting in improvement in only 20% of patients. As a result of the findings, the U.K. Department of Health has initiated plans to reduce the use of atypical antipsychotic drugs like Zyprexa, Risperdal, Abilify and Serquel for dementia in its own health system, and hopes that the reduction will be picked up by other nations as well.

There are an estimated 180,000 elderly people with dementia in the United Kingdom currently being treated with the antipsychotic drugs, according to the report’s author, Professor Sube Banerjee. However, only 36,000 were found to derive any benefit from the drugs.

“The findings of my review confirm that there are indeed significant issues in terms of quality of care and patient safety,” said Banerjee, professor of mental health at King’s College London Institute of Psychiatry, in a letter to the Minister of State that accompanied the report. “These drugs appear to be used too often in dementia and, at their likely level of use, potential benefits are most probably outweighed by their risks overall.”

Read entire article: http://www.aboutlawsuits.com/antipsychotics-for-dementia-blamed-for-deaths-6965/

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