Use of prescription psychotropics has skyrocketed among U.S. military personnel in recent years, according to an investigation by Military Times. At least 17 percent of active-duty military personnel are currently taking an antidepressant, including as many as 6 percent of all deployed troops. In contrast, the rate of antidepressant use in the wider U.S. public is only 10 percent.
Columbia University has quietly suspended research at a nationally prominent brain-imaging center and reassigned its top managers after federal investigators found that it had routinely injected mental patients with drugs that contained potentially dangerous impurities.
AstraZeneca has agreed to settle Seroquel lawsuits filed by about 200 people who claim that the drug maker failed to adequately warn about the risk of diabetes and other side effects of their antipsychotic drug. The Seroquel settlements are reportedly the first payments AstraZeneca has made out of an estimated 26,000 claims that have been presented against the company.
Child abuse is a serious problem that affects nearly one million children a year in the United States alone. The American Academy of Pediatrics and the US Department of Health and Human Services classify child abuse into four categories including neglect, physical abuse, sexual abuse, and emotional abuse. None of these categories, however, clearly includes the abusive use of drugs on children. A study soon to be published in the Journal of Pediatrics investigates the malicious use of pharmaceuticals and attempts to shed light on this under-recognized problem.
This is the second article in a five-part series on depression. The first one discussed how there is no medical test to diagnose depression; the interview scales have no known validity or reliability because there is no comparative gold standard; the varying interview scales result in different diagnostic conclusions; and almost every life reaction is considered a symptom for depression — including things such as indecisiveness, inability to concentrate, changes in weight or sleeping pattern. None of this is very scientific.