In Illinois, advocates are calling for restrictions on Medicaid’s reimbursement for antipsychotic drugs and for enforcement of rules requiring informed patient consent, among other measures.
FDA drug reviewers said medical researchers have found a direct link between the use of so-called atypical antipsychotics (Seroquel, Zyprexa, Abilify, Risperdal) in younger children and weight gain, high cholesterol, and increased blood pressure.
The Australian Government has been forced to stop the release of the ADHD draft guidelines and may have to rewrite them following the embarrassing scandal. A cloud had been cast over the draft’s validity after one of the psychiatrists, Dr. Joseph Biederman, whose research into anti-psychotic drugs helped form the guidelines, was accused of failing to reveal $1.6 million in payments from drug companies.
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).
According to a new report commissioned by the British government, there are an estimated 180,000 elderly people with dementia in the United Kingdom currently being treated with antipsychotic drugs such as Seroquel, Zyprexa, Risperdal and Abilify. The report found that these drugs 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.