Tuesday, June 23, 2015

Psych Headline News Links: 6/23/15


June 23, 2015
Like in many other states, foster children in Pennsylvania are being given psychotropic drugs by physicians at rates that are "disturbing" and "unacceptable," according to a press release and new report from the state's Department of Human Services (DHS). The state government also announced its plans to try to rein in the practice.More →
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June 22, 2015
The odds of a child with Down syndrome being on a psychotropic medication increase steadily with age, according to a study in the Journal of Developmental & Behavioral Pediatrics. By the time they are teenagers, about 25% are taking one or more psychiatric drugs.More →
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June 21, 2015
"A&E staff are often unsympathetic to patients suffering a mental health crisis and judgmental about injuries they have inflicted on themselves," stated The Guardian about a report from the Care Quality Commission. After investigating the country's hospital emergency departments, the Commission found doctors and nurses to be "unhelpful," and lacking in "basic respect" towards people suffering emotional crises. And those professionals with higher levels of mental health training were often rated the worst by patients.More →
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June 20, 2015
Continuing to take antidepressants during pregnancy was associated with higher rates of depressive relapses, hospitalizations and self-harming than stopping antidepressants, according to a study in Pharmacoepidemiology and Drug Safety.More →
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June 19, 2015
Early intervention in psychosis (EIP) efforts have not delivered on their promise of preventing more serious schizophrenia from developing, according to a review of the literature published in Progress in Neurology and Psychiatry. And the problem may be, the authors argued, that EIP efforts actually still come too late while attempting to address the wrong causes.More →
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June 18, 2015
The relative effectiveness of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) in alleviating depression has been declining steadily for the past 40 years, according to a study in Psychological Bulletin.More →
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June 18, 2015
Alongside increasing urbanization, China's rates of schizophrenia have gone up dramatically since 1990, according to a World Psychiatry letter from an international team of researchers.More →
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June 17, 2015
The studies that led to warnings from health regulators against prescribing antipsychotics to elderly patients with dementia were biased, and there is actually no significant increase in risk of death linked to the drugs, according to a study in the Journal of the American Medical Directors Association. To arrive at these findings, University of Groningen researchers explained that they focused their analysis on only small, short-term clinical trials with data of generally "poor" quality.More →
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June 17, 2015
An equal percentage of young people will start misusing ADHD-related and other stimulant drugs for the first time at age 13, as will start at age 20, according to a study in Drug and Alcohol Dependence. The study challenges common beliefs that most stimulant misuse begins among college students, the author stated.More →
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June 16, 2015
"A Pfizer Inc. report shows a scientist warned executives last year about a potential link between the anti-depressant drug Zoloft and birth defects, and recommended changes to the medication’s safety warning," reported Bloomberg.

June 15, 2015
Taking antidepressant or benzodiazepine medications are both associated with increased risks that a person will commit a homicide, according to a study from Finland published in a World Psychiatry letter.More →
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June 14, 2015
The man who deliberately crashed a Germanwings commercial airliner with 150 passengers aboard was actively in psychiatric treatment at the time, reported the New York Times.More →
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June 13, 2015
Public school accountability requirements initiated by the No Child Left Behind Act are associated with significant increases in diagnoses of ADHD among poorer children, reported a study in Psychiatric Services in Advance. Conversely, where states have legally restricted uses of psychotropic medications, ADHD diagnoses have dropped.More →
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June 13, 2015
The amount of funding going into development assistance for "global mental health" initiatives around the world from governments, foundations and other donors has tripled since 2007, rising to $196.62 million US in 2013, according to a study in PLoS Medicine.More →
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June 12, 2015
A study of randomized controlled trials that have been published in four leading behavioral health journals found that new requirements for registering of trials does not seem to be improving trial design or transparency. The study appeared in the Journal of Psychosomatic Research.More →
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June 12, 2015
"Just over half of people with learning disabilities living in residential centres are being prescribed powerful antipsychotic drugs which can be used to control the behaviour of vulnerable residents," reported The Irish Times.More →
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June 11, 2015
A meta-analysis of scientific studies found that the risk of dementia increased 22% with every additional twenty daily doses of benzodiazepine medications that people took annually, according to a study in PLoS One.More →
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June 10, 2015
The Canadian province of Ontario has moved to restrict the circumstances under which police can share mental health-related information when employers ask for record checks on potential employees, reported the Toronto Star. However, the mental health information will still be shared among law-enforcement agencies, border personnel and others.More →
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June 10, 2015
In a study published in Environmental Health, Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center researchers found a dose-response relationship between levels of a common household pesticide in children's bodies, and ADHD symptoms and diagnoses.More →
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June 9, 2015
A new study in JAMA has reinforced earlier warnings that taking SSRI antidepressants late in pregnancy appears to put mothers at a slightly increased risk of having newborns with persistent pulmonary hypertension. PPHN is a potentially life-threatening condition.

Thank You MIA and Mr Wipond.


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