Long-term use of bipolar drug questioned

The growing use of a popular drug in the long-term treatment of bipolar disorder is based largely on a single, flawed clinical trial that may be steering doctors and patients away from drugs with a more established track record, a new review published this week in the journal "PLoS Medicine" suggests.

[what can i use for bipola]

what is a quick reacting drug to bipolar

[HumanSpirit]

Child psychiatry is sick with hidden conflicts of interest

Child psychiatry is sick with hidden conflicts of interest
By Dr. Leonard Sax

Sunday, December 14th 2008, 4:00 AM

When I first began writing prescriptions for children 22 years ago, it was unusual for a child to be taking powerful psychiatric drugs. Today it's common. How did we get here?

Dr. Joseph Biederman is part of the answer. He's an important guy. His title is "chief of pediatric psychopharmacology" at Massachusetts General Hospital, the main teaching hospital for Harvard Medical School. Pediatricians and family doctors look to him, and doctors like him, for guidance about what they should do with problem kids. For the past two decades, Biederman has pushed the use of medications for treating ADHD and bipolar disorder. Over the past two decades, the use of medications for treating those disorders has soared.

Sen. Charles Grassley (R-Iowa), recognizing how much influence Biederman has in promoting these medications for children, wondered whether the doctor might be taking money from drug companies. When first asked, Biederman admitted to taking perhaps "a couple hundred thousand dollars" from pharmaceutical companies. When he was asked to take another look, it turned out that Biederman and a colleague had accepted more than $1.6 million from the drug companies. And they hadn't told anybody.

Or consider the case of Dr. Fred Goodwin. After stepping down as director of the National Institute for Mental Health, Goodwin moved on to serve as the host of the NPR program "The Infinite Mind." Goodwin didn't think he needed to tell anybody that the drug companies were paying him $1.3 million, even as he reassured listeners on his program about the safety of powerful psychiatric medications for children. Last month, after his connections to the drug industry came to light, NPR canceled his program.

http://www.nydailynews.com/opinions/2008/12/1...

[HumanSpirit]

US Kids Represent Psychiatric Drug Goldmine
Column: Evelyn Pringle

Prescriptions for psychiatric drugs increased 50 percent with children in the US, and 73 percent among adults, from 1996 to 2006, according to a study in the May/June 2009 issue of the journal Health Affairs. Another study in the same issue of Health Affairs found spending for mental health care grew more than 30 percent over the same ten-year period, with almost all of the increase due to psychiatric drug costs.

Pasted from <http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/HL0912/S00122.... ;

[HumanSpirit]

SSRI and Stimulants: Frying the Brain

snip:

Written by Carol Sieverling, our group's facilitator, this information is based on tapes of
her October 2000 visit to Dr. Cheney. He gave permission to share this information, but
has not reviewed or edited it.

Dr. Cheney recently came across some information regarding the dangers of Selective
Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitors (SSRIÌs), such as Prozac, Zoloft and Paxil, and stimulants
like Ritalin and Provigil. During office visits, Dr. Cheney shows patients the book Prozac
Backlash: Overcoming the Dangers of Prozac, Zoloft, Paxil and Other Antidepressants
by Joseph Glenmullen, M.D., a psychiatrist at Harvard Medical School. It includes
endorsements from other Ivy League psychiatrists. Cheney calls the implications of this
book "staggering".
When talking with patients, Cheney usually opens the book to a picture of a monkey's
brain before and after it received a very potent SSRI. The "before" photo shows a dark
background filled with fine white lines and white blobs, healthy neurons. The "after"
photo is very dark, only a few white lines and blobs remain. Most of the brain cells had
been "fried".
SSRIs and stimulants work by increasing the firing of neurons. While this often has great
benefits in the short term, doctors are now realizing that long term use "fries" brain cells.
The body views any neuron that fires excessively over time as damaged, and destroys it.
SSRIs and stimulants, taken over a period of 10 years or so, can lead to a loss of brain
cells, causing neurodegenerative disorders. Many doctors have recently seen a sudden
increase in patients with neurological symptoms, and most have been on Prozac, or a
similar drug, for about 10 years. Cheney is seeing this in his own practice.
During office visits, Cheney also shows patients a copy of the May 22, 2000 issue of
Newsweek with Michael J. Fox on the cover. It has an excellent article on Parkinson's
Disease, a condition that involves a loss of neurons in the area associated with motor
control. Parkinson's drugs stimulate the remaining neurons to "perform heroically", firing
excessively. However, the article notes that while benefits are seen initially, neurological
symptoms get much worse at the three to five-year point. Patients experience wild
involuntary movements, etc. These drugs, though helpful in the short term, actually speed
up the degenerative process.
What mechanisms are at work causing neurons to be "fried"? SSRIs are often prescribed
for depression, which involves a lack of serotonin. Serotonin is a neurotransmitter, a
chemical messenger. One neuron releases a burst of it into the intersynaptic cleft,(the gap
between neurons). The serotonin is then taken up by special receptors in the adjacent
neuron. Thus a message is sent from one neuron to another, with serotonin carrying the
message across the gap. Excess serotonin is cleared away before a new message is sent.
A "reuptake channel" in one neuron vacuums up the left over serotonin.

more:

http://www.drcordas.com/education/Fibromyalgi...

[HumanSpirit]

Long-term use of bipolar drug questioned

Pasted from <http://www.topix.com/med/psychiatry/2011/05/l... ;

[Mary-Ann]

I find a good review source about Abilify (Aripiprazole)- http://aripiprazoles.com There is a full description and information on dosage, side effects, etc. at that site. I hope, it will really help somebody.

[Informed]

Evidence of Neuroleptic Drug-Induced Brain Damage in Patients:
A partial, Annotated Bibliography
by Vera Hassner Sharav

www.ahrp.org/risks/biblio0100.php

good link on the truth.

[HumanSpirit]

Mary-Ann wrote:

I find a good review source about Abilify (Aripiprazole)- http://aripiprazoles.com There is a full description and information on dosage, side effects, etc. at that site. I hope, it will really help somebody.

Spam advertising. Of no value to the discussion.

[Thomas]

FBOMBER wrote:

We need to question everything Pharma. How do they get licence approval for products that actually cause disease, maim and kill? The truth must be that they are allowed to experiment on the public. Its not till the class action lawsuits stack up that they withdraw their faulty, fraudulent product. Then they are allowed to settle out of court paying costs that are a fraction of the profits they made, they can never be charged again for these crimes or have the evidence used. They avoid admitting guilt or facing criminal charges for maiming and killing. What is wrong with this picture?

Big Pharma gets away with selling drugs that cause disease, maim and kill people simply because they are in bed with the FDA, the federal Government, the MDA and the politicians in Washington. They are a multi-Billion dollar industry and they have very powerful lobbyists who grease the palms of politicians to pass laws that favor them and even give them undue protection against prosecution and moral responsibility. They have enough money to pay-off anyone and everyone that they have to to get away with whatever they want to. Much of it is well documented, but, there are other things we will probably find out about later after more people have died from their cover-ups. Big Pharma is too powerful to stop and they have corrupted the whole medical and political system and most of the population has blindly bought into all their propaganda. Most people still think the drug companies are actually trying to help people. They are only interested in making money. That is the one and only thing they are interested in. The all-mighty dollar. Period!!!! A good video to watch on youtube is "CANCER: The Forbidden Cures". It shows how the drug companies hide natural cancer cures from the public to make more money even though they know millions of people die every year from cancer. If that isn't mass murder than what is?

[HumanSpirit]

The court with it's judges and prosecutors involved as members of the Republican ALEC, ALONG WITH the pharmaceutical companies doesn't provider any safe guards in the society nor will there be any justice to compensate the damaged. Look at the pharmaceutical fines and punishment. How about the changes Obama made to the law that Bush enacted that persons couldn't sue a pharmaceutical company in which the FDA excepted the pharmaceutical drug because you couldn't sue the government.