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List of Studies (Most Recent are Listed First)
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9/17/2003 • Study Links Older Bipolar Drug to Fewer Suicides
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Dr. Frederick K. Goodwin, senior author of the study and director of
the psychopharmacology research center at George Washington University
Medical Center
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Journal of the American Medical Association
The
new study, published today in The Journal of the American Medical
Association, found that patients taking Depakote were 2.7 times as
likely to kill themselves as those taking lithium. Earlier studies by
others had also found that lithium could prevent suicide, but today’s
report is the first to compare suicide and attempted suicide rates in
lithium and Depakote users. The study was based on medical records of
20,638 patients aged 14 and older in Washington State and California
who were treated from 1994 to 2001.
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8/21/2003 • Research challenges role of antidepressants
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Professor Joe Collier, editor of DTB
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Drug and Therapeutics Bulletin (DTB)
The
DTB said that most patients with mild depression fell below the
threshold of severity used in clinical trials for antidepressants.
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11/11/2002 • Genes play a part, but violence may be viral
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By TOM SIEGFRIED
The Dallas Morning News
ORLANDO, Fla.
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Harvard Medical School
This
interesting article states: "Those genes are found in nerve cells (or
neurons) that produce the brain chemicals dopamine and serotonin. When
active, the genes tell the neurons to pump more of the chemicals into
the fly's nervous system. When the genes are turned off, dopamine and
serotonin production falls off".
"Some flies are genetically
engineered with a "gene switch" that depends on temperature. Turn up
the heat, and you turn off the genes. In this case, Harvard researcher
Selby Chen and collaborators engineered flies who fight away when the
temperature is a pleasant 77 degrees Fahrenheit. But when the
scientists heat up the lab to a toasty 86, the flies equipped with a
genetic switch in the dopamine and serotonin neurons throw in the
towel. (Ordinary flies are happy to keep on fighting in the heat.) The
apparent implication is that dopamine and serotonin genes play an
important role in aggressive violence".
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11/5/2002 • Adolescent Drug Use Creates Long-Term Imbalance
Even commonly prescribed amphetamines may lead to addictive behavior.
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By Ross Grant
Health ScoutNews Reporter
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Thomas Jefferson University
Philadelphia
Here
is more evidence that there is significant brain alteration within
brain cells in response to synthetic chemicals that change brain
function in many unknown ways. Could these abnormal proteins that form
in response to foreign chemicals that cross the blood brain barrier, be
part of the mysterious amyloid deposits that are markers for Alzheimers
Disease? An educated guess, from some observers who have noted a
relationship between Alzheimer’s and people who have taken a lot of
brain-altering drugs during their lifetimes, says yes. Has anybody else
noticed such a connection? Until we have a long term study on that very
question, the drug companies have to be up front and say that they
don’t know if their particular synthetic chemical can cause Alzheimers
or not. In the meantime, we should avoid taking their drugs until they
can prove that they don’t have such long term adverse effects.
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5/1/2002 • Timing of New Black Box Warnings and Withdrawals for Prescription Medications
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Karen E. Lasser, MD, MPH; Paul D. Allen, MD, MPH; Steffie J.
Woolhandler, MD, MPH; David U. Himmelstein, MD; Sidney M. Wolfe, MD;
David H. Bor, MD
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Journal of the American Medical Association
JAMA. 2002;287:2215-2220
Serious
ADRs commonly emerge after Food and Drug Administration approval. The
safety of new agents cannot be known with certainty until a drug has
been on the market for many years.
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4/10/2002 • Effect of Hypericum perforatum (St John's Wort) in Major Depressive Disorder
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David J. Kupfer, MD, Department of Psychiatry, University of Pittsburgh
Medical School, Western Psychiatric Institute and Clinic, 3811 O'Hara
St, Pittsburgh, PA 15213 (e-mail: kupferdj@msx.upmc.edu).
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JAMA Vol. 287 No. 14
This
study fails to support the efficacy of H perforatum in moderately
severe major depression. The result may be due to low assay sensitivity
of the trial, but the complete absence of trends suggestive of efficacy
for H perforatum is noteworthy.
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3/26/2002 • Scientists find Prozac ‘link’ to brain tumours
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Steve Connor
Science Editor
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Independent
Scientists
have discovered that Prozac, the antidepressant taken by millions of
people around the world, may stimulate the growth of brain tumours by
blocking the body’s natural ability to kill cancer cells.
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3/15/2002 • Rare Neurologic Syndrome Linked to Antidepressant
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Psychiatric News March 15, 2002 Volume 37 Number 6, p. 31
Neurologists
warn other clinicians that SSRIs could contribute to a potential
increase in certain patients‚ risk of having a rare form of stroke.
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2/28/2002 • Antidepressant drug trials turn away most of the depressed population
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Mark Zimmerman, associate professor of psychiatry and human behavior,
director of outpatient psychiatry at Rhode Island Hospital
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Brown University
While
antidepressants are among the most frequently prescribed medications,
most patients treated for major depression in a typical outpatient
psychiatric practice would not qualify to take part in a clinical trial
for a new antidepressant drug, according to a new Brown University
study.
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2/6/2002 • Scientists Find Little, If Any, Proof Ritalin Is Effective
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National Post - Canada 2-6-2
After
a painstaking analysis of 62 studies of Ritalin treatment for attention
deficit disorder, a team of Canadian researchers says it has found
little scientific evidence the drug lives up to its reputation.
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12/3/2001 • STUDIES ON RITALIN ARE CHILD ABUSE
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NEW YORK POST
"They
want to see how much these children can tolerate," said Vera Hassner
Sharav, who heads the New York-based Alliance for Human Research
Protection. "The research is absolutely child abuse."
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6/10/2001 • SSRI treatment suppresses dream recall frequency but increases subjective dream intensity in normal subjects.
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Pace-Schott EF, Gersh T, Silvestri R, Stickgold R, Salzman C, Hobson JA.
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Laboratory
of Neurophysiology, Department of Psychiatry, Harvard Medical School,
Boston, MA 02115, USA. edward_scott@hms.harvard.edu
The
decrease in dream frequency during SSRI treatment may reflect
serotonergic REM suppression while the augmented report length and
bizarreness during acute SSRI discontinuation may reflect cholinergic
rebound from serotonergic suppression.
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8/8/1999 • Antidepressant discontinuation-related mania: critical prospective observation and theoretical implications in bipolar disorder.
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Goldstein TR, Frye MA, Denicoff KD, Smith-Jackson E, Leverich GS, Bryan AL, Ali SO, Post RM
Department of Clinical Psychology, University of Colorado, Boulder, USA.
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J Clin Psychiatry 1999 Aug 60(8); 563-7 quiz 568-9
These
6 cases suggest a paradoxical effect whereby antidepressant
discontinuation actually induces mania in spite of adequate concomitant
mood-stabilizing treatment. These preliminary observations, if
replicated in larger and controlled prospective studies, suggest the
need for further consideration of the potential biochemical mechanisms
involved so that new preventive treatment approaches can be assessed.
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2/17/1997 • Correlated
reductions in cerebrospinal fluid 5-HIAA and MHPG concentrations after
treatment with selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors.
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Sheline Y, Bardgett ME, Csernansky JG
Department of Psychiatry, Washington University School of Medicine, St.
Louis, Missouri 63110, USA.
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J Clin Psychopharmacol 1997 Feb 17 1 11-4
Drug
treatment, overall, was associated with significant decreases in 5-HIAA
and MHPG and a trend toward a reduction in HVA levels. Levels of
5-HIAA, MHPG, and HVA were reduced by 57%, 48%, and 17%, respectively.
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