Posts Tagged ‘psychiatrist’

Going Nuts

Depression and anxiety treatment has proven to be ineffective. An increasing number of U.S. adults are being prescribed combinations of antidepressants and antipsychotic medications, according to a report in the January issue of Archives of General Psychiatry, one of the JAMA/Archives journals.

Facts

To examine patterns and trends in psychotropic polypharmacy-or the prescription of more than one psychiatric medication-Ramin Mojtabai, M.D., Ph.D., M.P.H., of Bloomberg School of Public Health, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, and Mark Olfson, M.D., M.P.H., of Columbia University Medical Center and the New York State Psychiatric Institute, New York, analyzed data collected from a national sample of office-based psychiatry practices. The number of medications prescribed and specific medication combinations were assessed from a total of 13,079 office visits to psychiatrists by adults (18 years or older) between 1996 and 2006.

Overall, there was an increase in the number of psychotropic medications prescribed during office visits. Between 1996 to 1997 and 2005 to 2006, the percentage of visits at which two or more medications were prescribed increased from 42.6 percent to 59.8 percent and the percentage of visits at which three or more medications were prescribed increased from 16.9 percent to 33.2 percent. In addition, the median (midpoint) number of medications prescribed at each visit increased from one to two (an average increase of 40.1 percent).

“While the evidence for added benefit of antipsychotic polypharmacy is limited, there is growing evidence regarding the increased adverse effects associated with such combinations,” the authors write. For example, some combinations have resulted in increases in body weight and total cholesterol level, whereas others may be associated with an increase in fasting blood glucose level.

Truth

A small new study provides more evidence that, on average, antidepressants may be little more effective than a sugar pill in most patients who take them.

“I think we’ve made decisions (about how to treat depression) more difficult,” says co-author Robert DeRubeis, a psychologist at the University of Pennsylvania. The findings are published in today’s Journal of the American Medical Association. “I hope we have.”

“The health establishment needs to take stock and ask about costs and benefits” of antidepressants, DeRubeis says. Meanwhile, he says, his study “should give one pause” about prescribing antidepressants to mildly, moderately or even severely depressed patients. Instead, he says, doctors might want to consider non-drug options, such as exercise or psychotherapy.

Better Yet

Brain function is a product of nutrition. It is a known fact that a diet high in sugar and refined carbohydrates causes depression. Omega 3 fatty acids are needed for proper brain function. According to research published in 2003, kids that consumed soft drinks and sugary snacks performed at the level a 70-year-old in tests of memory and attention. Studies have shown that B vitamins have brain-boosting powers.

Sugar depletes vitamin stores, and causes nutritional deficiencies. A diet high in vitamins, minerals and omega-3 has been shown to affect psychological health. This is what holistic depression and anxiety treatment is based on.

There is a direct relationship between nutrition and aggression. In 2002, Bernard Gesch, a physiologist at Oxford University tested nutritional supplements on inmates in British prisons. He worked with 231 detainees for four months. He gave half the group of men, ages 18 to 21, multivitamins, minerals and fatty-acid supplements with meals. The other half were given placebos. Violence among the group taking the supplements fell 37 percent and minor infractions fell by 26 percent.

“Fruits and vegetables are like Mutual funds,” says university of Kentucky professor of neurology David Snowdon, PHD. “They’re a big pot of literally thousands of compounds that offer protection against a variety of diseases including Alzheimer’s disease.” Fresh fruits and vegetables have been proven to lower the risk of dementia.

Nutrients that feed the brain help it handle stress and stay alert. Good nutrition feeds body, mind and spirit.

Glen Olsen a Fomer Pharmaceutical Rep-Spills The Beans

Antipsychotic drugs for children will impact future generations. Outlawing illegal drugs is not the issue. It is curtailing the use of legal drugs for children, the frail and the elderly.

Our Problem

We have a problem, the use of the potent antipsychotic drugs has increased more than fivefold from 1993 to 2002 in children and teens. These findings add to earlier studies that showed a sharp rise in the last decade of psychiatric drug prescriptions for children. These include stimulants such as Ritalin and antidepressants.

These findings were published in Archives of General psychiatry, and it is an important debate. Antidepressants have been linked to an increase in suicidal thinking and behavior, and Ritalin may cause or contribute to heart problems. Antipsychotic drugs cause weight gain and blood fat changes that increase the risk of diabetes. Antipsychotics have not been studied extensively for their use in children.

 “We are using these medications and don’t know how they work, if they work, or at what cost.” Said Dr. John March, a professor of child and adolescent psychiatry at Duke University.” “It amounts to a huge experiment with the lives of American Kids, and what it tells us that we’ve got to do something other than what we’re doing now” to access the drugs’overall impact.

With the limited amount of knowledge on how children systems handle these drugs, Dr. Olfsonsaid said “to me the most striking thing was nearly one in five psychiatric visits for young people included a prescription for antipsychotics.”

Are We Producing More Psychotic Offspring?

These drugs are being used for aggression, mood swings, and other behavior problems. Doctors’ are relying on these drugs as an answer to childhood behavior problems. There may be more disrupted children due to environmental issues. However, there are a few questions about the liberal use of these drugs. Boys are more often than girls to be written a prescription for antipsychotics. This may be a shortcut and band aid for behavior problems.

The newer antisychotics are being heavily promoted by the pharmaceutical companies. “The rapid rise of atypical antipsychotic drugs to blockbuster status is troubling. “ said Stefan Kruszewski, former clinical professor of psychiatry at Penn State medical School.  He said  “The drugs were adopted almost as quickly as they came out.”  Atypical antipsychotic drugs were the only other class of drugs besides HIV medicines to be covered under a special pharmaceutical benefits program that facilitated the rapid and incautious rise in the use of new drugs 

The FDA is still examining whether older antipsychotic agents are also associated with higher mortality. Drug companies pay doctors for lectures and other services. Psychiatrist earn more money from drug companies than any specialty doctors. It has been shown that psychiatrists  have prescribed the new class of powerful antipsychotics to children. It is know that these drugs are the most risky for and not approved for children in some cases. The New York Times June 2007 reported this and the fact that the drug companies on average spend twice as much to market drugs as they do researching them.

Antipsychotic drugs are probably the most brain altering. About 90% of the antipsychotics used are: cozapine, risperidone, olazapine, and quetiapine. These are the most commonly prescribed for children, they are not approved for use in this age group. There was a study reported in the Journal of the American Medical Association that showed that youngsters gained from 9.7 to 18.7 pounds after almost 11 weeks of treatment, depending on the type of medication.

“We were able to show all of these agents can cause quite a bit of body weight changes and body composition changes that are not beneficial to health,” said Chistoph Correll, the study’s lead author, in a telephone interview on Oct. 23.

“What we need to figure out is what are the long-term consequences in the lives of children,” Correll, who is a medical director at Zucker Hillside Hospital in New York City’s Queens borough and an associate professor of psychiatry at Yeshiva University’s Albert Einstein College of Medicine in the Bronx.

Our Children’s Future

Antipschotic drugs for children cause Weight gain, obesity and increases in cholesterol in this population. These conditions are linked to their adult risk of cardiovascular problems and cancer. The trade off in profits for both the psychiatrist and pharmaceutical company is the future health of our nation’s children.