News tagged with 'Psychiatric Drugs'

When seven-year-old Gabriel Myers hanged himself in a foster care home, Florida immediately conducted an audit on how many kids, like Gabriel, were on mind-altering drugs.  Up to three times the general population are put on psychiatric drugs with the numbers increasing to one-in-three among teens in group homes.  

Nebraska's latest Safe Haven law abandonment is a teenager whose mother had to travel 12 hours from Michigan to leave him at a licensed state hosptial. The cases highlight the few solutions for frustrated parents who are out of options. What should be done?

There are three family tragedies that help transcend party lines and led to the signing of the mental health parity bill. It requires insurance to cover mental health issues like other physical ailments.  Previously sufferers faced limited coverage and higher co-pays.  

    Zyprexa is an antipsychotic drug effectively given to treat millions of adults with schizophrenia or bipolar disorder.  It may now receive FDA approval for use in kids despite severe side effects including diabetes and weight gain. 

Lilly Settles Zyprexa Claims Eli Lilly has agreed to pay up to half a billion dollars in order to settle around 18,000 claims directed against the international pharmaceutical concern. These injured parties claimed they had developed diabetes or suffered a stroke while taking Lilly’s number one atypical

Zyprexa-Related Strokes The drug manufacturer Eli Lilly & Co. issued a warning in 2004 that its atypical antipsychotic drug Zyprexa may increase the risk of stroke and death in elderly patients when Zyprexa is used to treat aggression from dementia caused by Alzheimer’s disease. Lilly issued the

Lilly Settles Zyprexa Claims Updated June 2007- Eli Lilly established this month a class settlement fund worth nearly $700 million for the nearly 8,000 plaintiffs who would agree to settle their claims against the drugmaker for their use of the prescription drug Zyprexa. Zyprexa, also known as olanzapine

The United Kingdom Department of Health's Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency advised physicians Tuesday to immediately halt prescribing the antidepressant Seroxat to patients under 18 due to the medication's link to suicidal behavior in children. According to the British government, a clinical trial i

Consumer interest group Public Citizen called on the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Thursday to immediately ban the antidepressant medication Serzone, citing its link to life-threatening liver toxicity that has led to at least 11 deaths in the United States. In January, Serzone maker Bristol-Myers Squibb st

According to a new study published in the January 13th issue of the medical journal Archives of Internal Medicine, patients taking serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) in combination with nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) are 12 times more likely to suffer from upper gastrointestinal bleeding than those wh

Britain's Committee on Safety of Medicines has ordered a review panel to evaluate the safety of selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) due to claims that the medications cause suicidal feelings. SSRIs, a group of antidepressants that include GlaxoSmithKline's Seroxat, sold in the United States as Paxil, have

Serzone withdrawal: Pharmaceutical maker Bristol-Myers Squibb announced this week that it will stop selling the antidepressant medication Dutonin in Europe because of its link to 25 reports of liver failure and 18 deaths. Sold in the United States under the brand name Serzone, Dutonin has been linked to severe liver p

The Food and Drug Administration has approved new uses for the antidepressant Prozac (fluoxetine) to treat children and adolescents seven to 17 years of age for depression (major depressive disorder) and obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD). This is the first approval of one of the newer types of antidepressants (select

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved a new use for the schizophrenia drug, Clozaril: to reduce the risk of recurrent suicidal behavior in patients with schizophrenia or schizoaffective disorder. Clozaril was approved in 1989 for treatment of schizophrenia in patients who do not respond to other available

According to a new study on the safety of antipsychotic medications, the use of dopamine antagonists is associated with an increased risk of breast cancer. Published in this month's issue of Archives of General Psychiatry, the study, conducted by researchers from Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston, analyzed more t