Why 'big pharma' stopped searching for the next Prozac
Pharma giants have cut research on psychiatric medicine by 70% in 10 years, so where will the next ‘wonder drug’ come from?When the last major wave of “blockbuster” psychiatric drugs such as Prozac arrived on the market in the late 1980s and 90s, they ushered in a new era in the treatment of depression. With fewer serious side effects than their predecessors and aggressively marketed as a new class of “wonder drug”, they were prescribed very quickly to tens of millions of people living with depression and other debilitating conditions worldwide while pharmaceutical companies made a fortune. Related: Mental illn...
Source: Guardian Unlimited Science - January 27, 2016 Category: Science Authors: Mary O'Hara and Pamela Duncan Tags: Psychiatry Depression Medical research Society Pharmaceuticals industry Business Drugs Source Type: news
Study to use Prozac to treat Down syndrome in utero
Stephen FellerDALLAS, Jan. 13 (UPI) -- Researchers are set to start recruiting pregnant women for a new multi-year study to test the effects of Prozac on fetuses diagnosed with Down syndrome. (Source: Health News - UPI.com)
Source: Health News - UPI.com - January 13, 2016 Category: Consumer Health News Source Type: news
My Firsthand Experience with Electroconvulsive Therapy
Lots of people have asked me why I chose to take my college courses online. I used to tell them the same thing every time, “I was having some medical issues and couldn’t deal with on-campus classes back then.” What I didn’t tell them, though, was that those “medical issues” were months of crippling depression for which I was being treated with tri-weekly sessions of electroconvulsive therapy (ECT). Because of the stigma, I used to avoid talking about my experience with ECT out of fear of being judged. Now, because of the stigma, I use my experience to educate those who still think ECT is a mirror image of what ...
Source: Psych Central - January 9, 2016 Category: Psychiatry Authors: Jacqueline Ledoux Tags: Antidepressants Caregivers Children and Teens Depression Disorders ECT General Medications Memory and Perception Personal Stories Suicide Bipolar Disorder college Electroconvulsive Therapy Mental Illness Stigma Suicide Atte Source Type: news
Rise in potentially unsafe antipsychotic drugs being prescribed to BABIES
Doctors wrote 20,000 prescriptions of the drugs for children under the age of two in 2014 - a 50 per cent rise on the 13,000 prescriptions in 2013. In the same time Prozac prescriptions soared by 23 per cent for under twos. (Source: the Mail online | Health)
Source: the Mail online | Health - December 16, 2015 Category: Consumer Health News Source Type: news
Take Antidepressants? You May Be Staving Off Dementia
When you take an SSRI or mood stabilizer, you encounter plenty of people who say they, too, think they could benefit from something like that but they never would because we don't yet know what the end results could be. What if, in old age, they ended up growing a third arm because of their decades of Prozac? (Okay, no one's ever said that to me, but there are so many ignorant people running around telling those who take such medications they are not sober that I wouldn't put it past them. Ahem. Different topic.) Point being: As someone who's taken various medications of this ilk over the years, I've wrestled with the noti...
Source: Healthy Living - The Huffington Post - December 15, 2015 Category: Consumer Health News Source Type: news
Antidepressants during pregnancy doubles the risk of autism
Major research suggests that taking antidepressants during the second or third trimester of pregnancy doubles the risk that children will develop autism (Source: Telegraph Health)
Source: Telegraph Health - December 14, 2015 Category: Consumer Health News Tags: seroxat anti-depressents depressants anti-depressants prozac SSRIs Source Type: news
Talking therapy 'as effective as antidepressants' study finds
ConclusionPrevious research has shown that both second generation antidepressants and CBT can be helpful for people with depression. This study found that they seem to work about as well as each other.The study has many strengths, including the fact it is a systematic review, and includes information from RCTs involving more than 1,500 people. However, the studies don't give us much information about adverse effects of treatments, or who responds best to which type of treatment. This is important, because what works for one person may not work as well for another. Some doctors think people with severe depression need to be...
Source: NHS News Feed - December 10, 2015 Category: Consumer Health News Tags: Mental health Medical practice Source Type: news
Holistic Solutions for Anxiety & Depression in Therapy
“It is more important to know what sort of person has a disease than to know what sort of disease a person has.” — Hippocrates (460-377 B.C.E.)
“The art of healing comes from nature and not from the physician. Therefore, the physician must start from nature with an open mind.” — Paracelsus (1493 – 1541)
Treatment options that have long been considered outside the mainstream are becoming commonplace: a survey shows that nearly two in five adults in the United States have tried complementary or alternative therapy in the last year. As clinicians, it is our job to work with the individual t...
Source: Psych Central - December 8, 2015 Category: Psychiatry Authors: Megan Riddle Tags: Anxiety Book Reviews Depression General Happiness Herbs & Supplements Medications Professional Self-Help Stress Treatment anxiety treatment combining natural remedies with conventional care Depression Treatment holistic solutio Source Type: news
Why Scientists Need to Embrace Crowdfunding
From the junior physician attempting to start a pilot study to the seasoned researcher in the final years of an academic grant, the harsh reality of medical research funding constantly looms. Young researchers have faced the worst funding in half a century. The competition for public research grants has intensified to the point where less than 15% of proposals obtain funding. The $1.55 billion budget cut to the National Institute of Health (NIH) in 2013 alone resulted in an estimated 640 fewer research studies receiving funding. Researchers are now encouraged to prepare for grant applications years in advance and to expect...
Source: Science - The Huffington Post - November 19, 2015 Category: Science Source Type: news
Bright light therapy helps adults with major depressive disorder
Stephen FellerVANCOUVER, British Columbia, Nov. 19 (UPI) -- Researchers at the University of British Columbia found pairing fluoxetine, sold as Prozac, with light therapy can help adults with depression. (Source: Health News - UPI.com)
Source: Health News - UPI.com - November 19, 2015 Category: Consumer Health News Source Type: news
Well: Ask Well: What Is the Link Between Depression and Heart Disease?
Many of the effects of and the behaviors associated with depression are risk factors for heart disease, and treating depressed heart patients with drugs like Prozac may help. (Source: NYT Health)
Source: NYT Health - November 5, 2015 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: NICHOLAS BAKALAR Tags: Ask Well Heart Depression (Mental) Mind Featured Source Type: news
Well: Ask Well: What Is the Link Between Depression and Heart Disease?
Many of the effects of and the behaviors associated with depression are risk factors for heart disease, and treating depressed heart patients with drugs like Prozac may help. (Source: NYT)
Source: NYT - November 5, 2015 Category: Nutrition Authors: NICHOLAS BAKALAR Tags: Ask Well Heart Depression (Mental) Mind Featured Source Type: news
Pain affects clinical patterns and treatment outcomes for patients with major depressive disorder taking fluoxetine - Lin HS, Wang FC, Lin CH.
The aim of the study was to determine whether baseline pain was associated with discernible clinical features and treatment outcomes for patients with major depressive disorder (MDD) receiving 6-week fluoxetine treatment. A total of 131 inpatients with acu... (Source: SafetyLit: All (Unduplicated))
Source: SafetyLit: All (Unduplicated) - October 23, 2015 Category: Global & Universal Tags: Ergonomics, Human Factors, Anthropometrics, Physiology Source Type: news
