The antidepressant Paxil may raise the risk of suicidal behavior in young adults, GlaxoSmithKline and the Food and Drug Administration warned Friday in a letter to doctors. (excite.com)

May 02, 2006

A new study has shown that 22% of children of mothers who have mental health problems a year after giving have behavioral problems by the age of 3.

A year after delivery, half the mothers had a condition in at least one of the three categories -- mental health, substance abuse, domestic violence -- and 22 percent of the children had at least one type of behavior problem such as aggression, anxiety-depression, or inattention/hyperactivity. The more problems reported by a mother, the more likely her child was to develop behavior problems by age 3. (Forbes.com)

Posted by news editor | Filed under: Children and Mental Health

A new study shows that many different treatments for alcoholism may work as long as the alcoholic is motivated to quit drinking.

The study "really does open up the possibility of people having more choice and it could significantly expand access," said Dr. Mark Willenbring, director of treatment and recovery research at the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, which funded the research. The findings appear in Wednesday's Journal of the American Medical Association. (FoxNews.com)

Posted by news editor | Filed under: Alcoholism

April 21, 2006

Every psychiatric expert involved in writing the standard diagnostic criteria for disorders such as depression and schizophrenia has had financial ties to drug companies that sell medications for those illnesses, a new analysis has found. (Washington Post)

Posted by news editor | Filed under: Mental Health Diagnosis

April 07, 2006

The FDA has approved the first skin patch to treat attention deficit hyperactivity disorder in children. It contains methylphenidate, which is the same stimulant that is in Ritalin. It is designed to be worn for 9 hours. (USATODAY.com)

Posted by news editor | Filed under: ADD/ADHD

March 29, 2006

Chocoholics can happily eat chocolate for pleasure but for those who are stressed and clinically depressed, the high is short-lived and chocolate may even deepen the downer, a review shows. (abc.net.au)

Posted by news editor | Filed under: Depression

February 09, 2006

Newborns whose mothers took antidepressants such as Prozac, Paxil and Zoloft in the last trimester of pregnancy had six times the risk of suffering oxygen deprivation after birth compared with newborns whose mothers had not taken the drugs, according to a study published yesterday in the New England Journal of Medicine.

And a briefing document prepared by Food and Drug Administration officials reported that adults taking medications such as Adderall and Ritalin to treat attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder might be at higher risk of sudden death and other serious side effects, especially if they have high blood pressure. (Washington Post)

Posted by news editor | Filed under: Antidepressent Side Effects

January 02, 2006

Contrary to what has been feared, the antidepressants known as serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) are initially effective in as many as one-third of depressed patients and don't appear to increase the risk of suicide, two new studies claim. (Forbes.com)

Posted by news editor | Filed under: Antidepressent Side Effects

December 13, 2005

Colin Farrell is being treated for exhaustion and dependency on prescription medication, his publicist said. The medication was prescribed to the Irish actor after a back injury, publicist Danica Smith said in a written statement Monday. (Washington Post)

Posted by news editor | Filed under: Addiction

December 10, 2005

Lisa Anderson's daughter was shot to death by the girl's boyfriend, Zachary Schmidkunz, in 2003. Schmidkunz blamed his actions on his use of Zoloft. Now Anderson has filed a wrongful death suit against Schmidkunz, his parents, and Pfizer, Inc - the makers of Zoloft.

Lisa Anderson's lawsuit alleges Zachary Schmidkunz's parents, Rhonda and Gail Schmidkunz, should have known about his depression and suicidal thoughts and kept him away from a shotgun. It also claims Pfizer Inc., the maker of the antidepressant drug Zoloft, knew of but failed to warn that Zoloft's side effects could lead to uncontrollable rage in young patients. (AP)

Posted by news editor | Filed under: Antidepressent Side Effects

Mental health practitioners say they regularly confront extreme forms of racism, homophobia and other prejudice in the course of therapy, and that some patients are disabled by these beliefs. As doctors increasingly weigh the effects of race and culture on mental illness, some are asking whether pathological bias ought to be an official psychiatric diagnosis. (Washington Post)

Posted by news editor | Filed under: Mental Health Diagnosis

December 08, 2005

Rigoberto Alpizar, the man who was shot by a federal air marshal on an American Airlines flight yesterday after claiming to have a bomb, is said by his wife to have had bipolar disorder.

Several supporters of the air marshal program praised the marshals' actions, but the shooting is likely to raise questions about the expanded presence of guns aboard commercial airplanes in recent years, as well as the marshals' training -- in particular, with people who appear to be mentally unstable. Moments before he was shot, Alpizar's wife said he was bipolar. (Washington Post)

Posted by news editor | Filed under: Bipolar Disorder