Schizophrenics struggle with such symptoms as hallucinations, delusions, social withdrawal, and other mental impairments that interfere with a normal lifestyle. Now a new federally-funded study has provided a head-to-head comparison of drugs that are most effective for treating schizophrenia. Another analysis of results for 300 patients provided more insight into the best medications for schizophrenia.
The anti-obesity drug rimonabant hasn’t even been approved for sale yet in the European Union, yet counterfeit versions of the drug are already being sold illegally over the internet, using the drug’s proposed brand name Accomplia. The EU Commission has warned bluntly: “Patients who buy unlicensed and counterfeit or illicit copies of rimonabant may be putting their health at risk”.
In the largest ‘real world’ trial ever conducted, a $35 million US government study has concluded that antidepressants cure (or fail to cure) the symptoms of major depression in half of all sufferers, even when individuals are receiving the best possible care. The drugs used in the study, including Celexa, Wellbutrin, Zoloft and Effexor, work in very different ways yet had roughly equal effectiveness when it came to treating depression.
Breaking with the FDA’s Drug Safety and Risk Management advisory committee, which voted last month to require ‘black box’ labelling on ADHD drugs such as Ritalin, the organisation’s pediatric advisory committee has recommended that ADHD drugs should not have to carry the government’s strongest warning about potential cardiovascular and psychiatric risks.
Timothy Wilens, an associate professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School, says most doctors who prescribe ADHD drugs are already aware that they can trigger psychosis, a rare side effect. Now an advisory panel will discuss whether the Food and Drug Administration should ask makers of attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder drugs to add labelling information about the possible risk of psychosis or mania, especially in children.
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