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Antipsychotic Drug Use Rising for Kids on Medicaid, Study Finds

Posted 23 Mar 2013 by Drugs.com

FRIDAY, March 22 – Use of antipsychotic drugs among Medicaid-insured children increased sharply from 1997 to 2006, according to a new study. These drugs were prescribed for children covered by Medicaid five times more often than for children with private insurance. Researchers said this disparity should be examined more closely, particularly because these drugs were often prescribed for a so-called off-label use, which is when a drug is used in a different way than has been approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. "Many [of the children] were diagnosed with behavioral rather than psychotic conditions for which [these drugs] have FDA-approved labeling," study author Julie Zito, a professor in the University of Maryland School of Pharmacy, said in a university news release. "These are often children with serious socioeconomic and family life problems," she noted. "We need more ... Read more

Antipsychotic Meds Not That Helpful for Depression: Study

Posted 13 Mar 2013 by Drugs.com

TUESDAY, March 12 – For people who don't fully respond to antidepressants, adding commonly prescribed antipsychotic drugs appears to be only slightly effective and is linked to unwelcome side effects, a new study finds. Drugs added to antidepressants (like Prozac, Paxil and Celexa) include the antipsychotic medications aripiprazole (Abilify), quetiapine (Seroquel), risperidone (Risperdal) and olanzapine/fluoxetine (Symbyax). Antipsychotic drugs are traditionally used to treat conditions such as schizophrenia, bipolar disorder and obsessive-compulsive disorder – not depression. "The evidence supporting the use of antipsychotics in depression is marginal," said lead researcher Glen Spielmans, an associate professor in the department of psychology at Metropolitan State University in St. Paul, Minn. Antipsychotic treatment of depression has become increasingly widespread but the ... Read more

Psychiatric Drugs More Often Prescribed in the South

Posted 1 Feb 2013 by Drugs.com

FRIDAY, Feb. 1 – Use of psychiatric medications is most prevalent in the southern United States and least prevalent in the West, according to a new U.S. study. Although people living in the West are the least likely to use antipsychotics, antidepressants and stimulants, the Yale researchers found that the drugs' use is 40 percent higher in a large section of the South than in other parts of the country. The study authors attributed this discrepancy to variations in local access to health care and marketing efforts within the pharmaceutical industry. "The geographic patterns we identify are striking and map onto the patterns found for a host of other medical conditions and treatments, from cognitive decline to bypass surgery," Marissa King, assistant professor of organizational behavior at the Yale School of Management, said in a school news release. "Our work suggests that access to ... Read more

Long-Term Use of Some Antipsychotics Not Warranted in Older Adults: Study

Posted 28 Nov 2012 by Drugs.com

WEDNESDAY, Nov. 28 – The safety and effectiveness of four drugs commonly used to treat older adults with schizophrenia, dementia, bipolar disorder and other mental health conditions are being called into question by a new study. The drugs – aripiprazole (Abilify), olanzapine (Zyprexa), quetiapine (Seroquel) and risperidone (Risperdal) – are among medications called atypical antipsychotics and are approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to treat schizophrenia and bipolar disorders. But physicians often pen off-label prescriptions for people with dementia, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and other mood disorders to help alleviate symptoms of psychosis as well as anxiety, agitation and aggression. The medications have been in use since the early 1990s. The new study, published in the Nov. 27 issue of the Journal of Clinical Psychiatry, involved 332 patients older than 40 ... Read more

Schizophrenia Patients Who Take Antipsychotics Live Longer, Study Says

Posted 14 Nov 2012 by Drugs.com

WEDNESDAY, Nov. 14 – People with schizophrenia are likely to live longer if they take their antipsychotic drugs on schedule, avoid extremely high doses and have regular visits with a mental-health professional, according to a new study. It's long been known that adhering to a drug regimen reduces the number of the delusions and hallucinations experienced by schizophrenia patients, but there have been concerns that known physical side effects of the medications – such as diabetes and heart disease – might increase the risk of death. In this study, researchers analyzed data collected from 1994 to 2004 on more than 2,100 adult schizophrenia patients in Maryland. The most common cause of death was cardiovascular disease, which was responsible for 28 percent of patient deaths. Unintended harm, in which researchers included suicide, caused 8 percent of patient deaths during the study ... Read more

Some With Alzheimer's Better Off Staying on Antipsychotics: Study

Posted 18 Oct 2012 by Drugs.com

THURSDAY, Oct. 18 – People with Alzheimer's disease who take the antipsychotic drug risperidone (Risperdal) to help curb their agitation and aggression may see a return of these troublesome symptoms if they stop taking the medication, a new study suggests. Not every person with Alzheimer's will become agitated and/or aggressive, but among those who do, these symptoms make it difficult for caregivers to manage them at home and often lead to nursing home admission and an increased risk of dying from the disease. As it stands, these antipsychotic drugs are only supposed to be taken for three to six months due to concerns about side effects including weight gain, tremors and movement difficulty. In recent years, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration also placed a black-box warning on this class of medications warning that people with dementia who take antipsychotics have a higher risk of ... Read more

More U.S. Kids Prescribed Off-Label Antipsychotics: Study

Posted 18 Sep 2012 by Drugs.com

TUESDAY, Sept. 18 – Over the past decade, off-label use of antipsychotic drugs has increased among children enrolled in Medicaid, according to a new study representing 35 percent of children in the United States. Off-label drug use is a term used to describe when drugs are prescribed using a dosage, type of dosage or for a purpose that hasn't yet been approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. In the study, researchers from the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia found a 62 percent jump in the number of publicly insured children between the ages of 3 and 18 taking antipsychotics. In 2007 alone, 65 percent of the 354,000 children on these drugs were taking them for uses that have not been approved by the FDA, the investigators pointed out. "We knew that the number of children prescribed antipsychotics had grown steadily over the past two decades, particularly among children with ... Read more

Older Antipsychotics May Work as Well as Newer Ones: Review

Posted 14 Aug 2012 by Drugs.com

TUESDAY, Aug. 14 – Newer, more expensive schizophrenia medications are not noticeably better than their older, cheaper counterparts, a new review suggests. Currently, 75 percent of U.S. adults who are prescribed antipsychotic medications take these second-generation drugs, which were developed largely due to concerns about side effects with their predecessors, experts noted. First-generation antipsychotics are also called typical antipsychotics. This class of drugs includes chlorpromazine (Thorazine), haloperidol (Haldol), perphenazine (Etrafon, Trilafon) and fluphenazine (Prolixin). Second-generation drugs, known as atypical, antipsychotics include risperidone (Risperdal), aripiprazole (Abilify), olanzapine (Zyprexa), quetiapine Fumarate (Seroquel) and ziprasidone (Geodon). There is a major cost difference between the two classes of drugs: For example, a month's supply of olanzapine ... Read more

More Kids Taking Antipsychotics for ADHD: Study

Posted 7 Aug 2012 by Drugs.com

TUESDAY, Aug. 7 – Use of powerful antipsychotic medications such as Abilify and Risperdal to control youngsters with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and other behavior problems has skyrocketed in recent years, a new study finds. Antipsychotics are approved to treat bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, other serious mental problems and irritability related to autism. But they don't have U.S. Food and Drug Administration approval for ADHD or other childhood behavior problems, and their use for this purpose is considered "off label." "Only a small proportion of antipsychotic treatment of children (6 percent) and adolescents (13 percent) is for FDA-approved clinical indications," said lead researcher Dr. Mark Olfson, a professor of clinical psychiatry at Columbia University Medical Center in New York City. "These national trends focus attention on the substantial and growing ... Read more

Genes Influence Whether Psych Drugs Lead to Weight Gain

Posted 20 Jul 2012 by Drugs.com

FRIDAY, July 20 – Researchers have discovered two genetic variants associated with substantial, rapid weight gain in people taking antipsychotic medications. The researchers said the findings could eventually be used by doctors to identify which patients have the variations so they can be treated without the risk of weight gain, which can lead to obesity and health problems including diabetes and heart disease. "Weight gain occurs in up to 40 percent of patients taking medications called second-generation or atypical antipsychotics, which are used because they're effective in controlling the major symptoms of schizophrenia," Dr. James Kennedy, of the Center for Addiction and Mental Health, in Toronto, said in a center news release. Kennedy, senior author of a study published online recently in the journal Archives of General Psychiatry, pinpointed a variation near the melanocortin-4 ... Read more

Antipsychotic Drugs Linked to Higher Odds for Diabetes in Pregnancy

Posted 2 Jul 2012 by Drugs.com

MONDAY, July 2 – New research suggests pregnant mothers who take certain antipsychotic drugs may face a higher risk of gestational diabetes, which can appear during pregnancy. Gestational diabetes involves high blood sugar that starts or is first diagnosed during pregnancy. According to the U.S. National Institutes of Health, gestational diabetes can pose hazards for both mother and baby. The new study appears in the July issue of the journal Archives of General Psychiatry. The drugs on which the study focused are used to treat severe mental illnesses such as schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. Until now, "the evidence concerning use of antipsychotics during pregnancy [was] generally lacking or weak," the authors of the new study, led by Dr. Robert Boden of Karolinska Institutet and Uppsala University, both in Sweden, noted in a journal news release. The researchers studied medical ... Read more

U.S. Program Targets Antipsychotic Drug Use in Nursing Homes

Posted 30 May 2012 by Drugs.com

WEDNESDAY, May 30 – U.S. health officials said Wednesday that they're hoping to reduce the use of antipsychotic drugs among nursing home residents by 15 percent before year's end. To achieve that goal, the U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) said it's launching the Partnership to Improve Dementia Care. The partnership involves federal and state officials, nursing homes and other providers, advocacy groups and caregivers. According to CMS, overuse of antipsychotic drugs in nursing home patients suffering from dementia is a significant problem. CMS statistics indicate that in 2010, more than 17 percent of nursing home patients had daily doses exceeding recommended levels. "We seek to ensure that nursing homes provide the best resident-centered care by creating a familiar and comfortable home environment where residents' autonomy and choices in their personal lifestyle ... Read more

Many Primary Care Docs Don't Know Long-Term Effects of Chemo: Survey

Posted 16 May 2012 by Drugs.com

WEDNESDAY, May 16 – Many primary care doctors don't know the long-term side effects of the chemotherapy treatments that cancer survivors under their care may have been given, a new survey found. On the other hand, most oncologists – though not all – are familiar with the side effects of four common treatments used to treat breast and colon cancer, according to the results of the survey being presented at the upcoming annual meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) in Chicago. "While oncologists commonly identify the main late effects of four common cancer drugs, primary care providers did not," study author Dr. Larissa Nekhlyudov said during a Wednesday news conference. "This is not surprising in that primary care providers have different training and exposure to chemotherapy drugs," she noted. "However, these findings emphasize that in the transition of patients ... Read more

Antipsychotics Do Help Many With Schizophrenia, Study Finds

Posted 3 May 2012 by Drugs.com

THURSDAY, May 3 – A new study finds that antipsychotic drugs can help many people with schizophrenia, cutting patients' risk of relapse by 60 percent. The study, involving data stretching back 50 years, also found that schizophrenia patients who take antipsychotics are much less likely to be hospitalized and may behave less aggressively and have a better quality of life than patients who don't take the drugs. One expert said the finding mirrors what he and other professionals have experienced. The data "is consistent with what we see in clinical practice – that we are very well able to keep our patients functioning better and out of the hospital when they consistently take these medications," said Dr. Roberto Estrada, attending psychiatrist at Lenox Hill Hospital in New York City. The findings are published in the May 3 online edition of The Lancet. In the study, German researchers ... Read more

Prenatal Antipsychotic Drugs Linked to Motor Delays: Study

Posted 3 Apr 2012 by Drugs.com

TUESDAY, April 3 – Infants born to mothers who take antipsychotic medications during pregnancy have significantly lower than normal scores on a standard test of movement, posture and reflexes, a new study has found. Antipsychotic drugs often are used in the treatment of schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. Researchers from Emory University in Atlanta compared the neuromotor skills of more than 300 infants at age 6 months. Some of the babies' mothers took either antipsychotic drugs or antidepressants during pregnancy, and some took no psychiatric medications. Infants born to mothers who took antipsychotics had much lower scores on the neuromotor test than those born to mothers who took antidepressants or no psychiatric medications. Only 19 percent of infants exposed to antipsychotic medications had normal test results. "Future investigations are warranted to disentangle the relative ... Read more

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