A new study in the Journal of the American Medical Association reports that teenagers who take antipsychotic medications are at risk of becoming overweight or obese, and for developing metabolic syndrome.

Metabolic syndrome includes symptoms such as overweight, too much abdominal fat, and abnormal cholesterol and high blood pressure. Some of the teenagers who took these medications developed symptoms of cardiovascular disease.

• Dr. Christoph Correll of Zucker Hillside Hospital in New York and his colleagues studied 272 patients ages 4 to 19 years old who were taking drugs such as Abilify, Zyprexa, Seroquel, and Risperdal.
• Between 10 and 36 percent of the studied teens became overweight or obese.
  
• Dr. Correll recommended that "the cardiometabolic risk of these drugs in children should be balanced through careful assessment of the indication for their use, consideration of lower risk alternative, and proactive adverse effect monitoring and management."

"Cardiometabolic adverse effects, such as age-inappropriate weight gain, obesity, hypertension, and lipid and glucose abnormalities are particularly problematic during development," said Dr. Correll, "because they predict adult obesity, the metabolic syndrome, cardiovascular morbidity, and malignancy."

Labels: antipsychotic, medications, obesity

If teenagers are admitted to a hospital psychiatric ward because of a suicide attempt or suicidal ideation, they are much less likely to be readmitted if his doctor prescribes antidepressant drugs.

• Dr. Cynthia Fonanella of Ohio State University studied 318 teenagers admitted to three Maryland hospitals because of suicide problems.
  
• One in four were prescribed three or more medications, and these teenagers were 2.6 times more likely to be readmitted to the hospital within 30 days.
  
• However, this group also had the most severe problems. The group prescribed antidepressants improved their chances of not being readmitted by 85 percent.

The use of antidepressant drugs in adolescence has been under fire ever since the Federal Food and Drug Administration put warning labels on these drugs. The labels said that using antidepressants could actually increase the possibility of a teenager committing suicide.

There has been an increase in teenage suicides since the warning labels went into place.

The study appeared in the journal Annals of Pharmacotherapy.

Labels: antidepressants, medications, suicide

Three drug companies have asked the Federal Drug Administration's review board to approve the use of antipsychotic drugs for children as young as 10 years old who have bipolar disorder or schizophrenia.

A June 5 Reuters article by Lisa Richwine and Susan Heavey provided the following details about the request:

The Food and Drug Administration is considering whether to approve AstraZeneca's Seroquel, Pfizer's Geodon and Eli Lilly and Co's Zyprexa for children and teens with schizophrenia or bipolar disorder. All three are blockbuster medicines already sold for adults.

An FDA panel meets next week to make recommendations on the companies' bids to promote the drugs for children and teens.

Doctors can already prescribe them for children, but FDA approval would allow companies to promote the drugs, with combined sales of over $10 billion a year, more widely.

The request was followed by criticisms from organizations who are concerned about the effects of antipsychotic drugs on children.

"The studies done so far on these drugs provide almost no information about the long-term effects of them on children," said Diana Zuckerman of the National Research Center for Women and Families.

Labels: antipsychotic, bipolar, children, fda, medications, schizophrenia

The gold standard for treatment of depression is psychotherapy along with drugs.

However, a new study from Thomson Reuters research service finds that half of the American children and teenagers who are taking antidepressants are not in psychotherapy.

The Thomson group analyzed insurance claims that were filed between 2002 and 2006 from a database of 6.8 million people under age 18. They found that of those who made at least one insurance claim for an antidepressant prescription, only 40 percent had also made claims for one or more therapy sessions. The researchers acknowledged that some parents may be paying for therapy out-of-pocket, and some insurance policies do not cover psychotherapy.

"Therapy with antidepressants is the standard of care," said Dr. Sheila Marcus, child and adolescent psychiatry chief at the University of Michigan Medical School. "But is this what's going on in the real world? No."

The Thomson study comes during a congressional investigation into relationships between influential academicians and drug companies. The inquiry has found that some leading researchers at prestigious universities, including Harvard and Stanford, have conflicts of interest - they are performing studies that determine whether drugs are effective, while at the same time receiving large sums of money from drug companies.

For example, the congressional committee recently reviewed the case of Dr. Charles Nemeroff, who failed to report $1.2 million in income to his employer, Emory University, between 2000 and 2007. Dr. Nemeroff received more than $170,000 from GlaxoSmithKline in 2004, even though he agreed to take no more than $10,000 a year from that company in one year.

"After questioning twenty doctors and research institutions, it looks like problems with transparency are everywhere," Sen. Charles Grassley (R-Iowa) said. "The current system for tracking financial relationships is not working."

Labels: antidepressants, medications, therapy

Certain new drugs for childhood mental disorders do not perform as well as old ones and can cause serious weight gains, according to a study from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

The new drugs are Risperdal, Zyperdal, Seroquel, Geodon and Abilify. Although the U.S. Federal Drug Administration has not specifically approved them for pediatric use, doctors are prescribing them frequently for hyperactivity, depression, autism, bipolar disorder, aggression, and schizophrenia.

The old drug, Molindone, performed better and did not cause as many serious side effects as the new ones, which cost four times more.

The study, which involved 116 children ages 8 to 19 years old, appears in the American Journal of Psychiatry.

Labels: medications, mental_health, treatment_programs

The National Institute of Drug Abuse estimates that teenagers and young adults are the largest groups currently using prescription medication for recreational purposes. In NIDA's most recent survey on teens and drugs, 36 percent of high school seniors admitted to having used drugs at least once in the previous 12 months.

"Many adults.... may not realize that it could be poor judgment to leave those medications accessible around the home. For example, a teen's mother just returned home after having surgery. That teen knows her mother is taking a pain reliever called OxyContin. When no one is looking, the teen gets into the bottle and gets a couple of pills. No one is the wiser."

Pain relievers, stimulants, sedatives and tranquilizers are the most commonly misused and abused prescription drugs. Parents need to keep prescription medications locked up, and should observe their teens for common indicators of a drug or alcohol problem. Source: The Purell Register


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Labels: addictions, medications, prescription_drug_abuse