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Don't Go Cold Turkey
Reducing your reliance on antidepressants requires patience and a doctor's involvement.
When the weight of her husband's cancer and the stress of her corporate job became too heavy to bear, Karen Huber did as many of her friends had done and started taking an antidepressant.
What she didn't realize was how difficult it would be to stop.
After a year of taking 10 milligrams of Lexapro daily, on top of 50 mg of Trazodone that she had been taking for a decade to help her sleep, Huber tried to quit cold turkey. The withdrawal symptoms were insufferable: anger and frustration so overwhelming she "could have chewed through a brick."
When Huber tried quitting again in March, she attacked it with a three-pronged strategy: She split her pills in half every couple of weeks, took nutritional supplements to mitigate her irritability, and ultimately checked into a detox center for three weeks. It took more than two months, but it worked.
"If I had known how hard antidepressants are to get off of, I would have tried to avoid them," said Huber, 54, of Little Rock, Ark.
Antidepressant usage doubled between 1996 and 2005, to 10 percent of the U.S. population, according to a study published last year in the Archives of General Psychiatry. That boom means masses of patients who face the challenges of stopping.
Though antidepressants are the most commonly prescribed medications in the U.S., there are no official published guidelines for when and how to come off them, said Dr. Michael Banov, a psychiatrist and author of the new book "Taking Antidepressants" (Sunrise River Press, $16.95).
Generally, patients should stay on antidepressants for at least nine to 12 months to reduce the likelihood of a depression relapse, Banov said. But beyond that, it's up to patients to work with their doctors on whether and how to wean themselves off the drugs. Sometimes the process is unpleasant.
About 20 percent of people who try to quit suffer what the drug companies coined "antidepressant discontinuation syndrome," which can cause symptoms including depression, anxiety, irritability, dizziness, nausea, light-headedness and electric shocks known as "brain zaps."
Symptoms can be more severe the longer you have taken antidepressants, the higher the dosage and the more sensitive your body happens to be, Banov said. They also depend on the drug. Paxil and Effexor are associated with some of the worst withdrawal symptoms because they clear out of your system quickly, leaving little time for your body to adjust to the sudden drop in the neurotransmitter serotonin. Prozac, meanwhile, takes a long time to leave your body, diffusing the withdrawal effects.
Though drug companies warn of potential withdrawal symptoms in their literature, physicians don't always alert their patients when they prescribe the meds, and many people start taking antidepressants not knowing it's so hard to stop.
"It made me angry. I felt like I hadn't been told," said Katherine Perry, 40, an English professor in Cumming, Ga., who became uncomfortably irritable and anxious when she tried to wean herself off Paxil and Wellbutrin on separate occasions.
A cruel catch to discontinuing antidepressants is that it can be hard to tell if the symptoms are from withdrawal or a return of depression, so you have to wait it out, Banov said. If it's withdrawal, the symptoms should begin to clear up in one to two weeks, though sometimes it takes six to eight. If it's depression, they'll get worse.
The key to managing withdrawal is to taper the dosage gradually. But some people need more help, especially when they're trying to come off several prescription drugs.
Wendy Honeycutt was put on antidepressants after the suicides of her mother and brother. It proved a "doorway to disaster," she said, as the side effects later prompted her to take sleeping pills and anti-anxiety medication. At the peak, she was taking seven prescription drugs.
When she decided to clear her body because she felt like "a toxic mess," the Texas woman went into a debilitating withdrawal that left her sleepless, anxious, shaking, sweating and emotionally numb, with electrical zaps feeling like "red-hot pokers in my head." She was incapacitated for two months and sick for three years.
It wasn't until Honeycutt found Point of Return, a nonprofit based in Malibu, Calif., that helps people come off their prescription meds, that she began to improve. In addition to offering tapering schedules, information on how drugs interact with each other and emotional support, the organization swears by a schedule of nutritional supplements to temper withdrawal, including omega-3 fatty acids to support brain function and glutathione to enhance the immune system.
Honeycutt, 44, a pastor who now volunteers at Point of Return, said she has been medication-free for three years.
Of course, some people need to be on antidepressants and shouldn't quit. Long-term untreated depression is bad for your brain and body, causing parts of the hippocampus to shrink and hurting the immune system, Banov said. The goal is to be depression-free, not medication-free, he said.
But for Huber, who used the Point of Return program for the six weeks she tapered her dosage, life is better without them — though not necessarily easier. The Lexapro had protected her like a "hard shell," keeping her from being weepy all the time, especially after her husband died last summer.
"Since I've been off them, I cry much easier, I'm much more tender," Huber said. "But that's OK. That's part of the grief process." More...
Article by Alexia Elejalde-Ruiz, Chicago Tribune, August, 29, 2010
The Weird and Dangerous World of Sleeping Pills
We're a nation of insomniacs desperate for a decent night's sleep. But what if sleeping pills are doing more than just knocking us out?
Last winter, Tiger Woods and his harem of honeys titillated the nation with so many sordid stories that the oddest of them all was nearly overlooked: Woods's rumored recreational use of the prescription sleep medication Ambien. You could almost hear the collective "Huh?" as people tried to imagine how a widely prescribed (and seemingly benign) insomnia drug could produce an aphrodisiacal haze ideal for crazy sex romps.
Of course, Woods isn't the only celebrity whose pill-popping has publicized Ambien in ways its designers never intended. In 2006, U.S. Rep. Patrick Kennedy blamed his disorientation on the drug after he smashed his Mustang into a security barrier near the Capitol building. Lindsay Lohan cites Ambien as the trigger for her first stint in rehab--this after she took it, fell asleep on the floor next to a hotel bathtub, and woke only when the water overflowed.
Ambien (generic name zolpidem tartrate) was the first of a revolutionary class of sleeping pills that today includes Sonata (zaleplon), Lunesta (eszopiclone), and Ambien CR (an extended-release formulation). They've been nicknamed "Z drugs"--partly because of their ability to induce z's, and partly because of the ubiquity of z's in their generic names.
To marketers and many sleep researchers, these drugs deserve the hype. Boosters maintain that they're a quantum leap forward in the medical treatment of insomnia--potent, yet with fewer side effects even after people take them for a long time.
But to a growing cadre of critics, the once-bright halo over Z drugs is quickly corroding. On March 6, 2006, New York attorney Susan Chana Lask filed a class-action lawsuit against Ambien's maker, the French pharmaceutical giant Sanofi-aventis. The complaint alleged that more than 1,000 people suffered injury or damage as a direct result of their Ambien use, and included charges that the company failed to "adequately and sufficiently" warn doctors, patients, and the public about the drug's side effects. It also detailed nightmare stories of people sleep-driving, gorging themselves on food, and even waking up in jail with no memory of what had happened. Lask coined a name for these people: Ambien zombies.
The lawsuit was withdrawn a little over a year later after the FDA requested new warnings about the potential for what it called "complex sleep-related behaviors." The agency also called for a warning about another potentially lethal side effect: anaphylaxis, a severe allergic reaction that could swell the tongue and throat, obstructing the user's airway.
So far at least, I have managed to avoid asphyxiation. As for Ambien zombiehood, that's a different story.
I took my first Ambien in 1995 as a remedy for months of nightly insomnia. I'd be lying if I said I didn't love this drug from the get-go.
But now, after 15 years of on-and-off use, I'd be lying if I said I don't hate it, too.
Article from Men's Health Magazine August 2010 Issue by Jim Thornton
Autism: Lack of Evidence for Antidepressants
Antidepressants commonly prescribed to people with autistic spectrum disorders cannot be recommended based on current evidence, a new study by Cochrane Researchers concludes. Despite some evidence of benefits in adults diagnosed with autism, they say there is no evidence for any benefits associated with selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) in children, who may suffer serious adverse effects as a result of taking the drugs.
Autistic spectrum disorders are difficult to treat because of the range of symptoms experienced by patients, including difficulties with social interactions and communication. SSRIs are among the most commonly prescribed medications, although none have been specifically approved by any drug authority for use in autism. In the UK, most antidepressants are not approved for children for any condition. The rationale behind the use of SSRIs in autism is that they act on serotonin, the same chemical in the body that is responsible for some of the psychological processes affected by the condition.
The researchers included a total of seven trials, involving 271 patients, in their study. The trials evaluated fluoxetine, fluvoxamine, fenfluramine and citalopram. Overall, the researchers found no benefit in the five trials in children and some evidence of serious harm, including one child who suffered a prolonged seizure after taking citalopram. The two trials in adults were very small and thus, although there was some evidence for improvement in symptoms, the authors concluded there was too little evidence for the drugs to be recommended. A major problem with analysing the results was that all the trials used different measures for assessing the drugs' effects.
"We can't recommend SSRIs as treatments for children, or adults, with autism at this time. However, decisions about the use of SSRIs for co-occurring obsessive-compulsive disorder, aggression, anxiety, or depression in individuals with autism should be made on a case by case basis," said lead author Katrina Williams of the School of Women's and Children’s Health at the University of New South Wales & Sydney Children's Hospital in Sydney, Australia.
"Not all the SSRIs currently in use have undergone controlled trials for autistic spectrum disorders, but parents are often anxious to try treatments regardless of the lack of evidence. It's important that doctors are open about the lack of evidence, and explain any risks fully, before prescribing these treatments." More...
Article from Physorg.com (Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews 2010, Issue 8. Art. No.: CD004677.)
Thinking Outside the Bio-Psychiatric Paradigm
As a person working within the mental health profession, I once challenged colleagues to examine the work that they do without using the terms 'mental illness', 'treatment', 'diagnosis' or the like. I could see that initially this was a challenging exercise, however the key terms that came forward were:
conflict resolution, mediation, coaching, guiding.
These terms become important when we realize that those who have been labeled as seriously distressed and 'mentally ill' are individuals who have undergone conflict in their lives. These individuals are seeking a voice. Their actions are not random, but rather seek to communicate their experiences. Some individuals who have endured serious trauma begin to speak of their experiences in a metaphorical sense. The role of the therapist should be to help this individual find meaning in this experience, uncover unmet needs, and to listen and be able to understand this experience.
Biological determinism and the theory of distress arising from so-called chemical imbalances is a popular and majority idea in the mental health field today. However, there is no evidence to support such a concept. Such an idea helps to further the profits of the pharmaceutical industry who are able to make lifelong mental patients in need of their products through the promulgation of such chemical imbalance concepts. The President of the American Psychiatric Association recently stated that there is no 'clear cut test" to demonstrate chemical imbalances. Dr. Eliot Valentstein goes further to state, "Elliot Valenstein, Ph.D. says, "[T]here are no tests available for assessing the chemical status of a living person's brain." The late Dr. Loren Mosher who had headed Schizophrenia research for the National Instituts of Mental Health stated, "…there are no external validating criteria for psychiatric diagnoses." More...
Article by Dr. Dan L. Edmunds, ED..D
Why Low Dose Benzodiazepeine-Dependent Insomniacs Can't Escape Their Sleeping PIlls
Psychobiological aspects of low-dose benzodiazepine dependence (LBD) and drug withdrawal were investigated in 76 middle-aged and elderly chronic insomniacs in a sleep laboratory. Comparison with drug-free insomniacs showed that LBD leads to a complete loss of hypnotic activity and substantial suppression of delta and REM sleep. Only small differences were found between benzodiazepines with different half-life time. Upon withdrawal, recovery from this suppression, especially in REM sleep, occurred, while insomnia did not increase.
The patients, however, reported sleeping longer while taking the drug compared with withdrawal. This misperception seems to be a specific effect of benzodiazepines, and contrasts with the full awareness of insomnia upon withdrawal. It is concluded that these effects play a leading role in the patients' inability to escape their sleeping pills. The response of REM sleep to withdrawal should make this a useful measure to objectively confirm low-dose benzodiazepine dependence. More...
Aticle by D. Schneider-Helmert PD Dr.med. / DOI: 10.1111/j.1600-0447.1988.tb06408.x
Drivers on Prescription Drus are Hard to Convict
The accident that killed Kathryn Underdown had all the markings of a drunken-driving case. The car that hit her as she rode her bicycle one May evening in Miller Place, N.Y., did not stop, the police said, until it crashed into another vehicle farther down the road.
The driver could not keep her eyes open during an interview with investigators, according to the complaint against her, and her speech was slow and slurred. But the driver told the police that she had not been drinking; instead, the complaint said, she had taken several prescription medications, including a sedative and a muscle relaxant.
She was charged with vehicular manslaughter and driving under the influence of drugs — an increasingly common offense, law enforcement officials say, at a time when drunken-driving deaths are dropping and when prescriptions for narcotic painkillers, anti-anxiety medications, sleep aids and other powerful drugs are rampant.
The issue is vexing police officials because, unlike with alcohol, there is no agreement on what level of drugs in the blood impairs driving.
The behavioral effects of prescription medication vary widely, depending not just on the drug but on the person taking it. Some, like anti-anxiety drugs, can dull alertness and slow reaction time; others, like stimulants, can encourage risk-taking and hurt the ability to judge distances. Mixing prescriptions, or taking them with alcohol or illicit drugs, can exacerbate impairment and sharply increase the risk of crashing, researchers say. More...
Aticle by New York Times written by Abby Goodnough and Kati Zezima, July 2010
- Gut Bacteria May Affect Your Weight
Something in your gut could be making you fat — and it isn't just last night's pizza.
The vast, diverse community of microbes inhabiting the intestines, scientists are finding, can influence metabolism and weight.
Between 10 trillion and 100 trillion microbes, mainly bacteria, dwell in a person's colon and small intestine. They function together almost like another of the body's organs, influencing, among other things, how many calories we extract from our food and whether we make or burn fat. Researchers have discovered significant links between gut bacteria and weight and metabolism in mice — and are starting to find similar associations in people. More...
Article by The Los Angeles Times Copyright © 2010
What's Wrong with Psychiatry? One Shrink's View
Reuters Health - Has Psychiatry Lost its soul.
"That's how grimly Dr. Daniel Carlat, a psychiatrist in private practice outside of Boston, characterizes the state of his profession.
"Over the last 20 to 30 years, psychiatry has really transformed itself from a profession in which we try to understand people and understand their psychology -- and talk to them and help them that way -- into a profession in which we diagnose diseases, and we medicate those diseases," says Carlat.
"So over that time, we have in a sense, and this is really alarming to me, we've lost our sense of psychological curiosity," he says. "And that's kind of the very soul of psychiatry."Exactly what's wrong, and how to fix it, was the topic of discussion last Thursday, when Reuters Health spoke to Carlat about his new book Unhinged: The Trouble With Psychiatry - A Doctor's Revelations About a Profession in Crisis (Free Press, May 18, 2010).
The slide started, says Carlat, when psychiatric blockbusters like Prozac (fluoxetine), a so-called selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor, or SSRI, was approved in 1988. Thanks to Prozac and its cousins such as Zoloft and Paxil, and their relatively limited side effects, prescriptions grew to the millions.
Borrowing the words of late Harvard psychiatrist Dr. Leon Eisenberg, psychiatry went from being "brainless" to being "mindless," Carlat says. Today, psychiatrists spend 20 minutes with a patient every few months, in essence adjusting medications, compared to an hour or more each week trying to understand what was wrong.
Some argue that reflects a more mature science, one that pays off faster and more efficiently. But that's not necessarily true, says Carlat. He cites an example from his clinic: He had been prescribing Ambien, a long-acting sleeping pill, to one of his patients for a while. At the same time, however, the patient was complaining to his therapist that he felt overly sedated and couldn't get up in the morning.
"One of his psychological issues was that he had such low self-esteem that he felt that he wasn't worth enough as a person to come to me -- the more intimidating doctor figure -- to ask me to do something about it."As a result of the gap between psychology and psychiatry, the man had nodded off at the wheel during a business trip, barely avoiding an accident.
With the change in psychiatry also came a shift in the way we think and talk about mental problems. In the case of depression, for instance, doctors often refer to a deficiency in the neurotransmitter serotonin. While this makes sense at first glance, all it means is that SSRIs can treat depression; it does not mean we understand what's going on in the brain. In fact, nobody has ever found proof of a serotonin deficiency, according to Carlat. is More...
Article by Reuters, written by Frederik Joelving May 25, 2010
U.S. Urges Doctors to Report Misleading Drug Pitches
Reuters - U.S. health officials are encouraging physicians to report misleading promotions from pharmaceutical salespeople who pitch medicines in doctors' offices or over dinner.
The effort announced on Tuesday aims to increase regulators' reach into the largest area of prescription drug promotion -- the private contacts between drug company salespeople and prescribers.
The law requires prescription drug marketing to be truthful and balanced. Food and Drug Administration staff routinely check ads on television or in magazines and medical journals, but it is tough to track closed-door sales tactics such as a chat inside a doctor's office or a sales presentation over a meal.
Starting this month, FDA staff will set up booths at major medical conferences to tell doctors how to spot questionable pitches. The agency also is sending a letter to about 33,000 healthcare providers about the campaign, dubbed the Bad Ad Program.
"We are asking doctors to increase their awareness and report questionable activities to us," Thomas Abrams, head of the FDA's division of drug marketing, advertising and communications, told Reuters.
The idea came from two former drug company pitchmen who now work in the FDA office that polices promotions.After joining the agency as ad watchdogs, the pair realized "we don't really have a presence out in the field where we used to work," said Bob Dean, one of the FDA employees who helped create the program.
Drug companies make major investments in promoting drugs directly to doctors, a practice called detailing. The industry spent nearly three times more -- $12 billion -- on detailing as it did on ads aimed at consumers in 2008, the Congressional Budget Office found.
The FDA under President Barack Obama has vowed to boost enforcement against drugmakers and others. Warnings to companies for problematic promotions nearly doubled in the year after Obama took office.
Mike Sauers, who with Dean thought up the new FDA program, said the goal is to teach doctors "how to be better consumers of information they receive from the drug reps" -- a skill they do not typically learn in medical school.
Some violations "are obvious," Dean said. "Complete omission of risks would be an easy one to spot. Minimizing risks also would be an easy one."
Physicians can report anything questionable via an FDA phone hotline or e-mail. More...
Article by Reuters, written by Lisa Richwine May 11, 2010
Do psychotropic drugs blur the boundaries between illness and health?
By the time he reached his early thirties, James was a promising scientist who had all the makings of an academic star. He had earned a stream of fellowships and was on the path to tenure at one of Boston’s preeminent universities. But James had a problem: he dreaded speaking in public. Academic conferences terrified him, so he avoided them whenever possible. He rarely interacted with colleagues. As a result, his ideas didn’t circulate and his career stalled.
In frustration, James sought help from a psychiatrist, who diagnosed him with a mental disorder known as “social phobia” and prescribed a well-known antidepressant effective in the treatment of extreme inhibition. The medication alleviated his severe anxiety and enabled him to do the things he previously couldn’t do. His work gained public recognition, and he has subsequently risen to the top of his profession.
In recent years, James’s story has become increasingly common. Using an ever-expanding arsenal of neurochemical drugs, physicians now treat variants of mood and temperament that previous generations viewed as an inescapable part of life. In an earlier era, James’s fears might have forced him to change professions. Today, the exceptionally shy and the overly anxious, the hyperactive and the chronically unhappy can seek relief from their suffering though medical intervention. And the parameters of what constitutes a “mental disorder” have swelled. An estimated 22 million Americans currently take psychotropic medications—most for relatively mild conditions.
This widespread embrace of biological remedies to life’s problems raises troubling questions for psychiatry. Paradoxically, even though psychopharmaceutical sales have soared in the United States during the past 20 years, only half of those with severe disorders receive adequate treatment. Clinicians and researchers disagree over what the priorities of the field should be and whom they should count as mentally ill. Are we over-treating the normal at the expense of the truly disturbed? Can we adequately distinguish illness from idiosyncrasy, disease from discontent? And are we allowing pharmaceutical companies and insurers to define the boundary between illness and health? More...
Article by Harvard Magazine, written by Ashley Pettus
The Dopamine Dilemma: Using Stimulants and Antipsychotics Concurrently
There has been a significant increase in the use of psychiatric medication in children over the last few decades, specifically dopamine agonists (stimulants) for attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and dopamine antagonists (antipsychotics) for psychotic, mood, and anxiety disorders. There was a fourfold increase in the use of stimulants in children from 1987 to 1996.[1] The outpatient prescribing of antipsychotics for children in the United States increased almost fivefold between 1995 and 2002.[2] A 2006 review found that these trends remained stable.[3]
Polypsychopharmacology of stimulants and other psychiatric medications in children had a five-fold increase between just 1994 and 1998.[4] It has been estimated that more than half of children on stimulants have been prescribed a concurrent antipsychotic at some point in their treatment.[5]
Literature suggests that the increased use is related both to increased prevalence of various diagnoses in children, such as bipolar disorder and ADHD,[6] and also to increased off-label use,[7] particularly aggression.[2] Official guidelines from national and international psychiatric organizations support this use as being appropriate.[8,9]
So where is the dilemma? According to mainstream psychiatry basic research and psychopharmacology, stimulant and antipsychotic medications have opposing mechanisms of action. Stimulants are thought to work by increasing dopamine (DA) levels between neurons, and antipsychotics work by blocking their effects at dopamine receptors. Concurrent stimulant-antipsychotic use has been rationalized by suggesting that they likely interact with different receptor subtypes and do so in different pathways of the brain.[10] In reality, while the main therapeutic sites of stimulants and antipsychotics are different, they both interact at the same receptors sub-types and do so in the same parts of the brain. Examination of DA pathways has revealed that stimulants have significant activation at both the limbic system and the cortex.[11] Antipsychotics have their strongest effects in the limbic system,[12] but they have also have effects on the cortex.[13,14]
Research on receptor subtypes has shown that the therapeutic effects of stimulants are strongest at D1 receptors, but they also have significant action at D2.[15,16] The therapeutic effects of antipsychotics come from D2 antagonism,[17] but these medications are actually unselective antagonists, being able to bind to all five receptor types.[18] Going beyond theoretical implications, research has shown that stimulants and antipsychotics actually do block the effects of each other.[19,20]
This discrepancy between how dopamine medications are understood to work and how dopamine medications are used clinically has been underappreciated by psychiatrists and underrepresented in the literature. This discrepancy should be an impetus for critical thinking about the risks and benefits of prescribing stimulant and antipsychotic medications concurrently. More...
Article by Forensic Psychiatry Department, Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut written by Dr. Jason Yankofski MD
Tart Cherry Juice May Cure Insomnia
Drinking tart cherry juice daily could help reduce the severity of insomnia and time spent awake after going to sleep, according to a new study published in the Journal of Medicinal Food. A team of University of Pennsylvania, University of Rochester and VA Center of Canadaigua and researchers conducted a pilot study on the sleep habits of 15 older adults. The adults drank 8 ounces of tart cherry juice beverage in the morning and evening for 2 weeks, and a comparable matched juice drink, with no tart cherry juice, for another 2 week period.
There were significant reductions in reported insomnia severity and the adults saved about 17 minutes of wake time after going to sleep, on average, when drinking cherry juice daily, compared to when they were drinking the juice drink.
Ongoing sleep issues plague more than 40 million adults and another 20 million experience occasional sleep disruptions, putting their health and well being at risk, and leaving many Americans on a quest for sleep solutions, according to the National Institues of Health. Americans spend more than $84 million on over-the-counter sleep aids each year.
The researchers suspect tart cherries' natural benefits could be due in part to their relatively high content of melatonin – a natural antioxidant in cherries with established ability to help moderate the body's sleep-wake cycle. Produced naturally by the body in small amounts, melatonin plays a role in inducing sleepiness at night and wakefulness during the day.
Russel J. Reiter, Ph.D, a biomedical scientist at the University of Texas Health Science Center and one of the world's leading authorities on melatonin, says while melatonin supplement pills have been heavily promoted as a sleep aid, foods such as cherries – available year-round as dried, frozen and juice – may be a better alternative for boosting the body's own supply of melatonin.
"When consumed regularly, tart cherries may help regulate the body's natural sleep cycle and increase sleep efficiency, including decreasing the time it takes to fall asleep," says Reiter. "And, because cherries are so rich in other antioxidants, such as anthocyanins, you get other important health benefits."
Not only is melatonin linked to sleep, but research suggests melatonin can be a powerful antioxidant, helping reduce age-related inflammation and fighting free radicals in the body. More…
Article by University of Pennsylvania, July 2010
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So that's why the West Coast is so laid back. One in 12 British Columbia adults (8.4 per cent) takes anti-anxiety drugs in any given year, new research indicates. And more than two-fifths of those users have long-term prescriptions of 100 or more days per year.
But Canadians are not just grooving on the coast. Health experts believe there's every reason to see the B.C. numbers as a close parallel of other provinces; it's just that other provinces haven't gone out to do the studies yet. Perhaps they should.
We're a nation that loves, loves, loves all psychotropic medications -- tranquilizers, antidepressants, antipsychotics and anxiolytics, as a recent series of articles from Canwest News showed. Prescriptions are on the rise in every category, all ages, and both sexes. Canadians fill more than 60 million prescriptions for "psychotherapeutic" drugs each year.
Drugged to the gills, that's us. And that's without counting booze and that sturdy cash crop from B.C., marijuana.
Doctors are rightly worried. The University of British Columbia noted last week that these drugs are being prescribed mostly to the elderly and to low-income earners, but also increasingly to baby boomers, largely as sleep aids.
UBC says its study is the first to examine the use of benzodiazepine drugs such as Xanax and Ativan for an entire population over time. These are not harmless drugs. Long-term use can lead to dependence, cognitive impairment that some doctors call a mental "haze," and increased risks of falls in the elderly.
"Given the potential for dependence and harms associated with these drugs, they are recommended to be used sparingly for short periods," says Colleen Cunningham, a UBC researcher and lead author of the study.
There's a frightening increase in the rate of psychiatric drugs given to young people as well. Last year, there were 1.7 million prescriptions for "atypical" antipsychotics (such as Risperdal and Seroquel) written for Canadians aged 19 or younger. That compared to about 634,000 in 2005. Largely these are in response to an increasing diagnosis of bipolar disorder in children. More... - Article by Ottawa Citizen
- Teens and Prescription Medication Abuse According to the CDC, in 2006, 2.1 million teens abused prescription drugs.
- "Your child is doing drugs!"
- As a parent hearing that statement, what would spring to your mind…cocaine, 'pot,' heroin, meth?"
- Ask Catrina Weber, Health Educator at Central Michigan District Health Department. According to the CDC, in 2006, 2.1 million teens abused prescription drugs.
- In fact, prescription medications are the second most abused drug in young adults age 12 to 17 and is the number one drug choice of 12 and 13 year olds.
- So, why are teens turning to prescription drug use? Studies show that 4 out of 10 teens believe that prescription drugs are much safer to use than illegal drugs. They are also much easier to acquire than illegal drugs.
- Nearly half of teens who use prescription drugs report getting them for free from a friend or relative.
- Scarier yet is the fact that often these drugs are taken by the handful at "pill parties."
- At these parties, various types of prescription drugs are tossed in a bowl together, often called "trail mix" and then participants are able to pop as many as they'd like. This often leads to lethal combinations, causing drug interactions and no one being able to tell emergency responders what the victim has taken.
- The most commonly abused prescription drugs are pain relievers such as Vicodin and Oxycontin, but these are followed closely by depressants such as Xanex and Ambien and also by stimulants, such as Ritalin. More..
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Article by Central Michigan District Health Department
Brittnay Murphy's Husband Found Dead in their Hollywood Home
...confirms that it was she who found Monjack dead in the Hollywood home where the pair continued living after Brittany Murphy's death. More...
Nexium and Prilosec Too Popular?
CBS - Five studies in the raise new concerns about the third most popular class of prescription drugs in America - proton pump inhibitors - very effective at lowering stomach acid and taken for acid reflux and stomach problems. About 113.4 million prescriptions for these drugs are filled each year, accounting for $13.5 billion in sales. These drugs work well to lower stomach acid, but they may cause some serious side effects, reports CBS News medical correspondent Dr. Jon LaPook. Researchers, for example, found a 25 percent increased risk of bone fractures in women and in both sexes - almost 75 percent increased risk of a serious intestinal infection Clostridium Difficile - known as C Diff. MORE…
Article by CBS News written by Jonathan Lapook, M.D.
Experts Clash Over Antidepresssant Link to Homicides
THE COLLEGE of Psychiatry of Ireland has said there is no evidence of a link between anti-depressants and homicide. MORE…
Riverside Man Accused of Airplaine Threats Under Observation
Richard Stansberry said he isn't aware of any medication his son was taking, though the son told FBI agents he had taken the prescription sleeping aid Ambien prior to the threats. MORE…
Coroner Paul Knapman ruled that McQueen's Feb. 11 death was a suicide, and said the designer took his life after taking a mixture of cocaine, sleeping pills and tranquilizers. MORE…
In the past pilots were not allowed to take any form of anti-depressant. This rule was created for the safety of the passengers. Some side effects of anti-depressants would inhibit a pilot's ability to perform their job. Recently the FAA will allow pilots with certain anti-depressant prescriptions to return to their flying career. MORE…
Examining the emotionally charged debate over medical risks vs. benefits and a parent's right to make choices about her child vs. a community's common good. MORE…
Prescription Drug Use in America: The Startling Numbers And Their Implications
In 2002, Americans filled 3,340,000,000 outpatient prescriptions.1 That's 12 prescriptions for every man, women, and child in America. Has the American dream become 2 kids, 2 cars, and a dozen drugs in each person's medicine chest? MORE…
Antidepressants Up Suicidality in Kids
A new study finds taking antidepressants, regardless of their type, can place children and adolescents at an increased risk of suicidal actions. MORE…
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