Tuesday, November 23, 2004

Medical Journal Calls for a New Drug Watchdog
New York Times story - "The United States needs a better system to detect harmful effects of drugs already on the market, and it should be independent of the Food and Drug Administration and the drug industry, medical researchers and journal editors said yesterday. Arguing that it was unreasonable to expect the same agency that approves drugs to 'also be committed to actively seek evidence to prove itself wrong,' the editors of The Journal of the American Medical Association recommended that the nation consider establishing an "independent drug safety board" to track the safety of drugs and medical devices after they were approved and in widespread use..." [Viewing New York Times resources requires registration, which is free].  
  

The Expanding Role of Antipsychotic Pharmacotherapy in Bipolar Disorder
A new Medscape CME unit - "Bipolar disorder is one of the most symptomatically complex disorders in psychiatry. The presence of multiple phases of the disorder with varied presentations in each phase makes it challenging to both diagnose and treat. Until recently, studies and medications specifically targeted for bipolar disorder were few in number. This clinical and scientific dearth is now changing for a number of reasons." [Viewing Medscape resources requires registration, which is free].  
  

The Antidepressant Dilemma
Feature article in the New York Times that traces one family's story of seeking treatment for their 13-year old son - "Over the course of the past two years, however, the debate over whether antidepressants, particularly those known as S.S.R.I.'s -- selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors -- can trigger suicidal behavior in teenagers has migrated from the margins of the medical community to the front pages of newspapers. Adding to the controversy was public outrage at revelations that a number of pharmaceutical companies had deliberately withheld damning information about S.S.R.I.'s -- specifically, data from clinical trials that suggested that these drugs were both more dangerous and less effective for adolescents than millions of consumers had been led to believe." [Viewing New York Times resources requires registration, which is free].  
  

SSSI antidepressants linked to bleeding
Brief UPI story reprinted at PsycPORT - "New users of selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors or SSRIs have been linked being abnormal bleeding, a Dutch study found. Welmoed E. E. Meijer, of Utrecht Institute for Pharmaceutical Sciences, in Utrecht, the Netherlands, estimated the risk of abnormal bleeding associated with antidepressant use among 64,000 new antidepressant users. The data analyzed were collected from 1992 through 2000 and individuals were classified according to the degree -- high, intermediate, or low -- of serotonin reuptake inhibition of the antidepressants they were taking..."