Evidence lacking for widespread use of costly antipsychotic drugs

[Celebration]

http://www.physorg.com/news/2011-01-evidence-lacking-widespread-costly-antipsychotic.html

Many prescriptions for the top-selling class of drugs, known as atypical antipsychotic medications, lack strong evidence that the drugs will actually help, a study by researchers at the Stanford University School of Medicine and University of Chicago has found. Yet, drugs in this class may cause such serious effects as weight gain, diabetes and heart disease, and cost Americans billions of dollars.

"Because these drugs have safety issues, physicians should prescribe them only when they are sure patients will get substantial benefits," said Randall Stafford, MD, PhD, associate professor of medicine at the Stanford Prevention Research Center, who is senior author of the study to be published online Jan. 7 in Pharmacoepidemiology and Drug Safety. "These are commonly used and very expensive drugs."

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These new drugs accounted for more than $10 billion in retail pharmacy U.S. prescription drug costs in 2008, representing the largest expenditure for any single drug class — nearly 5 percent of all drug spending, surpassing even blockbusters like statin cholesterol medications. According to a 2004 study, a quarter of all residents of U.S. nursing homes had taken them. Among the drugs are quetiapine, aripoprazole (brand name, Abilify), olanzapine (Zyprexa) and risperidone (Risperdal), each with annual U.S. sales exceeding $1 billion.


Stafford's new study adds to concerns about the drugs, which have been the focus of thousands of lawsuits, and as a class make up the single largest target of litigation filed under the federal False Claims Act. All major companies selling new-generation antipsychotics have either recently settled cases for hundreds of millions of dollars or are currently under investigation for skewing results or using questionable marketing tactics.

[Dorian Gray]

1. Is it the practice of

physicians to prescribe anti-psychotic drugs to patients for shits and giggles?

I know two people who have been on this class of drugs. One saw demons in her boyfriend's head when he was sleeping. The other was suicidal and on the verge of being homeless and had been on a cocktail of anti-depressants for years for her three diagnoses: Borderline Personality Disorder, Bi-Polar Disorder and Chronic Depression. These drugs finally helped her carve out a life for herself.

They serve a purpose in the mental health community, and I've never known someone to be prescribed these drugs unnecessarily. (Unlike Adderall, which seems to be prescribed to everyone these days.)

[TheMadMonk]

2. 1) The drugs may be effective in some cases. 2) the Force (of the placebo effect)...

...is strong in some.