Mental health court keeps children out of jail

Mental health court keeps children out of jail

Wearing shorts and a T-shirt, the teenager sat on the sofa in his home in Shreveport's Caddo Heights neighborhood and mumbled under his breath out of anger at his mother. A moment later he yelled at her.

Mental health and markets: two kinds of failure

It’s nice that the Federal Government has given a gong to Pat McGorry, but our country’s commitment to psychiatric treatment remains at the level of mere lip service. I read with interest a recent newspaper article reporting on the Federal Government’s scheme for giving subsidies to private psychologists. This program began in 2006, in response to widespread evidence of a ‘crisis’ in mental health. Psychiatric problems constituted a vast percentage of overall health burden in Australia, yet were systematically under-funded (in proportional terms). The then-Howard Government arranged for psychologists operating in private practice to be subject to Medicare rebates for the first time. The aim here was to allow the private system to pick up the slack for an over-burdened public system. These are the results:

More >> Mental health and markets: two kinds of failure

Doctors cautioned on Zyprexa for adolescents

The Federal Drug Administration on Friday issued a warning to doctors that adolescents taking the drug olanzapine have an "increased potential" -- in comparison with adults taking the new-generation antipsychotic drug -- for weight gain and metabolic disturbances that could result in diabetes or elevated blood cholesterol levels.

More >> Doctors cautioned on Zyprexa for adolescents

Inexpensive Gene Tests for Parents-to-Be

The new movie “Extraordinary Measures” is based on the true story of a father who starts a company to develop a treatment for the rare genetic disease threatening to kill two of his children before they turn 10.

More >> Inexpensive Gene Tests for Parents-to-Be

Bill would expand child psychiatric services

A bill intended to provide more psychiatric services in Kentucky for children now getting care out of state passed the House Health and Welfare Committee Thursday on a unanimous vote.

More >> Bill would expand child psychiatric services

Middle school investigates flu shot

The San Ysidro School District is investigating how a 13-year-old middle school student received the H1N1 flu vaccination last week over her objections and against the will of her parents.

More >> Middle school investigates flu shot

Disturbing signals

What on earth was she thinking?

More >> Disturbing signals

The Rise Of Marketing-Based Medicine

You’ve heard of evidence-based medicine. Well, a new paper summarizes a panalopy of practices employed over the past two decades or so - ghostwriting, suppressing or spinning data, disease mongering and managing side effect perceptions among docs - that the authors call marketing-based medicine. And they rely on internal documents from litigation - such as the much-publicized lawsuits over antipsychotics and antidepressants - to illustrate their point.

More >> The Rise Of Marketing-Based Medicine

Antidepressants May Complicate Breast-Feeding

Antidepressants May Complicate Breast-Feeding

A widely used class of antidepressants can cause delayed lactation in new mothers, which means they may need additional support in order to breast-feed their babies, a new study says.

Savings don’t justify changing state’s psychiatric drug policy, advocates say

Saddled with potential budget shortfalls in excess of $450 million, Iowa lawmakers are understandably on the lookout for ways to slash state spending. But some health care advocates are warning that proposed changes to prescription medication policies are shortsighted and will do far more long-term harm than good.

More >> Savings don’t justify changing state’s psychiatric drug policy, advocates say

Bipolar in Diapers

Among the many so-called adult diseases now being diagnosed among the diaper-set, one of the most startling is bipolar disorder.

More >> Bipolar in Diapers

ASIA: ‘Post-Disaster Psychosocial Support a Must for Children’

When disaster strikes, acute stress disorders, especially among children, may follow. Yet the need for early psychosocial interventions is often overlooked, if not ignored.

More >> ASIA: ‘Post-Disaster Psychosocial Support a Must for Children’

Doctors Vaccinate For Profit

Years ago children were sent up chimneys or sold as servants to earn their parents extra money. Now they are being vaccinated by doctors, to boost their takings. Doctors, Governments and Pharma see our children as their property and are making thousands of pounds/dollars/euros out of them right under our noses. This, they call ‘Health Care’, I call it the legalization of child labour.

More >> Doctors Vaccinate For Profit

PsychRights whistleblower lawsuit against psychiatrists unsealed: Defendents listed

A major Medicaid Fraud lawsuit by Law Project for Psychiatric Rights (PsychRights®) against psychiatrists, their employers, pharmacies, state officials, and a medical education-publishing company for their roles in fraudulent claims to Medicaid to drug mainly disadvantaged children and youth was unsealed, revealing a long list of defendants.

More >> PsychRights whistleblower lawsuit against psychiatrists unsealed: Defendents listed

Students get high on new legal herb

A legal herb with effects similar to marijuana is becoming increasingly popular among high school kids in Albuquerque.

AstraZeneca 'suppressed' drug test data

The marketing team sued over a drug's alleged side effects tried to suppress key data, an ex-employee has claimed.

More >> AstraZeneca 'suppressed' drug test data

Psychiatrist admits she approved higher drug dosage in Riley trial

A Tufts Medical Center child psychiatrist today testified about how she had frequently approved higher dosages of psychotropic drugs for Carolyn Riley's two preschool daughters, often just after the mother admitted to doing it on her own anyway without asking the doctor.

More >> Psychiatrist admits she approved higher drug dosage in Riley trial

>> Doctor says mother gave child double dose at times

Psychiatric Medications and Children

It never fails to amaze me, and not in a good way, to hear a person say they are of the opinion that using psychiatric medication is "taking the easy way out".

Psychiatric Medications and Children

Medication Stolen From Wyo. Cancer Kid

A routine trip to a Colorado Target store has left a Wyoming mother and her son who is battling leukemia fuming at the theft of his life-saving medication.

U.S. doctors prescribing more psychiatric medications

Psychiatrists in the United States prescribed more psychotropic drugs to their patients in 2006 than they did a decade ago, according to an analysis by researchers at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and Columbia University.

More >> U.S. doctors prescribing more psychiatric medications