Thursday news and blogs – (updated)

Today’s psych related news:

• Update on the STAR*D Report Robert Whitaker, Psychology Today — A few days ago, Allan Leventhal sent me a 2009 article he coauthored with David Antonuccio, and in it, they successfully identified this number (finding it in a confusing graphic I hadn’t been able to decipher.) In their computations, they relied on STAR*D reports that told of 4,041 initial participants (3,671 was the number of “enrolled” patients counted in the analysis of drug-remission rates), and then they came to this bottom-line conclusion about the documented long-term recovery rate: “Although the study’s reports make no mention of this outcome, their data show that after a year of continuation treatment following remission, of the 4,041 patients who entered the program only 108 (3%) had a sustained remission — all the other patients either dropped out or relapsed. Yet STAR*D’s authors and the NIMH have publicized the study as showing a 67% success rate for antidepressants.” More info at Truly Noodled (I added and updated this link this morning) where there is also a link to the article by Allan Leventhal and David Antonuccio.

• Vanda Schizophrenia Drug Gets Rotten Review | TheStreet.com — Rather mind-boggling that there is still a market at all for new atypicals being they are so poorly tolerated and have so many dangerous side-effects.

• Children Get More Prescriptions All The Time // Pharmalot — For the second year in a row, the growth in the use of prescription drugs by youngsters exceeded all other age groups. In fact, the increase was nearly four times higher than in the overall population, partly because there were a slew of new indications for existing meds that traditionally treat “adult diseases, according to the latest annual report from Medco Health Solutions.

• ‘Sleeping pill caused woman to run wild’ | Herald Sun This is the same drug that is called Ambien in the US. — THE safety of a common sleeping pill blamed for hundreds of incidents of sleepwalking, driving and eating is again being seriously questioned after a magistrate ruled it caused a woman to drink bottles of liqueur and embark on a wild ride through the suburbs. Here are other reported incidences of similar situations with Ambien: Ambien sleepwalk nightmare – Visitor Opinion