According to evidence-based reviews, the answer is a qualified “Maybe.” Chronic methamphetamine use can induce pathological brain changes in the brain. Users can develop thought, mood, and behavioral disorders, including psychosis. Such effects may persist even after extended abstinence. Because cognitive deficits can affect how well patients respond to treatment, interventions [...]
Patients with prostate, bladder or kidney cancers are at greater risk of dying if they have had psychiatric care prior to the cancer treatment. In addition, patients with these cancers show greater suicide risk than the general population, even once the data is corrected for previous psychiatric care. These are [...]
Biogen and Eisai have announced that they are discontinuing the ENGAGE and EMERGE trials, which were designed to test the efficacy and safety of aducanumab in patients with mild cognitive impairment caused by Alzheimer’s disease and mild Alzheimer’s disease dementia. The phase 3, multicenter, randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled, parallel-group trials were [...]
The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved brexanolone intravenous infusion (Zulresso, Sage Therapeutics), the first-ever drug indicated for the treatment of postpartum depression. The drug is administered under medical supervision as a continuous infusion over a total of 60 hours (2.5 days), according to the FDA. Postpartum depression can [...]
Adding the Alzheimer drug memantine (Namenda, Allergan) to treatment with a selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor may improve depressive symptoms, executive function, and other outcomes in older patients with both depression and cognitive complaints, new research suggests. The findings were presented at the American Association of Geriatric Psychiatry (AAGP) 2019. In a [...]
The Food and Drug Administration yesterday approved an intranasal form of esketamine for treatment-resistant depression in adults who have failed at least two oral antidepressants of different classes. The spray, from Janssen Pharmaceutical (Spravato) is available in tamper-resistant prepackaged units of one, two, or three devices to deliver the prescribed doses [...]
A preliminary study of five patients suffering from both depression and substance abuse disorders suggest that isn’t the case. The study was published Jan. 9 in the journal JAMA Psychiatry. Substance abuse and depression are common in many patients, and efforts to treat both conditions simultaneously have had limited [...]
Furthering the role of immune system disorders in the development of mental disorders, recent research links infections that children contract during their childhood with increased risk of mental disorders during childhood and adolescence. The first study of its kind shows that high temperatures, sore throats and infections during childhood can [...]
A new dosage strength of buprenorphine and naloxone sublingual film was approved recently by the Food and Drug Administration. Cassipa sublingual film, made by Teva Pharmaceuticals, is a 16 mg/4 mg dosage of buprenorphine and naloxone for the maintenance treatment of opioid dependence. Buprenorphine and naloxone sublingual film also is [...]
A front page New York Times story read, “Every year, thousands of people addicted to opioids show up at hospital emergency rooms in withdrawal so agonizing it leaves them moaning and agonizing on the floor.” The article then goes on to quote a heroin addict. I would have stopped reading [...]