Schizophrenia Drug Offers New Hope

'I didn't go to medical school,' says judge

(NEWSER) - A judge ruled yesterday that accused Tucson gunman Jared Loughner can be forced to take antipsychotic drugs in an attempt to make him mentally fit to stand trial, reports the LA Times . Defense attorneys for the schizophrenic Loughner had tried to block him from being medicated without his consent , but the judge deferred to the prison doctors. "I have no reason to disagree with doctors," said the judge. "I didn't go to medical school." More»

Johnson & Johnson division under scrutiny for manufacturing practices

(NEWSER) - After multiple drug recalls and an FDA safety probe, federal authorities are taking control of three Tylenol plants, CNNMoney reports. The plants, run by Johnson & Johnson’s McNeil division, are in trouble for dodging federal manufacturing rules; now, the company has agreed to let the FDA supervise the three—two in Pennsylvania and one in Puerto Rico—a decision that effectively wards off a threatened FDA lawsuit. The agreement, a so-called "consent decree," is subject to a Pennsylvania judge’s approval. More»

Hundreds of pitchmen found to have blemished records

(NEWSER) - Pharmaceutical companies say they hire highly respected doctors as their white-coat sales force, peddling their drugs to other physicians. But a Pro Publica investigation has discovered that hundreds of these pitchmen have been accused of professional misconduct, been disciplined by state boards, or lacked credentials. Medical board records in the 15 most populous states revealed that more than 250 had been sanctioned, another 40 given FDA warnings for research lapses, and 20 more hit with successful malpractice lawsuits. Some have even lost their licenses. More»

Antidepressants, anti-psychotics snatched in brazen operation

(NEWSER) - Thieves made off with an estimated $75 million in prescription drugs after a well-planned heist at Eli Lilly's Connecticut warehouse. The thieves cut a hole in the huge building's roof and lowered themselves down on ropes before loading multiple pallets of drugs onto at least one tractor-trailer truck, police tell the Hartford Courant . More»

(NEWSER) - Mental health experts have lost touch with the benefits of old-fashioned insane asylums, where patients once enjoyed a sense of community and jobs like cleaning and farming, Oliver Sacks writes in the New York Review of Books. Touching on a new book of Christopher Payne photographs called Asylum—which offers "a mute and heartbreaking testimony" to "once-heroic structures"—Sacks argues that modern state hospitals, which rely on antipsychotic drugs, ignore "the benign aspects of asylums." More»