tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1732132352927731247.post3583795733451443045..comments2024-03-16T00:27:31.848-07:00Comments on Hooked: Ethics, Medicine, and Pharma: Worshiping at the Altar of Innovation (a.k.a. Profits)Howard Brodyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00599587504924835039noreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1732132352927731247.post-66294459910438876722012-06-10T15:05:21.710-07:002012-06-10T15:05:21.710-07:00The story of the so-called atypical antipsychotic ...The story of the so-called atypical antipsychotic drugs is similar. The field was hungry for innovation. New drugs like Zyprexa (olanzapine) and Risperdal (risperidone) came along, touted as innovative – they blocked 5HT2 receptors as well as DA receptors. What did that have to do with treating schizophrenia or psychosis? We still don’t know, but it was a talking point exploited by the drug makers and their KOLs, with much hand waving and special pleading. A big selling point was the belief that they would not cause tardive dyskinesia. That was wishful thinking extrapolated from experience with clozapine. Now we know that the very expensive ‘atypicals’ do cause significant amounts of TD as well as akathisia and that they are no more efficacious in schizophrenia than a first generation antipsychotic drug like inexpensive generic perphenazine (CATIE trial). In addition, the ‘atypicals’ have a bad profile of metabolic side effects – weight gain, obesity, metabolic syndrome, diabetes mellitus.<br /><br />To make matters worse, they are now being touted by drug makers and KOLs for treatment of depressed patients who are not even psychotic, with general disregard of risk (major) versus benefit (minor). See PubMed ID 20123926 and these links:<br /> http://hcrenewal.blogspot.com/2008/01/antipsychotic-drugs-for-depression.html<br /><br />http://hcrenewal.blogspot.com/2008/01/variations-on-theme-of-sleaze.html.Bernard Carrollhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16203083806436919715noreply@blogger.com