Archives for November, 2012


The Challenge: Tracking Your Medication History

Ever have a hard time remembering to take your meds regularly? Now try tallying up all the psychiatric meds you've ever taken, their dosages and side effects. It's harder than you might assume - especially as time goes on. When I was interviewing my peers for my book about growing up taking psychiatric meds, I started with what I thought was a basic question: Can you give me your medication history - which meds you've taken in the past, and for how long? I was shocked at how many people couldn't answer the question with any confidence.
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ADHD drugs

Study Finds Autistic Kids With Psychiatric Disorders More Likely To Be Medicated


A new study, published in a supplement to the November issue of Pediatrics, suggests that coexisting psychiatric conditions and problem behaviors might...
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Abuse and diversion

Mixing Meds and Alcohol: Just How Dangerous Is It?

Most psychiatric drugs bear some version of the warning: "Do not drink alcoholic beverages when taking this medication." In reality, though, many people taking psych meds drink anyway. They have various reasons: not wanting to curtail their fun, not putting much stock in the warnings, or simply thinking it's easier to take a proffered drink than explain why they're turning it down. Doctors oftentimes don't bother to talk to patients about potential dangers. Or they tell patients not to drink, but don't explain why. To make matters worse, because of a lack of studies on the subject, patients inclined to do their own research will have a hard time just how risky it is to drink while taking various kinds of psychiatric medications (I've written elsewhere about this troubling lack of evidence). A widely publicized study that came out last month in the journal Neurology underscores the problem. The findings, which pooled data from 16 studies, showed that people taking SSRI antidepressants like Zoloft or Celexa were 40 percent more likely to suffer a type of stroke caused by bleeding in the brain and 50 percent more likely to suffer any bleeding in the skull.
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