Cass A
Frequent Contributor (1K+ posts)
Member # 11134
posted
Just got this today.
Cass A
Alliance for Human Research Protection A Catalyst for Debate www.ahrp.org
FYI
A long-awaited, 14 year magnetic imaging (MRI) follow-up study by Dr. Nancy Andreasen, involving 211 patients, documents progressive shrinkage of brain tissue volume in patients prescribed antipsychotics when they first experienced an episode of psychosis.
The findings, published in The Archives of General Psychiatry (abstract below) show a direct causal relationship between dosage, duration of exposure to antipsychotics, and brain shrinkage:
* "Longer follow-up correlated with smaller brain tissue volumes and larger cerebrospinal fluid volumes.
* Greater intensity of antipsychotic treatment was associated with indicators of generalized and specific brain tissue reduction after controlling for effects of the other 3 predictors.
* More antipsychotic treatment was associated with smaller gray matter volumes. Progressive decrement in white matter volume was most evident among patients who received more antipsychotic treatment.
The finding corroborates animal studies and earlier MRI studies....
Dr. Andreasen acknowledged, in an interview in The New York Times (2008), that she "sat on these findings for a couple of years"--deliberately holding back publication. http://www.ahrp.org/cms/content/view/606/9/
Don't medical researchers have a moral public responsibility to disclose a finding of a causal relationship between a particular class of drugs and brain damage?
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