Anti-psychotic drugs from AstraZeneca Plc and Johnson & Johnson may lead to loss of brain tissue or exacerbate declines in brain volume caused by schizophrenia, a study in the Archives of General Psychiatry found.
http://archpsyc.ama-assn.org/
http://archpsyc.ama-assn.org/cgi/content/short/68/2/128
Researchers tracked 211 patients with newly diagnosed schizophrenia to determine if the progressive loss of brain tissue widely attributed to the disease may be affected by drugs to treat it, severity of the illness or substance abuse. More antipsychotic drug treatment, including duration and intensity, was linked to greater declines in brain volume. Severity of disease, alcohol and illegal drug use had no effect.
“What we found was that medication treatments are probably one of the contributing factors to brain volume declines we see in people with schizophrenia,” said lead researcher Beng-Choon Ho, a psychiatrist at the University of Iowa’s Carver College of Medicine in Iowa City. “It’s not a wise thing to jump to the conclusion that this is bad, although intuitively it seems like the first thing that people will conclude. In reality, we still don’t quite understand what it means.”
Patients shouldn’t stop taking their medicines, which include London-based AstraZeneca’s Seroquel, Risperdal from New Brunswick, New Jersey-based J&J, Indianapolis-based Eli Lilly & Co.’s Zyprexa and a host of older, generic medications, the researchers said. Instead, they and their doctors should find the lowest effective dose, Ho said in a telephone interview.
“Pharmaceutical companies must continue the vigorous search for agents that are genuinely neuroprotective,” the researchers said.
1 in 100
Schizophrenia is a mental disorder affecting about 1 in 100 people that makes it hard to distinguish reality, think logically and behave normally in social settings, according to the National Institutes of Health. Drug treatment helps control severe symptoms, such as hearing voices or violent outbursts. They also can produce side effects such as weight gain, diabetes, and movement disorders.
The researchers used repeated high-resolution magnetic resonance scans starting in 1990 to track changes in brain volume over time. Each patient had an average of three scans and was followed for more than seven years. The study didn’t include a comparison group of untreated patients, which would have been unethical, Ho said.
“It is possible that, although anti-psychotics relieve psychosis and its attendant suffering, these drugs may not arrest the pathophysiologic processes underlying schizophrenia and may even aggravate progressive brain tissue volume reductions,” the researchers concluded.
The study also raises concerns about the widespread and growing use of anti-psychotic drugs for people without schizophrenia, including the elderly and those with other mental disorders, the researchers said.
To contact the reporter on this story: Michelle Fay Cortez in Minneapolis at mcortez@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Reg Gale at rgale5@bloomberg.net
via bloomberg.com
http://archpsyc.ama-assn.org/
http://archpsyc.ama-assn.org/cgi/content/short/68/2/128
Researchers tracked 211 patients with newly diagnosed schizophrenia to determine if the progressive loss of brain tissue widely attributed to the disease may be affected by drugs to treat it, severity of the illness or substance abuse. More antipsychotic drug treatment, including duration and intensity, was linked to greater declines in brain volume. Severity of disease, alcohol and illegal drug use had no effect.
“What we found was that medication treatments are probably one of the contributing factors to brain volume declines we see in people with schizophrenia,” said lead researcher Beng-Choon Ho, a psychiatrist at the University of Iowa’s Carver College of Medicine in Iowa City. “It’s not a wise thing to jump to the conclusion that this is bad, although intuitively it seems like the first thing that people will conclude. In reality, we still don’t quite understand what it means.”
Patients shouldn’t stop taking their medicines, which include London-based AstraZeneca’s Seroquel, Risperdal from New Brunswick, New Jersey-based J&J, Indianapolis-based Eli Lilly & Co.’s Zyprexa and a host of older, generic medications, the researchers said. Instead, they and their doctors should find the lowest effective dose, Ho said in a telephone interview.
“Pharmaceutical companies must continue the vigorous search for agents that are genuinely neuroprotective,” the researchers said.
1 in 100
Schizophrenia is a mental disorder affecting about 1 in 100 people that makes it hard to distinguish reality, think logically and behave normally in social settings, according to the National Institutes of Health. Drug treatment helps control severe symptoms, such as hearing voices or violent outbursts. They also can produce side effects such as weight gain, diabetes, and movement disorders.
The researchers used repeated high-resolution magnetic resonance scans starting in 1990 to track changes in brain volume over time. Each patient had an average of three scans and was followed for more than seven years. The study didn’t include a comparison group of untreated patients, which would have been unethical, Ho said.
“It is possible that, although anti-psychotics relieve psychosis and its attendant suffering, these drugs may not arrest the pathophysiologic processes underlying schizophrenia and may even aggravate progressive brain tissue volume reductions,” the researchers concluded.
The study also raises concerns about the widespread and growing use of anti-psychotic drugs for people without schizophrenia, including the elderly and those with other mental disorders, the researchers said.
To contact the reporter on this story: Michelle Fay Cortez in Minneapolis at mcortez@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Reg Gale at rgale5@bloomberg.net
via bloomberg.com
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