AIM Antipsychotics increase the risk of stroke. Their effect on myocardial infarction remains uncertain because people prescribed and not prescribed antipsychotic drugs differ in their underlying vascular risk making between-person comparisons difficult to interpret. The aim of our study was to investigate this association using the self-controlled case series design that eliminates between-per...

Psychotic illness and its treatment are associated with an increased rate of diabetes and worsening blood sugar control, Australia. The newer, second-generation antipsychotic agents are more likely to produce this effect than the first-generation agents, but both contribute to the problem. The effect is usually related to insulin resistance through weight gain, but other mechanisms may exist. D...

Background: Case reports link antipsychotic drugs with sudden cardiac deaths, which is consistent with doserelated electrophysiologic effects. Because this association has not been confirmed in controlled studies, we conducted a retrospective cohort study in Tennessee Medicaid enrollees, which included many antipsychotic users; there were also computer files describing medication use and comorb...

INTRODUCTION Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) is a neuropsychiatric disorder that causes significant distress to the afflicted individual. About half of OCD patients treated with an adequate trial of serotonin reuptake inhibitors fail to fully respond to treatment and continue to exhibit significant symptoms. Therefore, there is a need for other agents to alleviate the symptoms of these diso...

Bipolar affective disorder is a serious mental disease associated with significant morbidity and mortality. Good-quality research available to guide treatment strategies remains insufficient, particularly with regard to manic or hypomanic episodes. A critical review of the various stages of mania might be helpful for pharmaceutical companies and investigators as a prerequisite for the clinical ...

TO THE EDITOR: Among currently available atypical antipsychotic agents, clozapine and olanzapine are most often associated with clinically problematic weight gain and new-onset type 2 diabetes mellitus (1). Ziprasidone, a benzisothiazolylpiperazine, is a relatively new atypical antipsychotic that has been shown to be less likely to produce weight gain (2). We report on a patient with olanzapine...