In recent years, U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) reports of adverse events related to drugs have increased dramatically.  Researchers at the University of Maryland School of Pharmacy revealed in a new study of adverse events linked to medications ─ compiled by the FDA since 1969 ─ that 55 percent have been reported to the agency in the past decade. However, study leader Sheila Weiss Smith, PhD, a pr ...

Ian Colman, an epidemiologist in the School of Public Health at the University of Alberta, recently completed a study that suggests that treatment of depression may have long-term benefits. The data Colman reviewed came from the National Population Health Survey, a longitudinal Canadian study, and showed depressed adults who use antidepressants are three times less likely to be depressed eight years later, ...

In small, early clinical trials, adults and children with autism and Fragile X syndrome have shown improved communication and social behavior when treated with acamprosate, according to Craig Erickson, M.D., assistant professor of psychiatry at the Indiana University School of Medicine and chief of the Riley Hospital for Children Christian Sarkine Autism Treatment Center at Indiana University Health. ...

Two reports by addiction researchers at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine and the National Institute on Drug Abuse show a drastic shift in prescribing patterns impacting the magnitude of opioid substance abuse in America. The reports, published in JAMA, recommend a comprehensive effort to reduce public health risks while improving patient care, including better training for prescribers, pain ...

Adolescents with treatment-resistant depression who have a history of abuse — especially physical abuse — are less likely to respond to combination treatment than to medication alone, according to data from the NIMH-funded Treatment of Resistant Depression in Adolescents (TORDIA) study. The new study was published in the March 2011 issue of the Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychia ...

The use of aspirin at least once per month is associated with a significant decrease in pancreatic cancer risk, according to results of a large case-control study presented at the AACR 102nd Annual Meeting 2011. Xiang-Lin Tan, Ph.D., M.D., a research fellow at Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn., said the findings from this large collaborative study are preliminary and do not encourage widespread use of aspirin ...

For more than 5 million Americans with heart failure, a critical step to better health is taking the medications they are prescribed. But many patients fail to do so, putting themselves at greater risk of hospitalization and even death. To date, studies have not fully answered why patients fall short when it comes to taking heart medicine. In a study appearing in the April issue of Mayo Clinic Proceedings, ...

Researchers at Columbia University Medical Center have developed a new way to stimulate neuron production in the adult mouse brain and demonstrated that neurons acquired in the brain's hippocampus during adulthood improve certain cognitive functions. The results appear in the Advance Online Publication of the journal Nature. ...

Antidepressant use has been linked to thicker arteries, possibly contributing to the risk of heart disease and stroke, in a study of twin veterans. The data is being presented Tuesday, April 5 at the American College of Cardiology meeting in New Orleans. ...

Mayo Clinic researchers found that dopamine agonists used in treating Parkinson’s disease result in impulse control disorders in as many as 22 percent of patients.  Mayo Clinic first reported on this topic in 2005. The follow-up study was published online in the February 2011 issue of Parkinsonism and Related Disorders. Included in this report is a video summary of the study results by the lead researcher. ...