GLG News by Lexapro Prescribers: Psychiatrists (US)

• DTC is indeed a double-edged sword, but is driving up inappropriate use • Consumer Directed Healthcare + Direct-to-Consumer Advertising = Recipe for Disaster • Focus on DTC Education, not Advertising, and have it come from unbiased (or at least, less biased) sources

• Patients have generally expected their physicians to disregard costs when determining a treatment plan.  "Whatever's best, doc." • It is unusual for us docs to know what things cost in the first place. • As patients are increasingly expected to assume a greater financial stake...

With the introduction of once-daily Seroquel XR, Astra-Zeneca will continue to dominate the market for 'atypical' antipsychotics.  While many such changes are merely patent extenders, this one promises to be therapeutically useful: given the short-acting nature of the quetiapine...

Seroquel extended release will be a huge success and the reasons for this are many, but timing is crucial.

AstraZeneca's new extended release Seroquel will be a major player in the treatment of schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, other psychotic disorders, and many off-label uses

The Dendreon delay in getting FDA approval for its Provenge Prostate Cancer Drug highlights serious problems in the drug development process especially regarding drugs for dying patients.

The diagnosis and treatment of psychiatric disorders suffers from the absence of objective biological markers, an issue which hampers diagnosis and treatment of all psychiatric disorders, and allows for social and political considerations to influence diagnosis....and treatment.

Clinical depression should be diagnosed phenomenologically at this stage of our science, using criteria such as suggested by the DSM IV.  Whether the depression is precipitated is another issue, but this does not, in itself, invalidate the diagnosis.

Conventional wisdom had it that mom directed health care for the entire family.  She had the instincts to know when something was wrong, and the resources to choose the health provider.  However, this may be changing.

CollaGenex Pharmaceuticals apparently miscalculated in a Phase II dose-finding study of its candidate drug, Incyclinide, for acne.  The consequences of this may, unfortunately, be more far-reaching than deserved.