Portland, Maine (PRWEB) June 28, 2013
The U.S. National Institutes of Well being (NIH) reports that as diagnoses of mental overall health disorders have risen amongst kids more than the past two decades, far more young children have been prescribed antipsychotic drugs, often off label. Second-generation antipsychotics (SGAs) are broadly prescribed to adults and children for the remedy of schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, focus deficit disorder and other conditions. These drugs are also increasingly being prescribed off-label to treat a number of other ailments, like attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), especially among poor youngsters[1], each nationally and in Maine[2], as an alternative to stimulants such as Ritalin, which are FDA-authorized for the remedy of ADHD.

Karen L. Houseknecht, Ph.D., professor of pharmacology at the University of New England (UNE) Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences, research the potentially severe and lasting side effects of SGAs, such as kind 2 diabetes, obesity, and bone loss. She has just received a four-year, $ 1.2 million grant from the National Institutes of Well being to additional study the effects of SGA drugs on bone biology, and to determine the underlying mechanisms by which these drugs lead to bone loss, with the ultimate goals of informing the discovery and improvement of safer antipsychotic medicines and identifying co-therapies that will decrease side effects in individuals presently taking SGA medications.

Houseknechts investigation focuses on the underlying pharmacological mechanisms of SGA drugs, including the mostly extensively prescribed drug, risperidone. In her prior operate, Houseknecht has published that SGA drugs such as olanzapine and clozapine can induce serious insulin resistance following a single clinically relevant dose, consistent with the clinical findings that SGA drugs result in significant weight achieve and diabetes in many individuals. Far more recently, clinical reports indicate improved risk of fractures in sufferers taking SGA drugs, which includes risperidone. Final year, Houseknecht and her collaborators at Maine Healthcare Study Institute published operate displaying that risperidone remedy of adolescent mice outcomes in significant bone loss, indicating significant threat for adolescent patients being administered this medication.

She states, Although effective for the remedy of significant mental illness such as schizophrenia and bipolar disorder, SGAs are really powerful drugs with critical side effects that can have lasting wellness consequences for millions of adults and youngsters. Our investigation might much better inform physicians and parents about the possible side effects associated to these drugs, and probably lead to identification of co-therapies to counteract these deleterious effects.

Houseknechts investigation, Trabecular bone loss soon after administration of the second-generation antipsychotic risperidone is independent of weight obtain, is published in the journal Bone and co-authored with Maine researchers Clifford Rosen, M.D., and Katherine Motyl, Ph.D., from the Maine Healthcare Center Research Institute. Rosen is director of the Center for Clinical and Translational Study at Maine Health-related Center, and an expert on bone osteoporosis.

The University of New England (UNE) is an innovative health sciences university grounded in the liberal arts, with two distinctive coastal Maine campuses and distinctive study abroad opportunities. UNE has internationally recognized scholars in the sciences, overall health, medicine and humanities provides far more than 40 undergraduate, graduate and expert degree applications and is residence to Maines only healthcare college. It is 1 of a handful of private universities with a complete well being education mission which includes medicine, pharmacy, dental medicine, nursing and an array of allied well being professions. UNE’s interprofessional education initiatives prepare future healthcare experts to practice complete and collaborative team-based care. Each graduate and undergraduate students engage in analysis and scholarship alongside devoted faculty who are committed to their academic and specialist accomplishment.

[1] Wellness Serv Res. 2012 Oct47(5):1836-60. doi: 10.1111/j.1475-6773.2012.01461.x. Epub 2012 Sep 4:The partnership between mental overall health diagnosis and treatment with second-generation antipsychotics over time: a national study of U.S. Medicaid-enrolled young children.:Matone M, Localio R, Huang YS, dosReis S, Feudtner C, Rubin D.

2 Antipsychotic Medication Use in medicaid Young children and Adolescents: Report and resource guide from a 16-state study. MMDLN/Rutgers CERTs Publication #1. July 2010. Distributed by Rugers CERTs http://rci.rutgers.edu/~cseap/MMDLNAPKIDS.html





