Wednesday, February 3, 2010

FDA Warns Doctors About Zyprexa

From Spit. Bristle. Fury:

In news of the not-so-surprising, The LA Times reports that the FDA has issued awarning to doctors concerning increased metabolic risks in adolescents taking the drug olanzapine (Zyprexa). Risks include rapid weight gain and an increased likelihood of weight related physical concerns like diabetes and high cholesterol — serious problems that, you may remember, most doctors can’t be bothered to watch for. While this particular warning is limited to young people, you’ll find that the same risks are present in adults though it appears that adolescents are at a higher comparative risk. Interestingly, the warning applies only to those ages 13-17 being treated for diagnoses of schizophrenia and bipolar disorder, leaving out the growing number of even younger people for whom the drug is not approved but administered off label.


The agency has not approved the marketing of olanzapine — sold under the commercial name Zyprexa by the drug maker Eli Lilly — for use in children under 13 who are diagnosed with schizophrenia or bipolar disorder. But the medication, one of a class of psychiatric medications called the “atypical antipsychotics,” is widely prescribed for young patients, despite growing evidence that call its safety profile into question for this population.

The warning comes in the wake of the October publication in the Journal of the American Medical Assn., in which a study showed that children and adolescents taking their first-ever course of Zyprexa gained, on average, more than 17 pounds over a 12-week period, as well as dramatic increases in triglycerides and cholesterol levels — all factors that put them at higher risk of developing cardiovascular disease. While two other antipsychotic drugs — Seroquel and Risperdal — were implicated in significant weight gain and metabolic changes, Zyprexa was found to carry the highest risks of all three.

Article continues here:

3 comments:

Lili said...

I don't believe in Middle Earth infernos but if they exist these companies and all of their pushers have a VIP pass.

Zyprexa and seroquel are HORRIFIC drugs. I cannot even imagine a teenager or child being on them.

abellve said...

Thanks for posting this. It's all about awareness. These guys do these things because they think no one's looking and too often they're right. Somehow, we have a nation that's appalled that fast food cheeseburgers make people fat but when our children's drugs do it, it doesn't even get noticed. On top of that,we've pathologized everything else in life and now the defining emotions of youth are "symptoms."

susan said...

Thank you for writing this. I wasn't sure how to give you credit.

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