People who take statins to reduce cholesterol might be at lower risk of developing Alzheimer's disease than those who don’t, recent findings indicate.
"Previous research suggested that people who received statins might be less likely to develop Alzheimer's disease," said lead investigator Gail Li, MD, PhD, University of Washington School of Medicine (Seattle). "Our study compares the brains of people who received statins with those who did not."
Dr. Li and colleagues performed autopsies on the brains of 110 persons who were cognitively normal at enrollment and were ages 65 to 79 at death. After controlling for age at death, gender, strokes and other variables, the researchers found significantly fewer tangles in the brains of those who had received at least three 15-pill prescriptions of simvastatin, pravastatin, lovastatin, or atorvastatin.
The findings appear in the August issue ofNeurology.
The FDA has approved risperidone to treat schizophrenia in youths ages 13 to 17 and type I bipolar disorder in children ages 10 to 17.
Risperidone is the first antipsychotic indicated for pediatric schizophrenia or bipolar disorder. The medication, marketed as Risperdal, is also indicated for schizophrenia in adults and for irritability associated with autistic disorder in youths ages 5 to 16.
According to the FDA, risperidone showed efficacy in two placebo-controlled, double-blind studies following a total of 255 adolescents with schizophrenia over 6 to 8 weeks, and in one 3-week, placebo-controlled trial that enrolled 109 youths with type I bipolar disorder. All subjects were experiencing acute psychosis or a mixed or manic episode at enrollment.
Schizophrenia spectrum disorders are equally or more severe in children and adolescents compared with adults, newly published findings suggest.
Researchers led by Jean A. Frazier, MD (Harvard Medical School) studied 119 youths ages 8 through 19 diagnosed with schizophrenia or schizoaffective disorder. The youths had similar Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale (PANSS), Brief Psychiatric Rating Scale for Children, and Clinical Global Impression of Severity scale ratings. Overall functioning was similar among youths with either diagnosis.
When the youths’ cases were compared against published reports of adults with schizophrenia, many youths’ symptoms were found to be more severe based on PANSS scores.
The findings appear in the August Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry.
The National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) is urging Congress to pass legislation that would continue the State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) for 10 years.
Earlier this month, both the House of Representatives and Senate passed measures reauthorizing SCHIP. A House-Senate committee will consider the bills in September.
NAMI is supporting the House and Senate bills, both of which would eliminate current limits on mental health coverage under SCHIP. These limits, based on an actuarial formula, have not applied to coverage of most other medical conditions under SCHIP.
The FDA has issued a "not approvable" letter to Wyeth and Solvay Pharmaceuticals for their experimental antipsychotic, bifeprunox.
According to officials from both companies, FDA said there was inadequate data to demonstrate the drug's effectiveness.
Joseph Mahady, Wyeth’s president of global business, said his company will continue to study the antipsychotic. Wyeth will release more data on bifeprunox’s efficacy in early to mid-2008, Mahady said.
