Antipsychotic Drugs

Accused Tucson gunman Jared Lee Loughner can be forced to take antipsychotic drugs while doctors attempt to make him fit to stand trial in the shooting of Rep. Gabrielle Giffords and 18 others, a federal judge ruled Wednesday. Loughner, 22, is accused of killing six and wounding 13 during a Jan. 8 rampage as Giffords was greeting constituents. The Arizona Democrat was shot in the head but survived. "I defer to medical doctors," U.S. District Judge Larry A. Burns said at an emergency hearing requested by the defense.

The study would come to be called "cursed," but it started out merely as Study 15. It was a long-term trial of the antipsychotic drug Seroquel. The common wisdom in psychiatric circles was that newer drugs were far better than older drugs, but Study 15's results suggested otherwise. As a result, newly unearthed documents show, Study 15 suffered the same fate as many industry-sponsored trials that yield data drug makers don't like: burial.

A widely used class of antipsychotic drugs that includes bestsellers Zyprexa, Risperdal and Seroquel is just as likely -- perhaps even more likely -- to cause a fatal heart attack as older antipsychotic drugs like haloperidol, researchers reported today. The findings, which run contrary to a long-standing belief, add to a growing drumbeat of criticism about this class of drugs, known as atypical antipsychotics.

Drug maker Eli Lilly & Co. cleared another legal cloud hanging over its top-selling drug, Zyprexa, when it announced a $62-million settlement Tuesday, but several other storms are still brewing for the antipsychotic medication. Lilly agreed to pay California, 31 other states and Washington to resolve an investigation into the company's marketing practices.

U.S. immigration officials will no longer sedate foreign nationals against their will without a federal court order, according to an internal memo dated Jan. 9. The government "may only involuntarily sedate an alien to facilitate removal where the Government has obtained a court order . . . " the memo read. "There are no exceptions to this policy. Emergency or exigent circumstances are not grounds for departures from this policy."

Sales for children of antipsychotic medicines made by Johnson & Johnson, AstraZeneca and Pfizer Inc. have exploded, fueled by a fortyfold increase over nine years in the number of children diagnosed with bipolar disorder. The number of prescriptions for children doubled to 4.4 million from 2003 to 2006, according to data provided to Bloomberg by Wolters Kluwer, a drug-tracking company.

Criminal proceedings were temporarily suspended Friday against Kanuri Qawi, the former state mental hospital patient who won a seminal 10-year legal battle for the right to refuse his psychiatric medication, only to later be charged with murdering his Alameda roommate in the midst of a psychotic episode. Qawi, 46, faces murder charges in Alameda County Superior Court in connection with the stabbing death last September of John Milton Sr., 59.

U.S. immigration officials sedated two foreign nationals against their will during failed attempts to deport them in Los Angeles, the men and their attorneys said Tuesday.

ON a crisp afternoon last fall, a police officer responding to a 911 call pulled onto an abandoned military base on the eastern edge of San Francisco Bay. Six dreary naval housing blocks, converted into apartments for down-on-their-luck veterans, had been painted with labels meant to inspire: Hope, Resolve. The door to Apartment B, in the building called Courage, was open. The man who had summoned police, Kanuri Qawi, was waiting casually in the doorway, a glass of soda in his hand.

The findings of a new federally funded clinical trial challenge conventional wisdom about some of the medications used to treat Alzheimer's patients and offer a grim portrait of treatment for the disease. An estimated 4.5 million Americans have the disease, a disorder of the brain's nerve cells that progressively impairs memory, thinking and behavior. There are no approved drugs for the psychotic symptoms, but studies suggest benefits from strong antipsychotic drugs developed for schizophrenia.