Anxiety disorders, in general, for children and adolescents, can be a very big problem. A big issue is that anxiety disorders are often not the first diagnoses considered and they are often overlooked.
Insomnia is one of the most common comorbidities you’ll see in your depressed and anxious patients. But it is often misunderstood. While the common view is that insomnia is caused by a primary psychiatric or medical condition, it is more accurate to simply say that patients have insomnia and depression at the same time. Insomnia is almost never an isolated problem.
If patients are stable on olanzapine (Zyprexa), quetiapine (Seroquel), or risperidone (Risperdal) but are experiencing adverse metabolic effects, it might make sense to switch to a medication that has a lower risk of causing such effects. But would such a switch reduce obesity and cholesterol at the risk of a relapse?
Using combination antipsychotic treatment has become more common over the years, presumably reflecting a common sense theory that in refractory patients, two medications might be more effective than one. But studies thus far of the practice have been small and inconclusive.
Lurasidone (Latuda) was approved by the FDA for schizophrenia in October 2010 and is the 10th atypical antipsychotic in our toolbox. The key question is: does lurasidone have any advantages over existing agents, or is it just another “me-too” drug?
Dr. Carpenter, you are a member of the DSM-5 work group that is considering risk syndrome for first psychosis, or what is now called “attenuated psychosis syndrome” as a new diagnosis in the manual.
_-The-Breakthrough-Antipsychotic-That-Could-Change-Everything.jpg?1729528747 "KarXT (Cobenfy)_ The Breakthrough Antipsychotic That Could Change Everything.jpg")
