After a psychiatric drug is approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), a marketing juggernaut often follows, trying to convince us that the newly approved drug offers substantial benefits for treating a mental disorder. But how does the FDA determine whether to approve a drug? What follows is a breakdown of the process.

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Bruce Cuthbert, PhD, the head of the NIMH’s new Research Domain Criteria (RDoC) program, explains how this new way of funding and conducting research in psychiatry is revolutionizing the field.

Concerns about the safety of psychiatric medications during pregnancy are common among psychiatrists and patients alike. In many cases, one must weigh the risks of a medication to mother or child against the risks inherent in untreated mental illness. Recent research, however, lends support to the growing data about the safety of antidepressant medications in pregnancy.

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Considering the increased efforts to legalize marijuana in many states, greater public awareness of marijuana and its potential medicinal uses, and new research on cannabis and its constituents, it is essential that psychiatrists understand some of its proposed benefits—and fundamental risks.

President of the California Society of Addiction Medicine Itai Danovitch offers an overview of what psychiatrists should know about medical marijuana.

Several past studies have investigated a possible link between infections during pregnancy and psychiatric illness in the offspring. These studies may be biased, however, by poor recall or by a clinical, as opposed to serological, diagnosis of infection in the mother. A recent study attempted to overcome this bias by measuring influenza antibodies—a more precise manner of identifying influenza exposure—drawn from the mothers of bipolar offspring.

Does newspaper coverage of suicide promote copycat suicides? A recent retrospective study examined this question by comparing suicide clusters among teens to isolated suicides, and how local newspapers covered these events.

In mid-May, the FDA released a warning that eszopiclone (Lunesta) can cause next-day impairment when taken at the recommended target dose of 3 mg/day. As a result, the FDA has lowered the recommended starting dose to 1 mg/day.