Topics: Psychopharmacology Tips | Sleep Disorders

Narcolepsy affects about 1 out of 2000 people, for a prevalence rate of 0.05%. This puts it officially in the category of rare diseases. So why are we asking you to read about such a rare disorder? Partly because there’s a lot of comorbidity between narcolepsy and most psychiatric disorders. And partly because Jazz Pharmaceuticals is placing lots of ads in psychiatric journals urging us to diagnose more narcolepsy so that we’ll use their new drug Xyrem.

Topics: Benzodiazepines | Practice Tools and Tips | Psychopharmacology Tips | Sleep Disorders

What are some of the basic questions that we should be asking our patients who complain of sleep problems? TCPR talks to Robert S. Rosenberg, DO, FCCP to get his insight on sleep disorders, sleep apnea, restless leg syndrome, sleep studies, and benzodiazepines.

Topics: Depressive Disorder | Psychopharmacology Tips | Research Updates

Geriatric depression often presents with apathy, low energy and motivation, and cognitive decline, so theoretically stimulants are a natural choice. Past studies of combining stimulants with antidepressants have been mainly small open trials, with mostly positive results. But we haven’t seen the kind of rigorous double-blind methodology we’d like. A new study fills that gap.

Topics: Antidepressants | Depressive Disorder | News of Note

On July 10, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved Otsuka and Lundbeck’s Rexulti (brexpiprazole) for schizophrenia and as an add-on to antidepressants for adults with depression. As the name suggests, it’s chemically and structurally related to aripiprazole (Abilify).