Consider This: Kagan for Supreme Court
. . .hard to read
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News: Seroquel settlement at $520 million

News: Nebraska links abortion to mental health screening
TTo further restrict women's choice about abortion, the Nebraska legislature passed a bill requiring physical and mental health exams before performing the medical procedure. Proponents of the measure, which passed 40 to 9, say they want to learn whether women were pressured into the decision as well as to alert them to the risk factors following it. Opponents view it as a smokescreen to restrict women's rights to a legal, medical procedure. It also runs the risk of pathologizing a woman's choice using mental health criteria. . .
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News: Jury favors AstraZeneca in Seroquel trial
A jury decided AstraZeneca provided adequate warnings about side effects of Seroquel causing diabetes. The month-long trial in New Jersey has been carefully watched by 26,000 people with similar claims. The 7-1 ruling left unanswered whether the drug used to treat schizophrenia and bipolar disorder contributed to the onset of diabetes. . .
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News: State news: Florida, Illinois, MInnesota
Illinois was ordered ordered to move people out of a state hospitals and nursing homes and into the community by the end of the year. A similar decision was made in New York. According to the the Chicago Sun Times. Illinois spends more to keep adults in institutions than any other state. . .
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News: Move over Zyprexa, Seroquel, trial on Risperdal

News: Trial over Seroquel side effects continues

News: Judge scolds NY: adult homes unacceptable
A New York judge ruled that adult homes are unacceptable when it comes to finding the least restrictive housing for people with a mental illness. Within four years all current residents must be afforded a placement . . .
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News: Eli Lilly: CEO gets raise, more Zyprexa law suits settled

Consider This: A trial, and an ad, featuring Seroquel
. . .evidence vs. spin
Full Story | Topics: anxiety disorders, bipolar disorder, legal, medication, pharmaceutical, psychiatry, schizophrenia, Seroquel | Comments (0)

News: For-profit Chicago nursing home threat to mentally ill
Physical abuse, over-medication, inappropriate patient population, and neglectful care to 300 mentally ill patients led the federal government to halt Medicaid funding from a for-profit nursing home. The courts, and the Department of Health and Human Services agree that the residents of Somerset Place in Chicago have been ill served by the partially family-owned company. . .
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News: Lilly beats back Mississippi over Zyprexa

News: New York offers fewer apartments than court orders
Last week New York State proposed aremedial plan to meet a judge's demand for appropriate, supported housing, for 4,300 people living in 28 adult homes.
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Track Legislation: Obama ready to outlaw hate crimes
Disabilities will be protected under federal provisions of hate crimes in new law on the way to President Obama's desk for signature. Not all lawmakers agreed that the federal government should play a role in federalizing hate crimes. According to the New York Times "Senator Jim DeMint, Republican of South Carolina, said he agreed that hate crimes were terrible. "That's why they are already illegal," Mr. DeMint said, asserting that the new law was a dangerous, even "Orwellian" step toward...
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News: Georgia hospitals unimproved, says judge
Georgia failed to correct problems leading to federal investigations about abuse in psychiatric hospitals, ruled a federal judge. Judge Charles A. Pannell's decision revealed on-going complaints included cases of sexual assault, suspicious deaths, suicide, and physical abuse in the state's seven-hospital system. . .
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News: Unions sue for mental health services in D.C.

In Washington, D.C., unions are suing the Department of Mental Health where budget, not quality concerns, have led to outsourcing mental health services despite insufficient staff to absorb the need. . .
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Consider This: Court to New York: stop segregating mentally ill residents
. . .addressing wrongs
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News: Justice Sonia Sotomayor
What can we expect from Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor? "A bright future," says the Bazelon Center for Mental Health Law. In a review of her qualifications prior to yesterday's confirmation, the Bazelon Center analyzed decisions about: reasonable accommodation, social security benefits, guardianship, and workplace discrimination. The report from Bazelon can be downloaded here....
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News: Good news-bad news for AstraZeneca
Between celebrating the Canadian approval of Seroquel to treat major depression, then learning the the Netherlands denied approval for the same, AstraZeneca has had quite a ride. In the courts a similar see-saw is taking place. A judge dismissed a case in Del. charging diabetes was the result of Seroquel This is the third case dismissed, and the only potential jury trial. They have drawn considerable attention and new cases are scheduled in New Jersey and New York. Documents have...
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News: Awards for stories about mental illness
The Association of Health Care Journalists announced five of its annual awards will go to reporters who have written about mental illness. They are: •Mary Carmichael of Newsweek for a story detaiiling how bi-polar disorder dominates the life of one youngster and his parents. •Randy Dotinga, of Voice of San Diego, for a story about the bridge in San Diego which has been used by people intending suicide since 1973. •Sharon Salyer and Alejandro Dominguez, of the Daily Herald in...
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News: Consumers right to sue upheld
The Supreme Court upheld (6 to 3) a patient's right to sue drug companies in state courts. Wyeth v. Levine involved a woman who received an injection which resulted in gangrene and the loss of a limb and her career as a musician. Warnings for the procedure were insufficient. The decision has extensive consequences for label warnings and consumer protection. States have recently ruled in cases involving disclosure and labeling for antipsychotic drugs....
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News: Seroquel trial
Allegations that AstraZeneca failed to warn patients that its drug Seroquel contributed to weight gain and diabetes came to light yesterday when documents were opened as part of a lawsuit over the billion dollar anti-psychotic drug. Instructions to divert direct questions about side effects advised the sales force to "neutralize" concerns about this despite knowing it's own doctor pointed to "reasonable evidence" about impaired glucose regulation." Court documents also reveal off-label use, and the vetting of negative trials. The case...
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News: New York trial on adult homes
Do adult homes for New York's residents with a mental illness needlessly segregate residents? Or simply because they are not a hospital, are they integrated in the community? This is part of the question that will be answered in U.S District Court. The lawsuit charges many of the privately operated adult homes lack supportive services. In 2003 New York Times reporter Clifford J. Levy called them "psychiatric flophouses." A lawsuit was brought that year by advocates including the Bazelon Center...
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News: Lilly settles
Eli Lilly and the Department of Justice reached a series of settlements resulting from illegal marketing, defrauding the government, and making false claims related to Zyprexa. The company will pay more than $1.4 billion (including a criminal fine of $515 million) for a scheme that broadly affected patient health, government spending and the credibility of federal regulatory agencies. A five-year corporate integrity agreement specifying reporting, written standards, and tracking of information, was part of the settlement....
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News: Forced ECT
A court order mandating electroshock therapy (ECT) for a 54-year-old Minnesota man with schizophrenia has drawn public outcry. Ray Sandford has been receiving ECT since May against his will. Unable to get them stopped, he contacted MindFreedom International for help. Sanford, who is a guardian of Lutheran Social Services, complains of headaches and memory loss and his mother concurs. She told Minnesota Public Radio that after an initial improvement, she expected they would stop. He no longer recognizes family members....
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News: Harvard psychiatrist courted pharma
Documents in a class action law suit show an active courtship between psychiatrist Dr. Joseph Biederman and Johnson and Johnson to fund a center at Massachusetts General Hospital to promote marketing goals. Discussions dating from 2002 address "deliverables" and positioning the company for child and adolescent pharmacology. Emails were posted on the Wall Street Journal. The documents are part of a class action law suit over pediatric use of Risperdal. Additional stories: Reuters, The Philadelphia Inquirer, Bloomberg News, The...
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News: Lilly takes $1.4 billion charge for law suits
Five years after investigations into Eli Lilly's marketing of Zyprexa, the company announced settlement talks of $1.4 billion relating to "past U.S. marketing and promotional practices." Lilly previously agreed to settlements with individual plaintiffs and 33 states for charges of deceptive marketing leading to Medicaid expenses and life-threatening side effects. The "Medicaid fraud control units of more than 30 states are coordinating with federal prosecutors," reports the New York Times....
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News: Eli Lilly settles $62 million case; more pending
Eli Lilly announced a $62 million settlement in 32 states for the marketing of its block buster drug Zyprexa. In the 12 years it has been on the market, the company says it has been prescribed 26 million times. Zyprexa is known to cause weight gain leading to diabetes, heart disease, both of which are associated with early death. Other law suits are still outstanding. Since 2005, according to SEC filings, costs associated with Zyprexa lawsuits, including legal fees, amount...
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News: Protecting children
Following the death of a youngster in a residential treatment program, Maryland passed a licensing law requiring minimal educational and training requirements for child care workers in residential programs....
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News: Protecting children
Following the death of a youngster in a residential treatment program, Maryland passed a licensing law requiring minimal educational and training requirements for child care workers in residential programs....
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News: Colleges proactive about mental health
The needs of students attending college while managing a mental illness are being addressed more openly than ever before. In the month of September, typically associated with "back-to-school" news, NPR aired stories about managing depression, and campus organization such as Active Minds, Graduate students are writing about how knowledge of one's illness can influence how to select a program. Last week the Bazelon Center for Mental Health Law released a guide, Campus Mental Health with detailed information about legal rights...
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News: Colleges proactive about mental health
The needs of students attending college while managing a mental illness are being addressed more openly than ever before. In the month of September, typically associated with "back-to-school" news, NPR aired stories about managing depression, and campus organization such as Active Minds, Graduate students are writing about how knowledge of one's illness can influence how to select a program. Last week the Bazelon Center for Mental Health Law released a guide, Campus Mental Health with detailed information about legal rights...
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News: Waxman questions pharma influence on FDA
Rep. Henry Waxman Rep. Henry Waxman (D-Cal), chair of the House oversight committee, asked FDA Commissioner Andrew von Eschenbach to explain how priorities were established which seemed to have tipped from protecting consumers to protecting drug companies. He cites employees for whom the agency has become a revolving door to pharma, asserts the agency protects drug makers instead of the consumers, and asks for clarification about distribution of journal articles and preemptions for medical devices. Waxman's concerns about preemptions...
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News: Waxman questions pharma influence on FDA
Rep. Henry Waxman Rep. Henry Waxman (D-Cal), chair of the House oversight committee, asked FDA Commissioner Andrew von Eschenbach to explain how priorities were established which seemed to have tipped from protecting consumers to protecting drug companies. He cites employees for whom the agency has become a revolving door to pharma, asserts the agency protects drug makers instead of the consumers, and asks for clarification about distribution of journal articles and preemptions for medical devices. Waxman's concerns about preemptions...
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Commentary: Helping college students: PADs on campus
When college students need help because of a mental illness, schools often don't know where to turn. Helping college students: PADs on campus could offer an answer. Dean Anna Scheyett and Adrienne Rooks (School of Social Work, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill) explain how psychiatric advance directives can enlist students, faculty and administrators.
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News: Zyprexa documents unsealed
The judge in last year's law suit over Eli Lilly's drug Zyprexa ordered the documents unsealed in what he termed a class-action law suit. According to the New York Times, Judge Jack B. Weinstein weighed Lilly's rights to privacy against the public's right to know how the drug was marketed and approved. A New York Times reporter was reprimanded last year after writing about company decisions based on documents that eventually were circulated widely on the internet. Weinstein's actions followed...
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News: Disorders seen in teens in adult system
Psychiatric disorders were diagnosed in two-thirds of a group of youthful offenders from Chicago's Cook County whose crime or age required their transfer to adult courts. A study appearing in Psychiatric Services (n=1,715) noted that "males from ethnic minority groups are among the least likely to receive mental health treatment, either in the community or in prison."...
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News: Court strikes down Kendra's Law in New Mexico
After the courts struck down an Albuquerque ordinance requiring forced medication for outpatient treatment, the mayor vowed to return this issue to the legislature. According to the Albuquerque Journal the state has cut back on funding for outpatient programs. According to Nancy Koenigsberg from the advocacy organization, Protection and Advocacy, The ordinance that was struck (down) acknowledged that for any kind of treatment to achieve its goal, it must be linked to a system of comprehensive care in which...
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Book Reviews: "The Insanity Offense," E. Fuller Torrey
reviewed by Sue E. Estroff* By Any Means Necessary? By No Means Necessary E. Fuller Torrey's most recent book, The Insanity Offense, continues his literary style of provocative, catastrophic language when referring to violent incidents attributable to people with psychiatric disorders. This is not a work in the scholarly convention. It is one activist psychiatrist's impassioned and purposeful argument for a reversion of mental health law, policy, and treatment to the 1950's when involuntary confinement and forced treatment qua medication...
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News: Shifting sex predators into mental health system
Louisiana is considering extending the sentences of sex predators by additional confinement in a mental health facility. At least 17 states had similar laws in 2007, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures....
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News: Is schizophrenia incompatible with self-representation?
Last week the Supreme Court handed down a decision that a man with schizophrenia did not have the right to represent himself in court without an attorney. Indiana v. Edwards raises questions about whether the legal standard conferring competence to stand trial differs from competence to represent oneself. The 7-to-2 opinion upheld an Indiana's judge's decision not to allow Ahmed Edwards to conduct his own self-defense. Edwards spent three years in the hospital before he was deemed competent to stand...
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News: Agreements to delay generics
According to a report in Reuters, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is investigating the pharmaceutical company Shire for possible agreements delaying the generic marketing of Adderall XR, a drug used for attention deficit disorder. Last week the FTC released a report about 33 different agreements in which generic drug manufacturers agreed to delay marketing drugs coming off patent. The availability of generics is estimated to reduce the cost of drugs by as much as 90 percent and cuts into the...
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News: Trial over VA, suicides, rests
A two-week non-jury trial involving a class action law suit over veterans' mental health services has ended in San Francisco. It will now be up to U.S. District Judge Samuel Conti, to decide what, if any, measures to demand of the government. The suit focused on lapses in service, with waits still averaging 30 days, the especially high rates of suicide, and roughly 1,000 suicide attempts each month. Emails indicating top officials knew about the suicide trend, and tried...
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Consider This: What's in an FDA approval
FDA approval, watchdogs and court cases: what this means for you
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Commentary: Psychiatric Advance Directives: A tool for patients and clinicians
by Marvin Swartz

More and more people are able to take control of their treatment plans by anticipating how to manage in a crisis. In Psychiatric Advance Directives: A tool for patients and clinicians, Dr. Marvin Swartz, a psychiatrist at Duke University Medical Center, discusses how they work to promote autonomy.
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News: Experts debate violence and mental illness
With events like Virginia Tech indelibly linked to someone suffering from a psychiatric disorder, the question of how much violence is caused by people with a mental illness continues to draw public concern. In February, the entire issue of Psychiatric Services was devoted to essays, research and debate. Editor Howard Goldman's thoughtful introduction to the issue notes: how do the horrible, extreme events predetermine policy and opinion when their incidence is small in proportion to the attention they receive? And...
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News: Alasks settles Zyprexa case
Eli Lilly has agreed to a $15 million settlement with Alaska over the drug Zyprexa, used a drug to treat schizohprenia and bipolar disorder. The settlement ended a jury trial which began March 6 in Anchorage Superior Court, in which Alaska asked for $270 million for the drug used in its Medicaid program. Reuters reports that Conn. brought a similar law suit on March 11. The company has paid out more than $1.2 billion to settle 30,000 individual law suits....
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News: Katrina's legacy: outpatient commitment?
Will the legacy of Hurricane Katrina become a mandate for involuntary outpatient commitment? According to the New Orleans Times-Picayune: "Mandating treatment -- and checking on patients to ensure they are complying with court orders -- would require a massive expansion of the outpatient services available in the New Orleans area, which have been significantly lacking since Hurricane Katrina" An infusion of $26 million was announced last month, and one official said the creation of new services might be able to...
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News: Decriminalizing marijuana
Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.) intends to introduce a federal bill decriminalizing marijuana. While some view this as exciting news, the evidence linking marijuana addiction to the onset of psychosis and as a trigger for schizophrenia, along with the clinical impact of withdrawal of this highly addictive agent, should be part of any conversation. He followed his announcement on the Bill Maher show, with a press release today....
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News: Zyprexa off-label
Off-label use of Zyprexa to treat disruptive children or address pain was aired in an Anchorage courtroom last week. A previously undisclosed 2003 memo from John C. Lechleiter, who will become CEO in April, said “to seize the opportunity to expand our work with Zyprexa” by using the door it had opened with pediatricians about another medication. The company says it was only trying to respond to physician interest. Alaska is suing Eli Lilly to recoup Medicaid costs for treating...
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News: Zyprexa trial in Alaska
Alaska is the first of nine states to sue Eli Lilly, manufacturer of Zyprexa, in a case that has wide ranging implications. Allegations that the company hid information about adverse side effects, such as weight gain leading to diabetes and cardiac complications, have already led to individual settlements of $1 billion. The Alaska case opens a different door. It is the first to have a jury trial, and asks the company to be liable for state Medicaid expenses for people...
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News: Privacy to medical records at risk
The privacy of medical records, which has long been a comfort zone for patients, might change if vendors succeed in digitizing patient information. The Wall Street Journal reports that insurance companies are trying to build data bases from patient claims that would be immune to HIPPA. According to the Associated Press Google has entered into an agreement to store up to 10,000 records of volunteers from the Cleveland Clinic. Although the records are described as password protected, questions are bubbling...
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News: Consumer activists want voice in Virginia
Consumer activists are working vigorously to redirect Virginia lawmakers’ emphasis on involuntary commitment at the expense of community-based resources, reports the Washington Post....
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News: Vets sue feds for treatment
With increasing rates of suicide, and long waiting times for mental health treatment, a law suit asks the courts to force government action. The San Francisco Chronicle reports on a class action lawsuit brought by Veterans for Common Sense and Veterans United for Truth challenging the administration’s claim that “veterans have no legal right to specific types of medical care.”...
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News: Zyprexa settlement rumored
Pharma giant Eli Lilly, maker of Zyprexa, is said to be in conversation with the federal government to pay $1 billion to settle charges over its promotional activities, reports the New York Times. Zyprexa is the company's block buster drug for schizophrenia and bipolar disorder, and last year accounted for $4.8 billion in sales, about one-quarter of Lilly’s revenue. In the past two years, the company has been hit by more than 25,000 claims for failure to warn about serious...
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News: Update: Virginia
It’s ironic that while the Virginia General Assembly is talking about changing the mental health laws expanding and extending involuntary treatment, mentally ill prisoners already behind bars are not receiving care. The Richmond Times-Dispatch reports that in the county jail, only 20 percent of the inmates “diagnosed with schizophrenia or other delusional syndromes, as well as those with bipolar disease or major depression -- received medications designated for their conditions.”...
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News: Student privacy in Virginia
In a session that’s certain to invoke the tragedy at Virginia Tech many times, the Virginia General Assembly will be considering changes to mental health laws. One proposal introduced last week strips privacy from students by requiring high schools to forward mental health records to colleges accepting them. It is hard to imagine how this will encourage students to confidently seek help....
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Consider This: The other 398,150
by Phyllis Vine

How does strengthening commitment laws help people who need service in the community? Budget shortfall or not, Virginia needs to do more than pay lip service to needed reforms.


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News: Psychiatric directives gaining ground
Resources and reasons for psychiatric advance directives are discussed in a (free) article from the Wall Street Journal’s health blog....
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News: Specifying care for an emergency
The Infinite Mind rebroadcast "An Educated Consumer," which originally aired in 2005, discussing Psychiatric Advance Directives (PAD). PADs are legal documents directing treatment teams what to do when it is impossible for a consumer to convey his or her wishes. They can address symptomatic behavior, or which medications work along with those to be avoided. PADs also name who may visit, or speak with a physician, what interventions (ECT, for example) should be employed or avoided. Consumers, family and...
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News: Florida's prisons and police
CNN, July 13, 2007 CNN visited the "forgotten floor" where mentally ill offenders are currently held at the Miami-Dade pre-detention county facility. With more mentally ill inmates than the largest state hospital, this jail warehouses some people for up to one year before their cases are heard. The system is scheduled to be overhauled in 2008. This is one of four CNN reports available in print and video....
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Interviews: Q & A with Dr. Andrew P. Levin: The intersection of psychiatry and law
a conversation with Phyllis Vine, editor
In the aftermath of Virginia Tech, a fair number of Monday-morning pundits have weighed in with opinions about how school officials, the police, and psychiatrists should have acted before tragedy hit. To clarify some of the issues about the intersection of law and psychiatry, MIWatch spoke with forensic psychiatrist Dr. Andrew P. Levin.
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News: Supreme Court decides against death penalty
In a 5-4 vote, the Supreme Court blocked the execution of a Texas man with schizophrenia who admitted to killing his in-laws. An important element in this closely watched case asked whether Scott Panetti knew the legal consequences of his action. Writing for the majority, Justice Kennedy said, "[g]ross delusions stemming from a severe mental disorder may put an awareness of a link between a crime and its punishment in a context so far removed from reality that the punishment...
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News: The law and mental illness
Four articles on the law and mental illness appear in the latest issue of Psychiatric Sevices. There is also an editorial reminding readers that the rationale for mandated outpatient treatment was to provide therapeutic resources. Also of interest is an article about the World Health Organization’s project to collect baseline information on mental health systems as part of the larger goal of designing and monitoring policy and implementing programs....
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News: Gun laws specify mental illness
Bazelon Mental Health Center, May 17, 2007 In the aftermath of Virginia Tech, states are revisiting their procedures for reporting to the National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS). Despite gaping holes in record keeping, in states such as Maine debates have focused on people with mental illness. The Bazelon Mental Health Center cautions states should maintain privacy rights, as well as other protection for people who have successfully received treatments. The National Stigma Clearinghouse writes when 54 million people...
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News: Federal Judge to review NY agreement confining mentally ill prisoners
NYTimes, April 25, 2007 Judge Gerald E. Lynch, of the Second District of New York, will review the agreement reached by mental health legal advocates and New York State to change the way prisons treat mentally ill inmates, including solitary confinement for punitive purposes. Even though the agreement does not prohibit “the use of solitary confinement, or punitive segregation, to discipline mentally ill prisoners,” according to the article in the NYTimes, more restrictions and accountability have been imposed....
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News: Competency and courts
The National GAINS Center held a meeting to discuss the "national crisis surrounding the lack of treatment beds for defendants who are found incompetent to stand trial." Recommendations addressed practices and procedures for balancing public safety without subverting recovery. One model for competency courts comes from Seattle where mental health courts oversee hearings. This has shortened the time for making a determination and allows people who are mentally ill but competent to opt into a treatment-based mental health court....
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News: Competency and courts
The National GAINS Center held a meeting to discuss the "national crisis surrounding the lack of treatment beds for defendants who are found incompetent to stand trial." Recommendations addressed practices and procedures for balancing public safety without subverting recovery. One model for competency courts comes from Seattle where mental health courts oversee hearings. This has shortened the time for making a determination and allows people who are mentally ill but competent to opt into a treatment-based mental health court....
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