Furious Seasons

May 12, 2009

Study Tries To Obscure Abilify's Akathisia Problems

CL Psych had a wonderful post the other day harping on Abilify's propensity to cause akathisia in some patients taking it for depression and other disorders. What CL Psych did was uncover a recent study in the Journal of Clinical which purported to examine akathisia rates in second generation antipsychotics. Akathisia is a well-kwown clinical outcome in antipsychotics old and new and seems to be especially prevalent with Abilify. One of the drug's clinical approval trials for its FDA approval as an add-on treatment for depression showed akathisia rates at 26 percent for people taking Abilify but only 4 percent for those taking a placebo.

But in the JCP study none of that was mentioned. Hm, I wonder why.

"So Abilify causes less akathisia than older medications and it's unclear if it causes more akathisia than placebo. But, wait, wasn't akathisia related to much higher rates of akathisia than placebo in treating depression? Fortunately, the authors had a little trick to erase that inconvenient piece of evidence; they only examined trials trials involving people diagnosed with schizophrenia or bipolar disorder. So the depression studies -- POOF -- vanished, along with their damning data.
"Why would the authors want to censor negative data about Abilify? Well, one author is an employee of Otsuka America Pharmaceutical, Inc., and another is an employee of Bristol-Myers Squibb, companies that market Abilify. And the other authors: All but one of them have a financial relationship with Bristol-Myers Squibb. The best part:

"Editorial support provided by Maria Soushko, Ph.D., Phase Five Communications, Inc., New York, N.Y., with funding provided by Bristol-Myers Squibb.

"So a paper that excludes the most inconvenient evidence regarding akathisia on Abilify had major parts of the writing done by... a medical writer hired by Bristol-Myers Squibb."

Ah, how nice of BMS to try and obscure reality. Akathisia is, of course, serious stuff and all that internal racing and restlessness can drive people, in some extreme cases, to the brink of suicide.

In other Abilify-akathisia related news, Tufts University psychiatrist Danny Carlat describes two recent patients of his whom he prescribed Abilify to for depression. Both patients wound up with akathisia.

Nice drug you've got there BMS.

Posted by Philip Dawdy at May 12, 2009 11:42 AM

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Comments

It really begs the question as to how it got published by the journal.

Posted by: Pinky at May 12, 2009 02:28 PM

From a quick scan of this report, it appears that the analysis intentionally avoided akathisia in those to whom the antipsychotic was prescribed for off-label use or contraindicated (e.g. seniors with symptoms of dementia). Off-label use of antipsychotics as a chemical restraint in Canadian nursing homes is an uncontrolled, out-of-control epidemic, causing unnecessary suffering from akathisia and worse for thousands of mistreated seniors. My mother-in-law is one of them.

Posted by: Gil Sampson at May 12, 2009 02:34 PM

I got akathisia on Abilify when I was in high school. That is scary shit. I had no idea what was going on. I could not stop moving.

Posted by: Princess at May 26, 2009 07:45 PM