Mental illnesses may be treated with common somatic drugs
Researchers have identified medication commonly used to treat physical health diseases may also reduce rates of psychiatric hospitalization and self-harm in individuals with serious mental illness. Joseph Hayes, lead author from University College London (UK), and a multidisciplinary team conducted within-individual cohort studies of 142,691 patients from Sweden, with schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, or nonaffective psychosis. The results were published in JAMA Psychiatry. “There has been a lack of new drug development for these devastating disorders, but there is some research suggesting that a number of drugs already licenced for other indications may have positive effects on psychiatric symptoms,” explained Hayes....