VA spent $717 million on a drug deemed as effective as a placebo
By Bob Brewin 08/22/2011
This is the thirteenth story in an ongoing series.
Over the past decade, the Veterans Affairs Department spent $717 million for an anti-psychotic drug to treat post-traumatic stress disorder that a recent study shows is no more effective than a placebo.
Data provided by the department in response to a Nextgov query showed that VA doctors wrote more than 5 million prescriptions for risperidone from October 2000, the beginning of fiscal 2001, through June 2010. Risperidone is the generic name for Risperdal, a second-generation anti-psychotic drug originally developed by the Janssen Pharmaceuticals division of Johnson & Johnson to treat severe mental conditions such as schizophrenia and bipolar disorder.
But a paper by VA researchers published Aug. 2 in the Journal of the American Medical Association concluded, "treatment with risperidone compared with placebo did not reduce PTSD symptoms."
http://www.nextgov.com/nextgov/ng_20110822_6423.php
By Bob Brewin 08/22/2011
This is the thirteenth story in an ongoing series.
Over the past decade, the Veterans Affairs Department spent $717 million for an anti-psychotic drug to treat post-traumatic stress disorder that a recent study shows is no more effective than a placebo.
Data provided by the department in response to a Nextgov query showed that VA doctors wrote more than 5 million prescriptions for risperidone from October 2000, the beginning of fiscal 2001, through June 2010. Risperidone is the generic name for Risperdal, a second-generation anti-psychotic drug originally developed by the Janssen Pharmaceuticals division of Johnson & Johnson to treat severe mental conditions such as schizophrenia and bipolar disorder.
But a paper by VA researchers published Aug. 2 in the Journal of the American Medical Association concluded, "treatment with risperidone compared with placebo did not reduce PTSD symptoms."
http://www.nextgov.com/nextgov/ng_20110822_6423.php
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