Tuesday, January 30, 2007

Seroquel For Everything Update: Anorexia

A reader recently made the following comment about Zyprexa
Rumor has it that zyprexa is now going to be marketed for anorexic hyperglycemics....
I assume that this was sarcastic -- I got a chuckle from it, though I think the reader meant hypoclycemics. In any case, a study was recently published (Powers et al; International Journal of Eating Disorders) in which quetiapine (Seroquel) was used to treat people with anorexia. Mind you, this was an uncontrolled study, so the improvements in depression and other symptoms may well just be placebo effects. Here are the authors' conclusions, as seen in the study abstract:
Quetiapine was well-tolerated and patients had significant improvements in several subscales of the PANSS as well as decreases in measures of anxiety and depression.
Hey, it's just a matter of time before we can perhaps all benefit from some Seroquel in the water supply, right? I wonder how many reprints AstraZeneca has purchased of this ever so rigorous study to disseminate to physicians and to discuss at those (in)famous doctor dinners. Background here and here.

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