There are a number of explanations for Mr Karzai's outbursts, other than the psychotropic or psychotic.

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Among psychotropic medications, two classes are particularly effective for panic, and they are very different from each other.

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Some parents are incensed that doctors are willing to prescribe psychotropic drugs to their young children but not 10 days of penicillin.

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In the statement, the foreign ministry drew attention to the lack of medicines found in his body, even though the adoptive parents said they had been treating him with "a strong psychotropic medication".

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In November, defense attorney Ellis Johnston argued before a different federal judge that the side effects of the psychotropic drugs his client had been receiving during his court-ordered treatment may interfere with Loughner's ability to work with his attorneys.

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"I've been working in psychiatry for 20 years and I've never seen psychotropic medications turn a child around as quickly as I've seen antibiotics turn a Pandas child around, " says Tanya Murphy, director of the Rothman Center for Pediatric Neuropsychiatry at the University of South Florida.

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And now, after months of hesitation, France's prime minister, Lionel Jospin, in some respects a bit of a puritan, has decided to follow the advice of the latest ministerial commission looking into drugs: it says that alcohol, tobacco and psychotropic medicines should come under its remit too.

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