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Pharmacy home >> Healthcare Articles >> Texas Medication Algorithm Project
Texas Medication Algorithm Project
The Texas Medication Algorithm Project (TMAP)
is a controversial corporate-sponsored set of psychiatric management
guidelines designed to enable doctors to systematically screen
and treat patients for diagnosed mental disorders within Texas'
publicly-funded mental health care system. TMAP was initiated
in the fall of 1997 to provide more uniform early intervention
screening and treatment for Texas children.
In 1994 MAP was recommended as a model for
implementing similar mental health screening programs throughout
the United States, by the President's New Freedom Commission
on Mental Health. Similar programs have been implemented in
about a dozen States, according to a 2004 report in the British
Medical Journal.
TMAP arose from a collaboration that began
in 1995 between pharmaceutical companies, the University of
Texas Southwestern, and the Texas Department of Mental Health
and Mental Retardation (TDMHMR). According to the British Medical
Journal, "the project (TMAP) was funded by a Robert Wood
Johnson grant (along with several drug companies)." The
pharmaceutical companies who funded the development of TMAP
include Janssen Pharmaceutica, Johnson & Johnson, Eli Lilly,
Astrazeneca, Pfizer, Novartis, Janssen-Ortho-McNeil, GlaxoSmithKline,
Abbott Laboratories, Bristol Myers Squibb, Wyeth-Ayerst and
Forrest Laboratories.
TMAP is a decision-tree medical algorithm,
the design of which was based on the expert opinions of prescribers.
The drugs recommended as "first line treatment", are
produced by the sponsors of the guidelines: Risperdal, Zyprexa,
Seroquel, Geodone, Depakote, Paxil, Zoloft, Celexa, Wellbutrin,
Zyban, Remeron, Serzone, Effexor, Buspar, Adderall and Prozac.
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