Posted by OldSchool on January 1, 2002, at 13:13:54
In reply to Re: Has anyone read, Your Drug May Be Your Problem, posted by Mitch on January 1, 2002, at 12:27:46
> I agree that the newer "atypicals" can be nearly as troublesome as the older conventional antipsychotics.
The newer atypicals can and do cause EPS. I am a living example of this. I had been told by my psychiatrist that seroquel has extremely low rates of causing movement disorders. I had read the literature. I believed it. Then after I went off the low dose seroquel the symptoms hit. Numb tongue, stiff and sore muscles, twitches, weakness on my right side. Let me tell you Ive taken a lot of psych meds in my time and this took the cake as far as side effects go.
I think the use of atypicals for mood disorders and anxiety needs to stop. Atypicals can and will cause a variety of movement disorders. Unless you are bona fide psychotic or manic, ditch these drugs.
ECT is superior for mood disordered individuals with psychotic symptoms...no danger of screwing yourself up neurologically like on anti-psychotics and you get a much superior antidepressant/anti-psychotic effect from ECT.
ECT is like a "super MAOI" in my opinion. The worst side effect is memory loss.
>I was on low-dose Thorazine and Mellaril for probably a total of four or five years back in the early 80's. I got switched off of them onto safer benzos (which worked nearly as well-I am bipolarII). I wasn't taking the AP's for psychosis, but for agitated mixed anxiety/depressive states. Later I found that Xanax, Ativan, or Klonopin worked just as well without all of the other problems.Ive found just plain old Klonopin works great for anxiety. Neurontin is another great choice for those with anxiety. So is Buspar. Why the use of atypical anti-psychotics for anxiety? I do not understand.
>I tried Risperdal and Seroquel a few years ago and re-experienced EPS problems with both of them. I think they are very tempting for pdocs to use because they attack so many symptoms at once and they don't have to go round and round with their patients switching and augmenting meds constantly. I feel uncomfortable posting negative stuff about AP's though, because I am afraid people who *are* psychotic won't take their meds and will wind up more miserable. However, it seems that most of the people who post here are not taking them for psychosis... It really is a dilemma. I guess if you could follow some general rule of thumb about them.. maybe if you get EPS from low-doses of all sorts of AP's and you aren't psychotic.. don't take them. If you get no EPS at all and they are helping you (even if you don't have psychosis), you just need to be informed and aware of the risks. However there is a positive correlation between EPS experiences and TD later on.. so one could alternately say that if you aren't experiencing any EPS with them *now* you likely *will not* develop any long-term problems -therefore they are beneficial and you should continue to take them until something less risky comes along that is comparably effective??
I agree, atypicals can cause serious problems for mood disordered folks just like older style anti-psychotics can. There is even mention of this right here on this website, under Dr. Bob's "tips and tricks." Go to the tips, check on "movement disorders" and go to the section titled "Risk of Tardive Dyskinesia." There under this section psychiatrist Ivan Goldberg discusses how mood disordered folks are more at risk of developing TD on neuroleptics than are hardcore schizophrenics. The risk is low for schizophrenics, but then again schizophrenia is what these meds were originally designed for.I simply do not believe everything I read about atypical anti-psychotics being safe. They are not safe for those with major depression or simple anxiety.
Old School
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> Mitch
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poster:OldSchool
thread:88357
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20011222/msgs/88440.html