Posted by alexandra_k on November 17, 2004, at 15:20:20
In reply to Re: Specificity of Anti-psychotics, posted by ed_uk on November 17, 2004, at 11:57:32
I don't know all that much about medication. But I think there are a couple of different kinds of anti-psychotics, the older ones (the tranquilisers) such as chlorpromazine, and the newer ones. The older ones do have more of a pronounced sedating effect than the newer ones.
The newer ones also seem to be better with respect to improving levels of functioning. Some people say that they also assist with negative symptoms, though I am not sure that there is evidence for that.
I used to live in supported accomodation (part of the spirit of deinstitutionalisation). Most of the people there were schizophrenic. People relapsed when they didn't take their anti-psychotics. I saw that happen a lot. I also saw a major improvement in people on Clozapine. They improved on that even when the other anti-psychotics were of limited effectiveness.
I am not sure about whether anti-psychotics actually produce a reduction in hallucinations, but what I think that they do do is allow one to interpret them in a positive or at least neutral light instead of being caught in a 'revelation' that one hears the voice of god etc. It seems to be the interpretation of such hallucinations that just is delusions, and so one is also able to consider a delusional hypothesis as a hypothesis rather than as a fact.
I think that instead of using benzo's for positive symptoms of schizophrenia (as you suggest) one would be better prescribing anti-psychotics for anxiety (as there is a risk of physical and psychological addiction to benzo's). Rather than being a 'bad' thing that there are non-specific effects, we should embrace those and use that to our advantage. Of course, ongoing research may be able to pinpoint the mechanisms that produce the effect and we may be able to develop more specific drugs to target those mechanisms exclusively. Until then, anti-psychotics seem to be the best we have got: for psychotic symptoms, and also (in my opinion) for anxiety.
But this is all my opinion, and I have this nagging concern that I don't really know what I am talking about...
poster:alexandra_k
thread:416642
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20041113/msgs/417127.html