Posted by med_empowered on December 13, 2006, at 17:16:29
In reply to Re: Risperdal for GAD? » med_empowered, posted by chess on December 13, 2006, at 16:31:48
dude...atypicals are designed for schizophrenia. Maybe bipolar. Possibly severe depression. Anxiety? Not so much.
A lot of the older drugs also have effects on serotonin. Mellaril does, loxapine does, moban definitely does....thorazine even has weak dopamine re-uptake inhibition action and some weak serotonin antagonism. These features really aren't anything new, although they are more promient and more heavily promoted in the atypicals.
If you really think the risks of a neuroleptic are justified for you, then do it. I'm just saying--there are lots and lots and lots of other options out there that don't involve antagonism of dopamine and don't involve the risks of dopamine blockade.
Also...the atypicals can cause EPS, especially Risperdal; it can induce full-fledged Parkinsonism at higher doses, just like Haldol and other old school high potency meds. It may help you, but it really isn't that huge of an innovation--one reason it came out so great in studies was b/c investigators used 20mgs+ Haldol (which is about 1,000mgs thorazine, I believe--a pretty massive dose pretty much guaranteed to cause EPS).
you are less likely to have serious problems with new meds than old meds, but what i"m saying is that the risks are still there, and they are still pretty hardcore, and for something as minor as GAD, there are any number of much safer, much more pleasant, much less expensive alternatives one could try before resorting to dopamine blockers.
poster:med_empowered
thread:713232
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20061212/msgs/713326.html