Posted by med_empowered on January 6, 2007, at 16:47:35
In reply to Re: Patient paid to accept neuroleptic depot injection, posted by linkadge on January 6, 2007, at 16:26:37
I think neuroleptics are pretty bad drugs. I read somewhere (maybe david healy?) that if neuroleptics hadn't yet been invented by now, there would be no need to invent them. The drugs "aren't perfect" because the side effects (movement disorders, sedation, lethary, akathisia, dysphoria, cognitive impairment) are simply a part of the main action. These aren't unintended or preventable side effects--this is what happens when you consistently block 60% or more of someone's d2 receptors. Also, I fail to see how numbing someone up for years and years is "therapeutic".
I'll be honest--sometimes, when I was freaking out, a low-dose atypical helped. It didn't save me, but it helped. But that's very low-dose,and very short-term. We're talking about keeping people on these drugs indefinitely, even though the side effects of the old ones are known, and the side effects of the atypicals are beginning to appear similar to the old ones (plus the fine side effects of massive weight gain and diabetes. woo hoo!)
Also, it strikes me as odd that (in the US at least) minorities (especially african americans) and poor people are more likely to receive a DX of "schizophrenia" than are white or non-poor patients with similar symptoms. Also, even though African Americans are often "poor metabolizers" of neuroleptics and therefore should be given less, they are often prescribed stronger neuroleptics in higher dosages for longer periods of time. Not surprisingly, African American psychiatric patients are more likely than their white counterparts to suffer from tardive dyskinesia. "Schizophrenia" is a label that can easily be used to discredit and dismiss someone, especially if that someone is poor and/or non-white. Neuroleptics are a great way to imprison people's minds when the law won't let you imprison their bodies (which, considering the huge prison population in the US, isn't all that hard to do, either).
poster:med_empowered
thread:719688
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20070101/msgs/719917.html