Posted by med_empowered on September 15, 2008, at 22:39:57
In reply to Risperdal CAUSING anxiety?, posted by becksFLA on September 14, 2008, at 22:25:12
I'm not really sure why docs keep pushing antipsychotics as "tranquilizers." I mean, it must have worked for someone, somewhere over the past 50+ years, but..there are better options.
Anyway: antipsychotics can (and often do) raise anxiety. They can do this by inducing akathisia (inner restlessness), which varies in severity from mild (at least to the observer) to severe (akathisia apparently drives some people to suicide/homicide).
Then there's the D2 blockade. I read a couple studies where they hypothesized that one reason schizophrenics seem so anxious is b/c of the antipsychotics inducing a hypodopaminergic state...the result can be an increase in anxiety and panic attacks, kind of like what you see in Parkinson's Disease (often the psychiatric symptoms of PD come on before the dyskinetic movements).
Are you feeling apathetic or dysphoric? There's also the "Neuroleptic-Induced Deficit Syndrome," a cluster of problems in mood, cognition, and overall functioning caused by the dopamine-blocking action of antipsychotics.
And finally..there's "Neuroleptic-Induced Dysphoria." This is a common (and commonly ignored) problem in which antipsychotics make people feel unhappy, with the degrees of unhappiness ranging from the relatively mild (apathetic, anxious, etc.) to the severe (depression leading to suicide).I had to take Risperdal for a while and it made my anxiety pretty awful. I'd recommend that you drop the Risperdal and avoid antipsychotics in the future.
poster:med_empowered
thread:852061
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20080915/msgs/852204.html