Saturday, May 30, 2009

The Antipsychotic Trinity Gospel © Megan Snider


I have some things I should probably mention about antipsychotics before I let my experience with Tardive Dyskensia slide. So, I'm going to cover them today.

The first thing you should know is that as far as antipsychotics are concerned, there are three "generations."

The First Generation-- Typical Antipsychotics, 1950
The first generation came with Haldol. Haldol was the first antipsychotic developed, is the oldest, and provides the kind of psychiatric care you might read about in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest. Haldol is also dirt cheap. Thanks to the Wal-Mart $5.00, prescription plan, you can buy a nice pill jar of Haldol, look in the mirror, and watch the muscles in your mouth spasm. Haldol is a strong drug and often administered in strong doses. Haldol is what they give Schizophrenics to shut them up when they can no longer provide care. They just shoot them full of Haldol injections monthly and let them jitter and spasm. Thank you, mental health centers.

DO NOT TAKE HALDOL WITHOUT AN ANTI-MUSCLE SPASM DRUG.

Even with the drug, you will still twitch.

Antipsychotics are used both to treat Schizophrenia and Bipolar Disorders. Generally speaking, these two illnesses are eerily alike. Aside from that you have Schizoaffective Disorder, Psychosis, and it continues on down the spectrum of disorders mixed with conception of reality and conception of mood and personality.

The Second Generation--Atypical Antipsychotics, 1950-1970
The second generation also began in the 1950s, but continued into the 1970s. These drugs are generally safer. I, myself, had taken Zyprexa for three years without an anti-spasm drug and had no effects. Zyprexa, at first, stopped my mind from racing and helped me get to sleep. After a while, it did nothing but make me gain weight.

The Third Generation-- Abilify and Bifeprunox, Currently being tested
The third generation of antipsychotics is still in testing, basically. Abilify has been trumpeted as the Messiah of antipsychotics, but its true effects remain to be seen. I assume the third generation is safer than the second and requires no anti-spasm medication.

Never forget, ANY antipsychotic can cause: Aranulocytosis, Tardive dyskinesia, Tardive akathisia, Tardive psychoses and Tardive dysphrenia.

That's really all I would like to mention in effect to that situation for now.


© Megan Snider

1 comment:

  1. As a person who has been documented (though standard clinical documentation) as having made a full recovery with glycine, an NMDA receptor modulate a new class of antipsychotics in Phase II FDA study (I could not tolerate all current antipsychotics because I have advanced tardive dystonia to the point where I am homebound) that do not cause tardive dyskinesia or diabetes and promote a fuller recovery and have advocated for these treatments to be further researched
    when these new treatment modalities are approved that will very likely change.

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