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Dr. Bob is Robert Hsiung, MD,
bob@dr-bob.orgShown: posts 1 to 11 of 11. This is the beginning of the thread.
Posted by Boogie on March 24, 2006, at 16:01:53
Just wondering, because I'm going through my denial of my illness again. But what are the effects on antipsychotics like risperdal, zyprexa, and geodon on mentally healthy people? Can they cause psychosis?
Posted by B2chica on March 24, 2006, at 16:05:01
In reply to Antipsychotics on mentally healthy people., posted by Boogie on March 24, 2006, at 16:01:53
just want to say been there...totally understand and i asked the same questions but never heard any response...i hope you get some. i'm very interested too.
b2c.
> Just wondering, because I'm going through my denial of my illness again. But what are the effects on antipsychotics like risperdal, zyprexa, and geodon on mentally healthy people? Can they cause psychosis?
Posted by B2chica on March 24, 2006, at 16:05:36
In reply to Antipsychotics on mentally healthy people., posted by Boogie on March 24, 2006, at 16:01:53
some AP's can cause psychosis, but that can be in someone with or without MI.
Posted by Boogie on March 24, 2006, at 16:47:36
In reply to Re: Antipsychotics on mentally healthy people., posted by B2chica on March 24, 2006, at 16:05:36
I never noticed it before, or just forgot about it. But I know people use schizophrenic talk. This is why I'm not sure if I got psychotic depression. I might have depression, but I think that went away with geodon, or just went away on its own. I'm not sure if I have psychosis, because it would be more delusional to say people never speak indirectly about you when they speak about similar situations that resemble your situation and talk about you that way. They try to talk crap to you, but don't want to be straightforward about it. I was so naive to think that people never spoke this way. Now, sometimes I'm not sure if people are talking crap.
Posted by Phillipa on March 24, 2006, at 19:51:59
In reply to Re: Antipsychotics on mentally healthy people., posted by Boogie on March 24, 2006, at 16:47:36
Why are you on antipsychotics? Love Phillipa
Posted by med_empowered on March 24, 2006, at 21:56:47
In reply to Re: Antipsychotics on mentally healthy people. » Boogie, posted by Phillipa on March 24, 2006, at 19:51:59
APs were used in the past on people w/o true psychiatric illness-they were sometimes used for anxiety, for sleep (I believe Thorazine was used as a sedative), for behavior control (example: "senile aggression"--old people causing trouble), and sometimes for treatment of nausea. People hated them just as much as "mental patients"--when "normals" take Haldol, for instance, they report sadness, dysphoria, anxiety, and overall unhappiness within a couple days. In terms of "causing psychosis"..now and then, a psychosis will get worse right after starting an antipsychotic, or the person will become psychotic (and they weren't before). I don't think its terribly common--its like when people take Benzos and become angry and agitated or people taking antidepressants sink further into despair.
HOWEVER..with the old antipsychotics, there is the risk of supersensitivity psychosis. Basically, giving someone drugs that blocks D2 causes the brain to make more D2 receptors, since the lack of dopamine is seen by the brain as an abnormal, pathological state. SO, if you withdraw the antipsychotic, the patient has all these new D2 receptors...once the drug is out of the system and dopamine levels are back, the brain is now super-sensitive to its own dopamine, which can result in psychosis. In some cases, this "supersensitivity psychosis" is a sort of ongoing process; a patient might start at, say, 300mgs/day of Thorazine, relapse, then keep going up and up and up....the brain has been altered in such a way the w/o the medication, the new D2 receptors result in dopamine-induced psychosis. When this happens, docs can administer an anti-epileptic (anti-convulsant) drug along with the antipsychotic; apparently, this helps stop the sensitization process.
Because of the "supersensitivity psychosis," some patients who had never been psychotic--example, people treated for major depression or anxiety or any other number of problems--reported psychosis upon stopping the antipsychotic. This has also been called the "withdrawal psychosis".
Posted by Phillipa on March 24, 2006, at 22:22:54
In reply to Re: Antipsychotics on mentally healthy people. » Boogie, posted by Phillipa on March 24, 2006, at 19:51:59
They also use haldol for intracctable hiccups. Love Phillipa
Posted by JaclinHyde on March 25, 2006, at 2:10:17
In reply to Antipsychotics on mentally healthy people., posted by Boogie on March 24, 2006, at 16:01:53
I highly doubt it. It would have the same effect some of those drugs have on people namely numbness of feelings.
JH
Posted by Caedmon on March 25, 2006, at 13:41:25
In reply to Antipsychotics on mentally healthy people., posted by Boogie on March 24, 2006, at 16:01:53
If your doctor is considering using neuroleptics, you are probably not "mentally healthy". Neurotic states such as depression and anxiety would fall under the vaguely-defined area of "not-quite-mentally-healthy", else why even take medications or go to therapy?
I believe that atypical antipsychotics will *not* provoke psychosis in the vast majority of people, regardless of being mentally interesting or not. I am sure that there are cases of it happening, but it probably isn't common. A more common negative result is that one finds the side effects too much to handle. But this isn't always the case. (I respond well to risperidone.)
Posted by linkadge on March 27, 2006, at 11:20:30
In reply to Re: Antipsychotics on mentally healthy people. » Boogie, posted by Caedmon on March 25, 2006, at 13:41:25
The problem with neuroleptics is that you often block one or two receptors which leaves more dopamine for remaining receptors, which can alter the way the brain processes things.
I remember that antipsychotics made me feel really *weird*. Not psychotic necessarily, but definately weird. My thought processes changed slightly because it is shunting your dopamine around.
I remember when I was taking thiorodiazine it definately made things feel otherworldly. I kindof felt like I had jumped into an alternate dimention. I remember staring at a stop sign for a few hours thinking that I had seen it before but that I had never seen it before.
I don't know if I would call it psychotic, but it definately messed with my mind.
Linkadge
Posted by spriggy on March 28, 2006, at 23:56:57
In reply to Re: Antipsychotics on mentally healthy people. » Caedmon, posted by linkadge on March 27, 2006, at 11:20:30
I know I was not psychotic when I was put on Seroquel; my doctor gave it to me for sleep and anxiety.
I took it several times and all I can say about it's feeling to me was as if my brain and all of it's chemistry was being totally rearranged.
I felt like someone was up in my head shoving my furniture around. It wasn't a pleasant feeling.
It felt very "forced."
This is the end of the thread.
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