User:Ibrahim Moizoos/Antipsychotics

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Antipsychotics are medications dedicated

Types[edit]

Typical antipsychotics[edit]

tbd

Examples include:

  • Chlorpromazine (Thorazine).
  • Haloperidol (Haldol), by far the most used since atypical antipsychotics were developed.

Atypical antipsychotics[edit]

Atypical antipsychotics, or second generation antipsychotics, are the second wave of psychotic medications, first starting with risperidone in the 1990s. They are less likely to cause serious side effects compared to the typical antipsychotics.

Example include:

  • Risperidone (Risperdal)
  • Olanzapine (Zyprexa)
  • Aripiprazole (Abilify)

Mechanism of action[edit]

Typical and atypical antipsychotics differ in their mechanisms of action. Both typical and atypical antipsychotics are antagonists (that is, they inhibit the activity of) the dopamine receptor D2. This is not the case for aripiprazole, however, which is a partial dopamine agonist (that is, it promotes the activity of dopamine)

Anti-antipsychotic stances[edit]

tbd

Real problems associated with antipsychotics[edit]

While most arguments against antipsychotics by woo peddlers are bollocks, antipsychotics do have rather serious side effects. These include, but are not limited to:

  • Sleepiness tends to be a side effect of various antipsychotics, especially risperidone.
  • Significant weight gain is very common in atypical antipsychotics, especially olanzapine. Not helping matters is that most patients on olanzapine develop polyphagia, which is fancy speak for enough hunger to eat several water buffalo.
  • Movement disorders, or extrapyramidal symptoms to be more precise, are characteristic of typical antipsychotics (though they also occur in typical antipsychotics, except for olanzapine). They include:
    • Tardive dyskinesia is characterised by jerky, irregular and involuntary movements. Around a quarter of people on antipsychotics develop it.
    • Akathisia is a particularly nasty side effect present in both typical and atypical antipsychotics. While the description sounds trivial—an inability to sit still—it is known to cause suicide given how tremendously uncomfortable patients tend to feel. It is the least well understood of the extrapyramidal symptoms, and most treatments for it stop working once akathisia becomes chronic.