Draft:Antipsychotics

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Anti-psychotics are usually D2 receptor antagonist drugs which primarily sedate patients who receive them. Many cause morbid obesity and/or diabetes. Antipsychotics in general drastically increase the risk of premature death.

Effects

You feel like you had a chemical lobotomy on them and become more slow. Sometimes medical professionals joke about this effect, one such joke being called the "thorazine shuffle", which notes how psych patients on antipsychotics look like zombies by shuffling their feet as such. There is evidence that nurses can overcome compassion fatigue by making their patients worse, thereby evoking a compassion response at the patients declining function.

A 2013 study found that antipsychotics increase all-cause mortality by around 272%. The relative risk of premature death among schizophrenics is 2.50 (95% CI) per increment of one neuroleptic.

Another 2013 study suggested that schizophrenics who do not receive antipsychotics are less likely to become fully disabled, less likely to relapse after remission, and had better clinical outcomes than schizophrenics who received antipsychotics.

Martin Harrow enrolled hundreds of patients into a long-term, prospective study of schizophrenia. The study concluded that antipsychotics worsen psychosis by 250%, triple anxiety, trim cognitive function by 40%, and cut employment by 2/3rds.

Recovery from antipsychotics

A 5 year study released during 2018 showed that quitting antipsychotics improves cognitive functioning on a wide range of tests.

Examples

The most commonly prescribed antipsychotic in many countries is Zyprexa (aka Olanzepine). The company behind the drug received the largest individual corporate criminal fine in history (1.415 billion) due to illegal off-label marketing of the drug.

This crackdown occurred three years after a series of front page New York Times articles exposed that the company behind Zypexa was trying to hide the overall negative health effects of the drug (including severe obesity and raised blood sugar) and market the drug to seniors for unrelated purposes.

See also

• Antidepressants