Typical and Atypical Anti-psychotic Drug Side Effects:
With more and more research being done involving the conventional, older antipsychotic drugs and antipsychotic atypical drug and various mental illnesses, the psychiatric community is seeing much headway break in the realm of targeting specific abnormal psychiatric problems that they before might never have imagined possible. And as the research is developing, so too, then is the pharmaceutical industry. Whereas at one time, there were no anti-psychotics to speak of that didn’t cause tremendous side effects and specifically a moderate to severe sedating effect, now there are medications like Abilify, Aripiprazole, antipsychotic drug that cause little to no drowsy effect and still perform their proper treatment of the various illnesses it is designed for.
But even despite these new medical breakthroughs, one must be aware that conventional, older anti-psychotic drugs as well as antipsychotic atypical drugs, all of them so far in existence, carry the risk of some serious long term side effects. While the older, more “typical” anti-psychotics like Thorazine and Haldol run a greater chance of raising an issue than the newer ones, like Risperdal, Seroquel and Abilify, the possibility for negative long term effects exists. Patients need to be aware of what to look for in order to catch these side effects before they become permanent problems because the psychiatrist might not be able to pick up on the symptoms during a 15 minute to hour long sessions once a month or more often. And while most psychiatrists after prescribing you a medication wouldn’t dare proclaim it harmful in the long run, the truth is they definitely could be. So it is best to educate oneself and be aware of the things that your doctor didn’t tell you about your antipsychotic medications. The following is a brief list of the most common severe side effects of antipsychotic drugs.
Tardive Dyskinesia:
The term, meaning “Late Movement Disorder” was named in 1964 to describe this common side effect of long term anti-psychotic drug use. The symptoms of Tardive Dyskinesia include jerky, abnormal or delayed movements in the facial area, the entire head, or the trunk and extremities of an individual. Though the effects of this disorder can disguise themselves as minor tic like jolts, for instance rapid eye blinking or a type of repetitive lip sucking movement or they can be more obvious mannerisms such as rocking, twisting or flexing of the muscles in out of place situations.
It is unknown what causes Tardive Dyskinesia but some hypothesize that it is due to the brain receptor’s developed hypersensitivity to Dopamine. Since the anti-psychotics block the Dopamine neurotransmitters from reaching through some of the nerve pathways toward what are called post synaptic receptors, over time, it is believed that these receptors grow a sort of immunity to the Dopamine and so when a little bit of it does happen to come through to them, which is likely an inevitable situation after awhile, they react with Tardive Dyskinesia as sort of their panic protective mode. Scientists have determined that 15 to 20 percent of people taking antipsychotic medication for several years develop Tardive Dyskinesia. Doses of antipsychotic atypical drug medication should be kept as low as possible and warning signs should always be looked out for, to keep the risk for this disorder as low as possible.
Akathisia
Akathisia is another side effect of antipsychotic medication that can be very perturbing to both the patient and people around him or her. This disorder is characterized by a persistent feeling of restlessness in the body and muscles and the need to constantly move. While akathisia isn’t often as severe of a disorder as the other long term effects of anti-psychotics, it is still very irritating to the person experiencing it. To combat Akathisia, psychiatrists will often give mental patients drugs like beta blockers or benzodiazepines.
Agranulocytosis
Agranulocytosis is an occurrence of extremely low blood cell account that most often is seen in association with the use of the first developed atypical antipsychotic medication, Clozapine. While Clozapine has proven to have great results for treating Schizophrenia and related psychotic disorders, it unfortunately its benefits unfortunately cannot be utilized to their fullest extent because of this extremely dangerous side effect. Agranulocytosis is marked by a dramatic decrease in the body’s disease fighting white blood cell count and it occurs in about three percent of people who take Clozapine. Due to the severity of this disorder if encountered, people taking Clozapine are required to attend regular blood checkups with their physician to monitor the white blood cells. If there seems to be a problem lending itself to the Agranulocytosis diagnosis, patients are immediately taken off of the Clozapine. However, if caught too late, sometimes another side effect can be epileptic seizures.
Neuroleptic Malignant Syndrome
Neuroleptic Malignant Syndrome, or NMS, a Neuroleptical disorder caused almost always by a side effect of an antipsychotic or neuroleptic medication, is identified by the intitial onset of a high fever, cognitive confusion and muscular rigidity. These symptoms more often than not occur within the first two weeks of treatment with the antipsychotic medication but in patients taking high doses of the anti-psychotics, it can occasionally develop over time. If an individual starts to feel any of the above symptoms and are taking an antipsychotic medication, he or she needs to contact their doctor or emergency room immediately, for NMS is a very serious potentially fatal disease that can lead to a coma or delirium lasting from three to forty days. The patient will be pulled off the medication immediately.
Listed above were some of the more long term, severe atypical antipsychotic side effects, but certainly not all of the symptoms that can arise from taking an antipsychotic atypical drug or a more conventional, older anti-psychotic drug. Patients taking these medications should always be on the lookout for any abnormal or uncomfortable cognitive or physical symptoms and report any changes to the doctor right away.
