Can Anti-Psychotic Medications Cause Brain Damage?

My ex wife suffers from schizophrenia. She has been on Seroquel or "quetiapine" for about two and a half years. Seroquel is one of the top anti-psychotic medications used to treat schizophrenia. Other anti-psychotic medications include Haldol or "haloperidol", Zyprexa or "olanzapine", Geodon or "Ziprasidone", and Risperdal or "Risperidone". Many of these drugs are also used to treat Bi-Polar or Manic Depression.

Since the diagnosis of my ex wife's illness, she has been as as much as 600 milligrams of Seroquel. For a while she was doing better but after a while longer, mood swings became more frequent, talking to herself became more frequent and she became less independent. Now all of these drugs have a very sedative side effect but none of her behaviors were from being sleepy. We would tell her doctor that she was getting worse. While her hallucinations and the voices she hears weren't getting any worse, her mood swings, talking to herself, and wincing were. The doctor's answer was adding the drug Depakote. Depakote is a anti-seizure medication but is more commonly used as a mood stabilizer. Any improvements lasted only a few months and then she was even worse. I have a medical background as well as a background working with the mentally ill. I'm aware of the medications to treat most mental illnesses along with how they work, etc. My wife's decline prompted me to do some research. What I found may astonish you.

For the past twenty years, scientists have found that the use of anti-psychotic medications is associated with structural brain changes, especially when taking high dosages for a long time. These changes in the brain include actual shrinkage of the frontal lobe of the brain. This shrinkage can be seen in scans and autopsy studies. Drug manufacturers and some in the medical profession argue that the shrinkage is due to the mental illness itself. However, studies have found that monkeys who were given anti-psychotic medications suffered the same shrinkage as humans. Now the medical libraries have all this information in them but the public libraries do not. As a result, the patients, their family, and the public do not know the dangers of these medications and it's not likely that the doctors who are prescribing them will say anything. That's right. Most of the public does not know what the medical profession has known for two decades.

What does all of this mean? If you or your loved one is on any of these medications for a long period of time (a year or more), even if they get off the medications and are treated without the medications, they will NEVER be the same. They may be better than they were on the medication, but not as good as they were before they were on it.

And if all of what you just read isn't bad enough. Another study indicates that these drugs cause actual brain cell death. It's time to panic folks.

Forward a link to this article to anyone and everyone you know who has been diagnosed with Bi Polar or Manic Depression, or Schizophrenia. If you have a friend or know of someone who has a family member or loved one with one of these mental illnesses, send them this link. This article is a MUST READ for anyone and everyone who has or may in the future have a friend or family member with one of these mental illnesses. Good luck to you.

Source: David W. Oaks: Psychiatric survivor and executive director of MindFreedom International. David has been a community organizer for human rights and choice in mental health since 1976.