Psychiatric Drug Side Effects

Some neurological drugs are used in psychiatry even though they were approved for conditions such as epilepsy. An example of this is Gabapentin, also called Neurontin.

"Patient with schizophrenia and tardive dyskinesia developed bilateral corneal edema while receiving chronic amantadine hydrochloride." (1)

After reading this reference I was so upset about the mistreatment of the patient that I was considering giving up on the article. However, if I gave up on the article the cases of mistreatment would continue.

But Are There Chemical Imbalances?

Yes, there are indeed chemical imbalances. But none of the current drugs are designed to correct the actual imbalances. Ref. 2 reports excessive kynurenine in both schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. This is a metabolite of tryptophan. Tryptophan is found in the diet. Ref. 2 could be explained if tryptophan were flooding the cells.

Clozapine

Ref. 3 details problems with glucose and lipids in patients on Clozapine. Unfortunately these problems are not unique to Clozapine. They are also seen in other atypical "antipsychotics".

Pathology

Is there pathology in schizophrenia? The answer is "Yes" according to Ref. 5. But is any of this pathology due to the drugs? The answer is "Yes", unfortunately. Ref. 1 is an example of such pathology.

Reserpine

Ref. 6 discusses Reserpine toxicity.

Chlorpromazine (Thorazine)

Ref. 7 discusses a terrible side effect of chlorpromazine (Thorazine).

Haloperidol

"Results suggest a relationship between haloperidol dose and toxic effects on the liver, and they indicate that a high dose of haloperidol may result in irreversible liver damage." (8)

Unclear Data

Ref. 9 although possibly a brilliant study, does not mention in the abstract whether the patients were on medication or not. Therefore I am not certain whether this pathology is due to the schizophrenia itself, which is quite possible, or whether some of it is due to medication.

Conclusions

This article is not a complete list of side effects by any means. It is a sampling that is so scary that I got discouraged just by writing it. Ref. 10 gives more information on psychiatric drug side effects. Ref. 11 gives general information on psychiatric research including recent findings. Ref. 12 includes activism for imroved mental health care, which would also save the government a lot of money. Alternative treatments are discussed.

References

1. Eye Contact Lens. 2009 Jul;35(4):209-11. Nonimmunologic graft failure after Descemet's Stripping Automated Endothelial Keratoplasty (DSAEK) for presumed amantadine-induced corneal edema. Koenig SB, McDermott ML, Simons KB.

2. Brain Res. 2006 Feb 16;1073-1074:25-37. Epub 2006 Jan 30. Upregulation of the initiating step of the kynurenine pathway in postmortem anterior cingulate cortex from individuals with schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. Miller CL, Llenos IC, Dulay JR, Weis S.

3. Prog Neuropsychopharmacol Biol Psychiatry. 2009 Dec 3. [Epub ahead of print] Lipid status, anti-oxidant enzyme defence and haemoglobin content in the blood of long-term clozapine-treated schizophrenic patients. Miljevic C, Nikolic M, Nikolic-Kokic A, Jones DR, Niketic V, Lecic-Tosevski D, Spasic MB.

4. Metabolic risk factors among medicaid outpatients with schizophrenia receiving second-generation antipsychotics. Bell RC, Farmer S, Ries R, Srebnik D. Psychiatr Serv. 2009 Dec;60(12):1686-9.

5. Mitochondrial dysfunction and psychiatric disorders. Jou SH, Chiu NY, Liu CS. Chang Gung Med J. 2009 Jul-Aug;32(4):370-9. Review.

6. Green tea modulates reserpine toxicity in animal models. Al-Bloushi S, Safer AM, Afzal M, Mousa SA. J Toxicol Sci. 2009 Feb;34(1):77-87.

7. In vivo observations of chlorpromazine ocular deposits in a patient on long-term chlorpromazine therapy. Razeghinejad MR, Nowroozzadeh MH, Zamani M, Amini N. Clin Experiment Ophthalmol. 2008 Aug;36(6):560-3.

8. Naunyn Schmiedebergs Arch Pharmacol. 2009 Mar;379(3):253-61. Epub 2008 Oct 21. Effect of chronic treatment of haloperidol on the rat liver: a stereological and histopathological study. Halici Z, Dursun H, Keles ON, Odaci E, Suleyman H, Aydin N, Cadirci E, Kalkan Y, Unal B.

9. Zh Nevrol Psikhiatr Im S S Korsakova. 2008;108(9):62-8.

10. www.associatedcontent.com/article/2462506/psychiatric_drugs_gods_or_frauds.html

11. www.associatedcontent.com/article/2456500/depressed_mice.html

12. www.associatedcontent.com/article/2452994/how_the_government_could_save_massive.html