The Psychiatric Side Effects of Drugs: An Introduction

This is a vast area and a discouraging one. One article can't do justice to it. I will only scratch the surface. Unfortunately many drugs cause hepatotoxity, which means liver toxicity. This is because the liver metabolizes them. Also many drugs when taken by pregnant women, including Depakote, can cause birth defects. Depakote is used for neurological disorders such as seizures.

Drugs for Enlarged Prostate

Certain drugs for an enlarged prostate can lower your blood pressure. This might be a good thing, and it might not. Alpha-blocking drugs can do this. A sudden drop in blood pressure can lead to dizziness and fainting. Doxazosin, also called Cardura, is in this category.

Another type of drug for benign prostate hypertrophy is finasteride, also called Proscar.

Cholesterol

There are nondrug methods for lowering your cholesterol. These should be considered. Exercise is one approach. Also safe is a low-fat diet. Certain fats are considered beneficial, including polyunsaturated fats such as canola, corn, safflower, and sunflower oils. Also good are monounsaturatede fats such as olive oil. Change from animal foods to plant foods.

Avoid saturated fat and cholesterol. Cholesterol is only in animal products. Soluble fiber is good. Psyllium and oat bran lower cholesterol. If you are overweight, reduce your weight.

The book "Worst Pills: Best Pills" is critical of statin drugs, which are used to lower cholesterol. This book is written by doctors, Ph. D.'s, and pharmacists. The book claims that the drugs increase the incidence of gastrointestinal cancers.

Interferon

"Interferons have been shown to be potential anti-cancer agents and to inhibit tumor cell growth in culture."

Taylor MW, Feng GS.

Department of Biology, Indiana University, Bloomington 47405.

This quote is from Ref. 1.

"In particular, interferon-gamma (IFN-gamma) induces an enzyme of tryptophan catabolism, indoleamine 2,3-dioxygenase (IDO), which is responsible for conversion of tryptophan and other indole derivatives to kynurenine." Taylor & Feng (1)

Irritability and depression have been reported as side effects of interferon treatment (2, 3).

"Treatment with recombinant interferon is associated with high rates of psychiatric comorbidity."

Russo S, Kema IP, Haagsma EB, Boon JC, Willemse PH, den Boer JA, de Vries EG, Korf J.

Department of Biological Psychiatry, University Hospital Groningen, Groningen, The Netherlands.

The above quote is from Ref. 2.

"Ten (17%) of 58 patients with chronic viral hepatitis treated with a four- to 12-month course of recombinant human interferon alfa developed psychiatric side effects. The psychiatric side effects fell into three categories: an organic personality syndrome characterized by irritability and short temper; an organic affective syndrome marked by extreme emotional lability, depression, and tearfulness; and a delirium marked by clouding of consciousness, agitation, paranoia, and suicidal potential."

Pierre F. Renault, MD; Jay H. Hoofnagle, MD; Yoon Park, RN; Kevin D. Mullen, MB, BCh; Marion Peters, MD; D. Brian Jones, MD; Vinod Rustgi, MD; E. Anthony Jones, MD

Arch Intern Med. 1987;147(9):1577-1580.

The above quote is from Ref. 3. These side effects are lemons, but perhaps we can make lemonade out of them. The side effects suggest that tryptophan metabolism may be causing the depression, which gives us an important clue to the etiology of depression.

Conclusions

Although disastrous side effects have been seen with many drugs, and we have only scratched the surface here, we can learn things from these side effects. Depression has been an enigma for decades. Depression is a common side effect of drugs (4). The drugs that do this alter tryptophan metabolism by increasing it. In my opinion this tells us something important about the etiology of depression. For some unknown reason nobody seems to have been able to figure this out until now.

The side effects of psychiatric drugs have been extensively discussed in my previous articles (5-9). I have not referenced all of my articles because I have written hundreds of them. For the other articles go to Associated Content and search for them.

References

1. FASEB J. 1991 Aug;5(11):2516-22. Comment in: FASEB J. 1991 Nov;5(14):3003-4. Relationship between interferon-gamma, indoleamine 2,3-dioxygenase, and tryptophan catabolism.Taylor MW, Feng GS.

2. Psychosom Med. 2005 Sep-Oct;67(5):773-7. Irritability rather than depression during interferon treatment is linked to increased tryptophan catabolism. Russo S, Kema IP, Haagsma EB, Boon JC, Willemse PH, den Boer JA, de Vries EG, Korf J. Department of Biological Psychiatry, University Hospital Groningen, Groningen, The Netherlands.

3. Renault PF, Hoofnagle JH, Park Y. Psychiatric complications of long-term interferon alfa therapy. Arch Intern Med 1987;147:1577-80.

4. Adams F, Quesada J, Gutterman J: Neuropsychiatric manifestations of human leukocyte interferon therapy in patients with cancer. JAMA 1984;252:938-941.

5. www.associatedcontent.com/article/2128781/the_biochemical_explanation_for_schizophrenia.html

6. www.associatedcontent.com/article/2137315/abnormal_energy_metabolism_in_mental.html

7. www.CraigOlson.bizhosting.com.

8. www.associatedcontent.com/article/2129285/mitochondrial_dysfunction_causes_mental.html

9. www.associatedcontent.com/article/2110713/advances_in_orthomolecular_psychiatry.html