Both typical and atypical antipsychotics commonly cause side effects like drowsiness, dizziness, blurred vision, constipation, nausea, and vomiting, per the NIMH. These often go away. But the drugs can also cause serious long-term side effects.
Side Effects of Antipsychotics
This can affect sex drive, mood, menstrual cycles, and growth of breast tissue in both men and women. One of the common side effects of many of the newer antipsychotics is weight gain. You may also have trouble keeping your blood sugar and cholesterol levels under control.
Antipsychotics can increase the risk of falls, especially when taken with other drugs. Tardive dyskinesia and other movement-related side-effects can develop in older adults who have used antipsychotics over a long period. Women are twice as likely as men to experience these effects.
They can cause movement disorders such as twitching and restlessness, sedation and weight gain, and lead to diabetes. Because of these side effects, antipsychotic drugs are usually only used to treat severe mental illnesses such as schizophrenia or bipolar disorder.
What happens if a normal person takes olanzapine? Olanzapine is prescribed for people who have chronic schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. In ordinary people, intake of olanzapine increases weight by at least 2–3 kgs over six weeks. Other side effects include dry mouth, tremors, restlessness, and muscle contractions.
Risperidone can affect your hormones and sometimes causes sexual problems (in men or women). It can also affect periods. These effects are not common and happen in less than 1 in 100 people. If you would like to start a family then talk to your doctor if you have any of these problems or if you are worried.
For neurological, neuropsychological, neurophysiological, and metabolic abnormalities of cerebral function, in fact, there is evidence suggesting that antipsychotic medications decrease the abnormalities and return the brain to more normal function.
Results: Antipsychotics, as a group, increase weight and may lead to dry mouth and bad breath, cataracts, hirsutism, acne, and voice changes; they may disturb symmetry of gait and heighten the risk for tics and spasms and incontinence, potentially undermining a person's attractiveness.
One of these chemicals is called dopamine. It is thought that high levels of dopamine may cause the brain to function differently and may cause the symptoms of psychosis. Antipsychotics work by blocking the effect of dopamine. This helps reduce psychotic symptoms for many people.
For people with schizophrenia, long-term antipsychotic use is usually accompanied by adverse effects such as weight gain, metabolic syndrome, diabetes, and ischemic heart disease, demonstrating their important role in increased mortality.
Antipsychotic drugs don't cure psychosis but they can help to reduce and control many psychotic symptoms, including: delusions and hallucinations, such as paranoia and hearing voices. anxiety and serious agitation, for example from feeling threatened. incoherent speech and muddled thinking.
Previous research has also shown that the use of antipsychotics may raise the risk of metabolic syndrome in patients with schizophrenia. Metabolic syndrome has, in turn, been associated with heart disease and diabetes.
Some people need to keep taking it long term. If you have only had one psychotic episode and you have recovered well, you would normally need to continue treatment for 1–2 years after recovery. If you have another psychotic episode, you may need to take antipsychotic medication for longer, up to 5 years.
Evidence of the rapidity at which antipsychotics can affect brain volume in humans was recently provided by Tost and associates. These investigators found a significant, reversible decrease in striatal volume in healthy subjects within 2 hours after they were treated intravenously with haloperidol.
Meyer-Lindberg himself published a study last year showing that antipsychotics cause quickly reversible changes in brain volume that do not reflect permanent loss of neurons (see 'Antipsychotic deflates the brain')7.
Taking risperidone may make you feel tired or make it hard to fall asleep at night. It can also give you headaches or affect your eyesight. You should talk to your doctor about any future exams if you are starting risperidone.
The most common adverse reactions in clinical trials (>5% and twice placebo) were parkinsonism, akathisia, dystonia, tremor, sedation, dizziness, anxiety, blurred vision, nausea, vomiting, upper abdominal pain, stomach discomfort, dyspepsia, diarrhea, salivary hypersecretion, constipation, dry mouth, increased appetite ...
So while treatment with some antipsychotics seems to increase intelligence, others reduce symptoms without that effect. Other medications that are known to cause improved cognitive functioning had no effect when combined with those antipsychotics.
Some people may be able to stop taking antipsychotics without problems, but others can find it very difficult. If you have been taking them for some time, it can be more difficult to come off them. This is especially if you have been taking them for one year or longer.
Factor analysis of these items revealed three main effects of antipsychotic medication related to doubt and self-doubt, cognitive and emotional numbing, and social withdrawal. Antipsychotic treatment appears to be connected to a number of negative subjective effects on cognition and emotion.
Clozapine and olanzapine have the safest therapeutic effect, while the side effect of neutropenia must be controlled by 3 weekly blood controls.
Of the atypical antipsychotics, risperidone is the weakest in terms of atypicality criteria.
Amongst the many adverse effects of the first generation, or 'typical' antipsychotics, the most disturbing was Tardive Dyskinesia, which involves uncontrollable movements of face, hands and feet [2].
Identifying Antipsychotics
People who use the drug don't seem to be getting high directly from it. Instead, quetiapine is most commonly used to enhance the effects of other drugs, notably cocaine and heroin.
In fact, many medical experts today believe there is potential for all individuals to recover from psychosis, to some extent. Experiencing psychosis may feel like a nightmare, but being told your life is over after having your first episode is just as scary.