If you’re taking a psychiatric drug, you probably hope that you’re taking the one with the lowest overall risk. Sure you want the drug to be therapeutic and alleviate your symptoms, but you also don’t want to take a drug with a rapid tolerance onset, debilitating side effects, and crazy withdrawal symptoms. Many dangerous psychiatric …
Psychosis is a condition that is commonly associated with the mental illness schizophrenia. It is defined as a detachment from reality and hallmark symptoms include delusions (beliefs that aren’t based in reality) and hallucinations (seeing, hearing, or feeling stimuli that aren’t real). Those with psychosis are usually admitted to a psychiatric ward and/or hospital and …
In recent years, increasing evidence has suggested that certain types of commonly prescribed medications may cause increased risk of developing dementia. This ranges from drugs used to treat anxiety (e.g. Xanax) to over-the-counter drugs (e.g. Benadryl). A majority of these medications tend to depress activity in the CNS and help minimize arousal and/or anxiety. Dementia …
Latuda (Lurasidone) is a relatively new atypical antipsychotic that was approved in 2013 for the treatment of schizophrenia and depressive episodes in Type 1 Bipolar disorder. Many have made the argument that since this is a “newer” antipsychotic, it’s likely to be “better” than the crop of older medications on the market. While no single …
What would you think if the classification of your psychiatric medications changed? Well, a new conference is taking place to address whether drug classification “names” should be changed. Currently, many psychiatric organizations believe there are advantages associated with changing from a “symptom-based” classification to a “pharmacological-based” classification system. This new system will be discussed at …
Zyprexa (Olanzapine) is an atypical antipsychotic drug that is commonly utilized for the treatment of schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. It works more on serotonin receptors than dopamine receptors, but targets both. Although this is a drug that can work well for treating severe mental illnesses, more than 50% of people quit taking it during clinical …
Many people are prescribed antipsychotic drugs even if they do not have conditions that necessarily warrant their use. The most commonly treated conditions with antipsychotic medications include: schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, schizoaffective disorder, and psychotic depression. If you have a condition like schizophrenia that results in auditory hallucinations, feelings of paranoia, and various types of delusions, …