[ANON POST] Long-Term Antipsychotic Use

[kutsuwamushi]

Alright, so my setting is in the not-too-distant future, in a secluded part of the northern United States. The basic premise is that a large community of people are kept isolated at what sort of a cross between a boarding school and a hospital. To prevent them from escaping or resisting, they are continuously dosed with a drug that keeps them

Comments

[anonymous]

Based on my experiences with schizophrenia and antipsychotics... when my mom's on her meds, she's a lot more reasonable, more sociable, more likely to keep her engagements. She says she feels more tired, but she actually naps less, and she's more "present", more aware of her surroundings. Someone else I know was seriously depressed after taking them, but he was seriously depressed before taking them. It's probably a different kind of antipsychotic to which you're referring, but if there are better options, doctors aren't as likely to prescribe the "zombie" drugs, and there won't be too many anecdotal accounts.

I think you might instead (or additionally) want to look for people on anti-depressants that are backfiring (i.e., medication-induced depression) -- that's more likely to get you good anecdotal descriptions.

That said... when I want first-hand accounts of anything, I go to tumblr. Which appears to have a boatload of anecdotal accounts about just this.

[profbutters]

Zoloft's an SSRI, and not really comparable.

[mab_browne]

A lot of anti-psychotic drugs have severe physical side-effects in long term use, and the more physically vulnerable the person (child, teenager or elderly person) the more likely the side-effects are. If you're imagining some new super-drug then that issue wouldn't arise, but there could be quite severe physical side-effects on a developing brain being continually 'under the influence'. Also, if these people are spending all their time doped, then in terms of social development that's essentially 'dead' time. They're likely to be immature compared to people of their age in the community having 'normal' experiences.

[anonymous]

I am a little concerned about the way you're framing this question, and researching it, because it seems you have an underlying assumption that an antipsychotic will function the same way in a person who needs it (like the people whose personal accounts you're looking for) as in a person who does not (like -- assuming the rates of mental illness in your fictional society are close to those in reality -- the people who are being drugged into compliance.) While the exact action of antipsychotics isn't really known, one thing they all do is lower dopamine levels. So your patients -- who do not have dopamine levels that are abnormally high, as caused by a psychiatric illness -- will have lower-than-average dopamine levels. They can look forward to severe movement issues, deficits in mental activities like paying attention and problem solving, problems with memory, depression, anhedonia, and loss of libido. Decreased levels of dopamine can also cause decreased pain threshold, and cause pain without a stimulus

[seasontoseason]

there is absolutely no scientific proof that people with schizophrenia or any psychiatric label have abnormally low or "deficient" levels of any neurotransmitter.

[seasontoseason]

anti-psychotics work by causing abnormal brain functioning, not by repairing or treating it. Like all drugs that influence the mental state, antipsychotics create an intoxication effect (comparable to how alcohol, heroin, or any other drug works). The distinction between "side effects" and "therapeutic effects" is, frankly, arbitrary-- antipsychotics work by impeding brain function and over the long term they cause brain damage. Some people find these effects pleasant or useful, some people don't. In any case, people don't act differently when on anti-psychotics because the underlying pathology is being cured or otherwise treated. Symptoms are treated, and people tend to care less about hallucinations or troubling thoughts when heavily sedated. Anti-psychotics were originally called "major tranquilizers," because that is what they by and large do: tranquilize.

[anonymous]

Also, for "drugs that made me feel like a zombie," I recommend Depakote.

[box_of_rocks]

You probably know several people who take atypical antipsychotics on a daily basis, and you just can't tell. I work in a pharmacy and there are all kinds of people on, say, Abilify or Seroquel, who are perfectly joyful, full of expression, and not zombie-like at all.

[box_of_rocks]

(OP)

Of course! I didn't mean to imply in any way that everyone taking an antipsychotic would experience these effects. That's why the story will use a made-up drug, it essentially recreates all possible negative side effects on purpose.

[box_of_rocks]

Gotcha. I'm just not sure atypicals are the way to go. When people need to be sedated in a hospital, a typical antipsychotic like haldol, or a benzodiazepine are more likely to be used.