Posted by chad_3 on September 28, 2002, at 1:41:43
In reply to Re: zyprexa good news , posted by cybercafe on September 27, 2002, at 18:19:03
Hi - I hope this is ok (civil) - because I really am being sincere here.
If these posts are all true - we are seing several people posting without psychosis (I think) or skitzophrenia who developed movement disorders on these new widely prescribed and supposedly (per most Dr. literature) "safe" atypical antipsychotics....
The fact that most patients are not informed of what is going on is not only not surprising - but it is to be expected - because the movement disorder stuff is complicated - although preventing them from developing in the first place is not - and the psychiatrists are masking the problem and in time people will find out why they went from treating psychiatric problem to treatming neurological problems AND psychiatric problems (much harder often - and not fun!!!!)
I wanted to reply to Cybercafe and promise I am being sincere and in no way intend to be sarcastic ...
> sorry -- to clarify, i had no movement probs before starting zyprexa
>
The DA blockers (atypicals) - such as Zyprexa and the older even more dangerous antipsychotics are the drugs which cause them. The fact that you had no movements before Zyprexa is your evidence that Zyprexa CAUSED your movements...(at least acute and maybe chronic) Trust me - I know what I am talking about.> okay i don't know what horrible is then, it just bothered me at the time
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I can certainly understand if it felt horrible having abnormal movments - that certainly is how I feel about the movements I have had - very much so!!> i was just commenting that it went away while i was still on the med... which i thought people might want to know, since everyone had told me it wouldn't go away unless i stopped the med
The norm is that if you continue taking the antipsychotic (zyprexa in this case) - it will *mask* any chronic problem. Hopefully you have only had "acute" (less than a couple days) of movements - and furthermore - if you go off the drug you will not discover you have chronic movements which had been masked.
It is likely (I think probable) that you would *not* have chronic movements as you continue taking the zyprexa you started - because those a/p's mask chronic movements extremely well.
If you do have chronic movements while continuing to take the drug - that is a sure sign of chronic movement disorder - and almost always - movements which are chrnoic while on the a/p will tend to worsen as dose is lowered - and most worse when completely stopping. A/p's both *cause* - and also "treat" (mask) tardive movements.
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> >other kind, where I had EPS symptoms on the antipsychotic I ignored or was ignorant about, then it hit me hard AFTER I went off the drug and still have residual problems.Yes. And in other cases - there is no apparent problem while on the drug - but discontinuation of the drug reveals a chronic movement disorder which was developed but "masked" my maintance treatment with the antipsychotic. It is conversial treatment strategy to *increase* the dose of the continuously used antipsychotic if movements worsen while on a specific given dose.
> hmmm... if zyprexa made me 100%, i don't think i'd mind taking it for the rest of my life....
I believe in the individuals right to choose - as what is right for one maybe is not for another.
I *do* think that the ability of these new atypicals to cause movement disorders in many people is basically not well understood yet - except perhaps by a certain subgroup of the medical community.
Once established, the Dr's at this point, IMO, tend to feel a need to treat the problem they caused - and this often means continued use of the drug causing the problem in the first place. Atypicals are safer than older ones - and these are the ones used now - but IMO they are far from safe - and I think we are beginning to find this out - and this includes my own personal experience with 2 a/p's given to me to treat mood disorder.
There are not a lot of treatments for movement disoders at this time. Mainly the options are continuing the offending atypical (or a "safer" one) - or benzodizepines. Sometimes anticulsants or rarely other novel meds. Movements are difficult to treat and can great compromise the ability to treat the precedent and continuing psychiatric diagnosis. In some cases the overall psychiatric condition may worsen either directly and/or indirectly as a result of the damage done to the brain by the antipsyotic - or the anxiety / depression associated with abnormal movements....
Thanks for your forum Dr. Bob.
Chad
http://www.socialfear.com/
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> i can't seem to think of any other drug for consistent rapid thinking/attention shifting
>
poster:chad_3
thread:121185
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20020922/msgs/121350.html