I still think people get too hung up on the "brain damage" part. A lot of people use that as scaremongering. As I was kind of alluding to... what does that mean practically?

Trying to find any worthwhile information on the functional effect of the brain matter loss is rather difficult.

I will just point out that brains shrink naturally when you get older, yet there are plenty of people in old age who remain quite sharp. (paraphrasing someone who did a study here talking to NY Times, although yes that particular comment was just in general not in relation to meds)

Also one study I read said it was "a subtle but measurable difference". We are talking brain scans picking up small changes here over decades, not people turning into vegetables.

Then you still have to consider no-one knows to what extent schizophrenia might increase loss of brain matter itself, since it's not ethical to use healthy individuals on APs as a control, or on the flipside not feasible to use unmedicated schizophrenics as a control either.

Don't get me wrong, APs are potentially pretty nasty meds & no doubt have some long term effects but I really don't want to see people who need them worrying needlessly. If you can manage without meds, or on a low dose... peachy... but if not, meds still remain the better of two evils by a country mile.