How do antipsychotics work & what are they for?

Martina · Jul 09, 2010 at 05:03 PM

Can someone explain to me or give me some links to show what exactly atypical antipsychotics are meant to do?

I thought they were for psychosis and mania and things like that. Right?

But I'm not really sure if that's what they're doing for me.

I'm in the process of switching from one brand to another because of cost and every time I play around with the antipsychotic in my cocktail, the things that get messed around with really have nothing to do with mania. It's more like depression. It doesn't make sense.

I guess I just would like a better understanding of what exactly this drug is supposed to be doing for me.

I'm currently on Risperidone (Risperdal). Used to be on Invega.

(JD) · Jul 09, 2010 at 05:08 PM

I'm not a medical doctor but .... http://www.netdoctor.co.uk/medicines/100002285.html

Risperidone works by blocking the receptors in the brain that dopamine acts on. This prevents the excessive activity of dopamine and helps to control schizophrenia. Risperidone is used by specialists to treat episodes of mania in people with the psychiatric illness, bipolar affective disorder (manic depression).

Hope it works better for you .

Jul 11, 2010 at 05:39 AM

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/bookshel...t=introduction

Amanda_1981 · Jul 13, 2010 at 10:47 PM

It's interesting because I take Risperdal for my anxiety and ocd. I know it's not mainly used for treating that but since my anxiety and ocd is so severe, my doctor thought that a small dose of an antipsychotic would help.. and it does. The level of my anxiety is much less now and my ocd is getting a lot better. It's weird how some meds work for many different things.. I had always thought that the antipsychotics were only used for schizophrenia but apparently they are also used a lot for anxiety too. The only thing I hate about taking them is the weight gain and tiredness.. but I guess it beats having severe anxiety all the time!

Good luck with your meds.. hopefully they will work good for you as they have with me.

sugahorse1 · Jul 14, 2010 at 03:19 AM

This was brought up on a Bipolar thread - how an anti-psychotic can help BP patients, even if they are no displaying psychotic symptoms

splitimage · Jul 14, 2010 at 09:45 AM

I asked my pdoc about this since I'm on risperidone as an augmentation to my anti-depressants. He said that in some cases part of what causes depression and anxiety is overactivity in certain areas of the brain. The anti-psychotic slows down those regions of the brain, and that helps with the depression.

Not sure I totally understood his explanation, but I do know that when we recently increased my risperidone up to 4 mg, it had a huge positive effect on my mood.

--splitimage

Weezil · Aug 31, 2010 at 08:17 PM

My husband is taking Geodon. From what I can figure out, this is usually used to treat schizophrenia. But that's not the case here. i think it's also used to treat the symptoms associated with bipolar.

In our case, when he was at his worst, he was psychotic and delusional. His Dr. was concerned about his strange behaviors. (I could go on and on about all of them)

Geodon made a world of difference. This past year was Hell for me, but he finally is making a turn for the better. We are not out of the woods by a long shot - we have other personal/relationship issues to work on.

Is anyone out there on this? What are your experiences?

sunrise · Sep 02, 2010 at 11:39 PM

Martina, I believe both the typical and atypical anti-psychotics act to reduce dopamine function in the brain. The atypicals have fewer seriouis side effects (such as tardive dyskinesia) than the older drugs, although they are more likely to result in weight gain. Both types of drug are most effective against the positive symptoms of schizophrenia. It is thought that the atypicals may also offer some benefit for the negative symptoms. If dopamine function is blocked too much, patients may become depressed/dysphoric (even more so), so it is a delicate balance of giving enough drug to manage the hallucinations etc. but not too much so as not to cause depression and contribute to even worse negative type symptoms. That is my understanding at least. Does that match with what your doctor has told you?

I think this article is pretty good:
http://emedicine.medscape.com/article/288259-treatment

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