Posted by OldSchool on February 21, 2002, at 9:50:27
In reply to Re: Anti-depressants and dystonia/dyskenesia, posted by borderliner21 on February 20, 2002, at 23:13:41
> thanks for the information. I found it useful.
> My dystonia from paxil has gotten a lot better and when taking zyprexa i noticed an improvement also...weird huh
Not really its not weird at all if youve read about this stuff. Its well known that taking anti-psychotics can "mask over" drug induced movement disorders. In fact back in the old days, one of the main ways psychiatrists dealt with neuroleptic induced TD was to increase the dosage of the anti-psychotic. This creates a masking over effect of the TD, the patient physically feels better and stops complaining and everyone is happy. However when the neuroleptic is reduced or removed the movement disorder returns with a vengeance.In fact this is sort of what happened to me this past fall when I developed a bad case of EPS while on low dose Seroquel. I first noticed on the Seroquel that my throat began getting very tight and sore, particularly later in the day when the Seroquel began to wear off. I found that after I took my nightly dose of Seroquel, I loosened up a lot, throat pain and tightness dissipated. Then, as soon as I stopped taking the Seroquel the EPS hit full force. Muscle twitches, muscle tightness and a contraction feeling, tongue numbing, weakness on my right side. It was actually worse OFF the Seroquel than on. I hope you see my point.
Please do not believe these various people who will tell you that atypical anti-psychotics can improve movement disorders. Some on this message board will tell you atypicals can "fix" movement disorders...thats BS and is anything but the truth. There is no anti-psychotic anywhere that will do you any good if you have drug induced movement disorders. You might feel better while on the atypical anti-psychotics, but in the long run you are just doing more damage to yourself.
Drugs useful to combat neuroleptic induced dystonia includes anti-cholinergics (OTC benadryl, Cogentin), Klonopin...it has muscle relaxant properties, dopaminergic drugs...and also, ahem...ECT. ECT is very effective for neuroleptic induced movement disorders. ECT has strong "off label" uses for parkinsons and neuroleptic induced movement disorders. I was reading recently that schizophrenics who have ECT have much lower rates of TD than schizophrenics who dont have ECT.
Old School
poster:OldSchool
thread:94409
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20020215/msgs/94914.html