Posted by med_empowered on July 9, 2005, at 5:48:03
In reply to Re: Tardive Dyskinesia from Zyprexa... AGAIN!, posted by yxibow on July 8, 2005, at 21:41:51
hey! I don't know your situation exactly, but I would like to offer some advice: if you think you may have true TD (not simply EPS), you may want to ask a DIFFERENT doctor to diagnose the condition. Some of the most expensive lawsuits psychiatrists have faced have dealt with TD. From the late 1970s, through the early 1990s, and into the present era with heavy use of atypicals, lawsuits regarding TD have cost psychiatrists millions upon millions of dollars (one Risperdal lawsuit I recently read about ended in a jury award of over $3 Million; the woman had severe tardive dyskinesia and tardive dystonia and was unable to walk, and had difficulty eating, swallowing, and breathing). I'm not saying "sue your doctor," but I am saying that psychiatrists have a really, really BAD history of diagnosing TD, especially when dealing with their own patients and financial liability. If you do in fact have TD, the doctor who makes the diagnosis should be able to do what he/she can for treatment and/or refer you to others for help. Since this doctor has no vested interest in your diagnosis, the odds of an accurate diagnosis are higher (still, psychiatrists tend to miss even flagrant TD all too often; sometimes, you're better off going to a neurologist, or even a GP). If you do have TD, you could try Clozaril...however, even Clozaril has had some EPS/TD associated with it, along with NMS, heavy sedation, drooling, and weight gain. Personally, my advice would be to find a doc willing to treat whatever it is you are dealing with WITHOUT neuroleptics. The only sure-fire way to avoid TD/EPS is to avoid antipsychotics entirely. The big difference between all the atypicals, including clozaril, and the old antipsychotics seems to be the frequency and severity of side effects such as EPS and TD...the new drugs still cause problems, but seem to do so less often and to a more modest extent. That said, NMS rates with the atypicals is probably as high as with the old drugs.
poster:med_empowered
thread:524781
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20050708/msgs/525367.html