Posted by med_empowered on January 8, 2007, at 20:05:21
In reply to Re: Drug-induced psychosis; anti-psychotic meds? » notfred, posted by Kath on January 8, 2007, at 19:02:37
I think blueberry is right...docs tend to see psychosis as psychosis as psychosis regardless of the source (depression, mania, schizophrenia, PTSD, drugs...whatever), so they automotically dope people up with neuroleptics. Risperdal is pretty rough, and the loxapine on top...well, loxapine is an older drug, and its arguably better than some of the other older ones, but its still rough stuff. Hopefully, they'll either withdraw these meds soon or your son can come home soon and get some form of *help*, b/c his drug combo right now looks more like *punishment*.
If he usually goes for stimulants, he may be self-medicating; some people have depressive disorders and what not that respond to stims..since not everyone's doc will give them stims, lots of people get it on the street and go crazy with it. You might want to see about getting him on something stimulating, but legal, like Provigil (I think its Alertec in canada) and certain antidepressants.
Also, some docs will rx stimulants (including amphetamines) to former users. I think the reasons are 1) they are probably self-medicating, so controlled dosages could prove helpful and 2) given high relapse rates, you're probably better off giving them safe, controlled access than cutting them off and then punishing them when they relapse. I know its counter-intuitive to do this, but if you know of or can find any docs who do this near you...it might be a good idea.
Good luck!
poster:med_empowered
thread:720522
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20070107/msgs/720618.html