Cardiovascular and Diabetes Outcomes Among Those taking Novel Antipsychotics

I remember from medical school and the early days of my residency when the only medications available to treat psychosis were the neuroleptics.  Patients hated taking them: the high potency medicines like Haldol and Prolixin left people rigid; they had pill-rolling movements with their fingers, cogwheeling in their joints, and they walked liked zombies.  The lower potency medications like Mellaril left people drooling and sedated.  I once heard these medications described as like having molasses poured into your brain.  We'd cajole people in to taking them, and like all medications, there were some people who had no side effects and just got better, but that wasn't the usual.  I soon realized  that the best thing about Zyprexa (before it became evident that there were other problems which I will discuss below) is that most patients didn't mind taking them!  They didn't look like zombies, or obvious psychiatric patients, and they didn't complain about feeling badly.  It did feel like a revolutionary change for psychiatry.  This I remember.So it was disappointing and distressing to realize that the novel anti-psychotics were associated with weight gain in some people, and sometimes a lot of weight was gained, diabetes, and lipid abnormalities.  Sometimes I wondered about things that things that no one was asking.  Were these problems reversible if the medications were stopped? I had a patient who became diabetic (in a rathe...
Source: Shrink Rap - Category: Psychiatrists and Psychologists Authors: Source Type: blogs