Some people need to keep taking it long term. If you have only had one psychotic episode and you have recovered well, you would normally need to continue treatment for 1–2 years after recovery. If you have another psychotic episode, you may need to take antipsychotic medication for longer, up to 5 years.
Consensus guidelines typically recommend continued antipsychotic medication for 1–2 years, although it has been suggested that treatment discontinuation in the form of targeted intermittent treatment (dose reduction, antipsychotic discontinuation if feasible, and immediate reintroduction if symptoms reemerge) should ...
Prolonged use of antipsychotic medications is viewed as a key factor in treatment for schizophrenia, but there is very little systematic evidence for the long-term benefits of antipsychotics. There is even some longitudinal data suggesting the opposite.
Some people may be able to stop taking antipsychotics without problems, but others can find it very difficult. If you have been taking them for some time, it can be more difficult to come off them. This is especially if you have been taking them for one year or longer.
For neurological, neuropsychological, neurophysiological, and metabolic abnormalities of cerebral function, in fact, there is evidence suggesting that antipsychotic medications decrease the abnormalities and return the brain to more normal function.
However, some patients are able to sustain a psychosis-free existence after the cessation of antipsychotics. Several studies show that only 25%–55% of patients with schizophrenia who stopped taking antipsychotic medication experienced the relapse of symptoms in the first 6 to 10 months after they stopped taking them.
Previous research has also shown that the use of antipsychotics may raise the risk of metabolic syndrome in patients with schizophrenia. Metabolic syndrome has, in turn, been associated with heart disease and diabetes.
But with the right treatment, most people can live complete and fulfilling lives – thanks mainly to their antipsychotic medication. But of course, all medications have side-effects and for some people on antipsychotics these side-effects can range from mildly debilitating to life threatening.
Antipsychotics can help manage your symptoms of psychosis. This can help you feel more in control of your life, particularly if you are finding the psychotic symptoms distressing. Research suggests 4 out of 5 people with severe mental illness, who take antipsychotics, find they're successful in treating their symptoms.
Evidence of the rapidity at which antipsychotics can affect brain volume in humans was recently provided by Tost and associates. These investigators found a significant, reversible decrease in striatal volume in healthy subjects within 2 hours after they were treated intravenously with haloperidol.
When you introduce the drug to your body, your body compensates, and you see tolerance gradually over time. But this is not the case when medications work for prolonged periods of time such as months, or years, and then spontaneously stop working.
Antipsychotic medications can help to calm and clear confusion in a person with acute psychosis within hours or days, but they can take up to four or six weeks to reach their full effect. These medications can help to control symptoms, but they do not cure the underlying condition.
Antipsychotic drugs can cause various abnormal motor syndromes, but abruptly stopping them has been associated with the seemingly paradoxical development of similar motor syndromes, such as withdrawal dyskinesias, parkinsonian symptoms, dystonias, and neuroleptic malignant syndrome.
They can cause movement disorders such as twitching and restlessness, sedation and weight gain, and lead to diabetes. Because of these side effects, antipsychotic drugs are usually only used to treat severe mental illnesses such as schizophrenia or bipolar disorder.
So yes, it has been clearly established for many years that “some patients are better off without antipsychotic drugs.” However, in recent years, advocates have interpreted this to suggest that most individuals with schizophrenia are better off without antipsychotic drugs.
Some studies suggest that glycine, sarcosine, NAC, several Chinese and ayurvedic herbs, ginkgo biloba, estradiol, and vitamin B6 may be effective for psychotic symptoms when added to antipsychotics (glycine not when added to clozapine).
Of the atypical antipsychotics, risperidone is the weakest in terms of atypicality criteria.
Clozapine and olanzapine have the safest therapeutic effect, while the side effect of neutropenia must be controlled by 3 weekly blood controls.
Antipsychotic drugs don't cure psychosis but they can help to reduce and control many psychotic symptoms, including: delusions and hallucinations, such as paranoia and hearing voices. anxiety and serious agitation, for example from feeling threatened. incoherent speech and muddled thinking.
So while treatment with some antipsychotics seems to increase intelligence, others reduce symptoms without that effect. Other medications that are known to cause improved cognitive functioning had no effect when combined with those antipsychotics.
The studies in our review (8, 23–26) reported that most withdrawal symptoms started within 4 weeks after abrupt antipsychotic discontinuation and subsided after up to 4 weeks even though certain symptoms such as hyperkinesia may last for months (23).
Studies have suggested that psychiatric drugs may do more harm than good, especially in the long-term. Antipsychotics have numerous serious and debilitating side effects including: Movement effects: Tremors, muscle stiffness and tics can occur. The higher the dose, the more severe these effects.
Meyer-Lindberg himself published a study last year showing that antipsychotics cause quickly reversible changes in brain volume that do not reflect permanent loss of neurons (see 'Antipsychotic deflates the brain')7.
The researchers found that individuals with schizophrenia treated with antipsychotics demonstrated progressive loss of gray matter in the brain, compared with healthy controls.