Research currently demonstrates that most people live better lives over time if they are not using psychological drugs. The short and long term trade offs are extreme. Current use of drugs for those with mental disabilities deserves much more attention and research from the medical profession.
It is nearly impossible to achieve informed consent because information as to the danger of these drugs is not accepted by most psychiatrists, much less passed on to patients.
People with psychosis (schizophrenia and other psychosis) tend to do better in the long run off medications, or with greatly reduced medications. Antidepressants disrupt the Central Nervous System through “down-regulation” of Serotonin receptors (i.e., the body stops making as many receptors because the system is overloaded with too much serotonin).” That’s what most anti-depressants do.
Poster from the Cramps, a punk rock band that once did a concert at the Napa State Hospital.
Antipsychotics disrupt the Central Nervous system through “up-regulation” dopamine receptors (i.e., the body/brain makes too many dopamine receptors to compensate for the dopamine blockade effect of most anti-depreesants. That leaves the body/brain super-sensative to dopamine and all wigged out, basically.
Both of those things — serotonin up-regulation and dopamine down-regulation — happen in combination with other complex neurotransmitter effects, which can cause serious withdrawal syndromes when people go off these drugs abruptly, and even when they reduce them gradually.
There are self-help manuals for those who want to decrease or stop these medications. Unfortunately, it is rare to find a doctor who will help. One of those self help manuals comes from The Icarus Project and Freedom Center: Coming Off Psych Drugs – Harm Reduction Guide
This editorial from JAMA, the Journal of the American Medical Association, has some of the details:
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