No mental health without physical health (from the Lancet)

Just sharing the fact that the gross degradation that this class of psychiatric drug causes is being talked about in the Lancet. Granted they still make the assumption that these drugs are “necessary” much more often than they are. The fact that the dialog is happening though is good if also long overdue.

A snippet from the article in the Lancet:

No mental health without physical health

Figures published by the Archives of General Psychiatry on Feb 7 will be of deep concern to every mental health practitioner. In their systematic review of early cardiometabolic outcomes, Debra Foley and Katherine Morley set out the dramatic effects of antipsychotics on the physical health of those taking them for the first time. The authors record, for example, that “the average weight gain after 6 to 8 weeks taking olanzapine was 5 to 6 kg”, and that “at 8 weeks, there was a significant increase in insulin level, insulin resistance, and glucose, cholesterol, triglyceride, and C peptide levels across clozapine, olanzapine, risperidone and sulpiride combined but no significant difference between drugs”.

In any other scenario, the responsible physician’s response would be to seek an alternative. However, for mental health professionals, the mainstay of treatment for psychotic illness is—as it has been for over half a century—antipsychotic medication. read the rest (emphasis mine)