from the blog post: “The authors conclude that “The induction of doubt and the dampening of emotion may be one reason why antipsychotics reduce positive symptoms” and note that their findings of reported antipsychotic effects including cognitive and emotional numbing, and social withdrawal are “disquieting”.” —- (Monica’s comments) anyone who has been on these drugs can attest to this reality. But it wasn’t until I was off them that I felt alive again. I truly felt like I had been stripped of my humanity for many years…and only once I came off them could I fully understand what had happened to me.
Today I’d like to draw your attention to a new paper just published by Moritz and colleagues (link here), which examines how antipsychotic drugs have their effect.
What did it do?
This on-line study involved 95 people, who had experience of taking antipsychotics, completing a questionnaire called the Effect of Antipsychotic Medication on Emotion and Cognition, which asked 49 questions about the subjective effects of antipsychotics. The participants had a range of psychiatric diagnoses, with 69 having a probable diagnosis of psychosis. They appear to have been mainly recruited through moderated German discussion forums for psychosis and other psychiatric disorders.
What did it find?
- “patients strongly and rather consistently attributed a dampening of emotion,
clouding of cognitive faculties and decreased joy to antipsychotic treatment”
- “patients reported that antipsychotics decreased their emotionality, creativity and also exerted a detrimental effect on their cognitive faculties”
- “Negative effects largely prevailed”
- “patients reported that…
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