Eli5: what does antipsychotic medication, specifically risperdal, actually do to the brain, and what are the long term effectso of it, after a long time (9 months) of taking it? To what degree will the brain revert to its default state after you stop taking it?
In: Biology
Psychotic symptoms are associated with a higher concentration of dopamine in your brain. Antipsychotic medicine are blocking the docking points of dopamine and neurons.
Dopamine is a neurotransmitter, responsible for drive increase
Due to the lack of dopamine it could happen that you’d experience extrapyramidalic disorders like trembling, slow motion moving (can’t describe it better in English right now) or feeling stiff – these are the „big side effects“, but it’s more common to experience head aches, sleeplessness or being tired.
For example If the level of dopamine is below 70-80%, it could lead to Parkinson. The symptoms are similar, but of course not as bad
Longtermeffects could be weight gain and what I said above. But it’s not that common to experience EPMS that bad with risperdal as it would be with for example clozapine or haldol
These side effects can go away completely but if it’s not the right medication for you, they could stay. You could either take Akineton then, which will make the SE go away or take a newer medication, like for example olanzapine.
I don’t know what You mean by revert. I’d have to know why you’re taking it in the first place
Why does it say theres a comment but I can’t see a comment?
I was on risoerdal, then haldol, then geodon. Total of about a year. I had gained a ton of water weight to where I looked swollen all over. I felt very slowed down mentally and had restless legs and very interesting lucid dreams.
Once I stopped I had some trouble sleeping and lost all the water weight. I pretty quickly came back to normal (probably took a month or so to really feel alive again). I had a lot of mental health problems after quitting but after some tough times I ended up figuring out healthier ways of coping. I’d be very careful about stopping if it is for psychosis, but if your pdoc is okay with helping you stop, then you should be okay.
Just watch out for the rebound psychosis that happened to me for a day or so when I stopped. Pretty much was like the opposite of a caffeine crash where I’d been slowed down so much that stopping put me into overdrive. Make sure people are around you.
I’ve been off antipsychotics for 8 years now, aside from an isolated incident where they gave me a geodon shot to fall asleep when I was belligerent due to other circumstances (overuse of recreational drugs).
Good luck!
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