Question

Short Essay Question, Please explain and give examples.

Discuss the deleterious effects of antipsychotics….and why the antipsychotics are considered relatively safe.

Answer 1

The use of antipsychotics demands a difficult face-off between the benefits of subsiding psychotic symptoms and the risk of adverse side effects. There is more versatility among specific antipsychotics than there is between certain first- and second-generation antipsychotic tiers. The newer second-generation antipsychotics, particularly clozapine and olanzapine, are proven to cause more issues which are related to metabolic dysfunction, such as obesity and type 2 diabetes. Also, as a class, the older first-generation of antipsychotic medications are more likely to be linked to movement disorders, but this is true in the case of medications that bind tightly to dopaminergic neuroreceptors, such as haloperidol, and the medications that bind weakly, such as chlorpromazine. Anticholinergic effects are especially prominent with weaker-binding first-generation antipsychotics, as well as with the second-generation antipsychotic clozapine. All antipsychotic medications are associated with an increased likelihood of sedation, sexual dysfunction, postural hypotension, cardiac arrhythmia, and sudden cardiac death. Primary care physicians should understand the individual adverse effect profiles of these medications.