evanpatten

Thank you all for your responses. A few things I want to respond to; first, that article mentioned that atypical antipsychotics work in the same way as the first generation ones, by blocking D2 dopamine receptors which could ultimately lead to greater risk for psychosis and altered brain structures. From what I've seen on NIMH's website, it seems that atypical antipsychotics aren't much more effective in treating schizophrenia, they just have a lower risk of leading to tardive dyskinesia but have MORE issues associated with metabolic problems (obesity, diabetes). That's just the impression I've gotten from several of their articles; I don't have any experience to back that up. I'm trying to learn. That being said, I am glad antipsychotics are helpful for some people! Again, I WANT this to be the case. I don't want to be "against" these medications. >>>>>"Even if the medications have some or a large part in relapse, sometimes having a time of normalcy is better then living in overwhelming chaos always...." I think that is a good thing for me to keep in mind. >>>>>"Going to work in psych nursing when you're not comfortable administering anti-psychotics makes a as much sense as going to work in an abortion clinic when you oppose abortion." Yes, I know that. That's what drove me to make the original post, and why this is a struggle; I basically wanted to hear convincing evidence about why in other people's experience, treatment with antipsychotics has been seen to be a good option for some patients. My problem is that I don't have enough real-world experience to go on, but other people here do. Another poster asked why I wanted to go into psych; I thought it was the most interesting area we studied in school, and it was the most interesting to me at clinicals. I have a lot of empathy for psych patients and would love to be there as a support person for them. Part of this has to do with my own family history and personal experience; bipolar and depression both run in my family, and I myself have major depression, and I understand to some extent what it's like to have the stigma of being "mentally ill." I'm actually on effexor for my depression, and I thank God that I was finally put on effexor (after a couple years of trying other anti-depressants that did nothing). In some ways it's a nasty medication too, but I know that for me it has been totally worth it, and I hope that other people have had the same experience with antipsychotics. I don't have an agenda in terms of this stuff, just that people get the best treatment.

Thank you both for your responses! I definitely agree that something can work great for one person and not at all for another, especially with psych disorders, unfortunately. I know from personal experience that it's a lot of trial and error. I think it's something I'll do more reading about. For the record, I'm by no means anti-medication for psych disorders; it's just that this information on antipsychotics in particular - which looks pretty legit - is both scary and sad to me :/ Anyhow, thank you.

Hi everyone, I'm a new grad (LVN) who would like to go into psych nursing. I'm really struggling, however, with the idea of antipsychotic med. maintenance after reading research that indicates that while effective for the short-term, the use of antipsychotics actually causes higher rates of relapse/psychosis long-term: http://psychrights.org/research/Digest/Chronicity/50yearecord.pdf This is one of many articles written on the subject, and I don't think this is just quack research. I WANT antipsychotics to be the best answer, I just don't like what I'm reading about them. Anyway, I'm struggling because I think psychiatric nursing would be a good fit for me, but from what I can tell, a huge part of the job would be administering antipsychotics, and I don't know how comfortable I'd be with that. Since I don't know who to turn to with this concern, I thought I'd post here. I guess I'm wondering if there are any of you who don't primarily give out these medications as part of your job, or who have similar concerns, or who have heard of and/or dealt with this topic before. I might just give up and start looking into other fields (although even during my clinicals in LTC and acute-care, I gave out PLENTY of antipsychotics), but I'm wondering what your thoughts are; please be kind, I know this post could incite harsh criticism. Thank you. - Emily