[quetzlbazaar]

Antipsychotics have horrific side effects but are useful in institutional settings to make residents/patients/inmates easier to manage - psychiatry is the tool used to legitimize drugging people without need for their consent in such settings, for the benefit of others and the institution. It makes me despondent to read an article like this as I believe there are too many perverse incentives and cultural taboos for this situation to change in any meaningful way.

[SamoyedFurFluff]

Not all antipsychotics have horrible side effects. Let’s not lose nuance in response to the terrible unethical behavior depicted here. Modern antipsychotics often do good in helping people function when they wouldn’t otherwise be able to. The illnesses they treat are ones of terror and loneliness. I will note however that there’s no purpose in them here except to force submission, and that’s abuse and spits on the good that can be done.

[quetzlbazaar]

I'm not aware of any that do not have horrible side effects. That is a value judgement I perhaps arrogantly think most people who have taken or been forced to take them (including myself) would agree with, maybe some people would not regard the side effects as all that bad. Certainly they can serve a good purpose and are a good tradeoff for many people who could not function as they'd like without them.

The issue is as you note in this instance, their use for something otherwise, that is, to force submission to make others' lives easier. It is not just in care homes that they are used for this purpose. Psychiatry as is practised within institutions such as prisons, schools, or care homes, serves as a way to legitimize dealing with difficult people using forced or coerced drugging, something we would not otherwise accept on the face of it. I don't see any good solution to this issue, especially not in the case of a care home where many residents will be deemed by all to not have capacity. Oversight can only do so much and when there are loopholes like the three excepted diagnoses mentioned in the article being exempted from public tallies, incentives will do the rest to close it.

EDIT: I'd like to add I have considered a bit more about other people I know who have taken or are taking antipsychotics (voluntarily), and they have never expressed extreme distress at their side effects. So I should have said 'can have' rather than 'have', my initial wording being influenced by my own experience.

[anon9001]

I've heard seroquel is lovely for sleep and seems to be really well tolerated, but I haven't tried it myself yet.

[heavyset_go]

Seroquel at low doses is hardly an antipsychotic. At higher doses it blocks the receptors that are associated with AP efficacy, and at that point, the negative extrapyramidal side effects start being felt.

[PragmaticPulp]

> The illnesses they treat are ones of terror and loneliness. I will note however that there’s no purpose in them here except to force submission, and that’s abuse and spits on the good that can be done.

Modern antipsychotics are useful for conditions beyond schizophrenia. Seroquel is commonly prescribed for insomnia at doses lower than those used for Schizophrenia. Adding Abilify is a common second-line strategy when first-line antidepressants aren't giving proper results. Certain patients with bipolar disorder benefit from antipsychotic medications, particularly in the therapeutic delay before traditional mood stabilizers can kick in.

Like you said, the drugs themselves shouldn't be demonized. They're not perfect, but when used appropriately they're often far better than the underlying conditions being treated.

However, if doctors are simply making up diagnoses in order to prescribe the drugs, that's obviously not appropriate treatment.

[DylanDmitri]

I'm on Abilify. It prevents the nasty mood swings that caused me to lose my first job.

[justinko]

I’m on Abilify and Vraylar. Makes me feel normal. Love it.

[jac241]

I think the negative and totally inaccurate depiction of psychiatric care on TV and in movies is why people are surprised that antipsychotics actually really help most people who are prescribed them.

[justinko]

Yes. Also, the name "antipsychotics" is of no help either.

The second generation "atypical antipsychotics" are really not much different from antidepressants. They just typically contain an additional dopaminergic effect (e.g. modulation). As someone else pointed out in this thread, Abilify is prescribed for depression and anxiety.

[grapist420]

what’s an antipsychotic without horrible side effects? As far as I know newer antipsychotics have less frequent side effects but they’re still extremely bad. Obviously that compares to the total dysfunction of severe mentally ill people who don’t take them. But to say there is an antipsychotic without horrible side effects isn’t correct.

[heavyset_go]

If you look at the article, they were not prescribing modern psychotics, but old ones like haloperidol.