Risks of taking antipsychotics without needing them

Taking antipsychotic medications without the previous prescription of a specialist in the area can trigger a series of complications that affect both physical and mental health that could be seriously. Antipsychotics are prescribed medications for the treatment of clinical pictures such as schizophrenia, paranoia, manic-depressive psychosis, among others. However, on some occasions people confuse symptoms of these diagnoses with some manifestation that are living at a certain time in their lives. Consequently, they are guided by the comments provided by society about the possible scope of medication.

In this psychology-online article we will provide information about the risks of taking antipsychotics without needing them.

1. When antipsychotics are prescribed
2. What happens if a healthy person takes antipsychotics
3. What to do if someone takes antipsychotics without needing them

When antipsychotics are prescribed

Antipsychotics are prescribed when a person It presents compatible symptoms that could be placed within the psychotic disorders proposed by the DSM-V^[1]. In more specific terms, the most common clinical paintings are schizophrenia, delusional disorder, paranoid personality disorder, schizoofective disorder, among others.

All these diagnoses have in common the persistence of Delusions and visual, auditory hallucinations, sensitive and/or taste. While it is true that each clinical picture can range and have differences in people who carry these manifestations, the intensity of each symptom allows a mental health professional to indicate the supply of antipsychotics.

What happens if a healthy person takes antipsychotics

A healthy person can have harmful effects on their behaviors, emotions and thoughts if you take antipsychotics without needing them. Here are some of the main risks:

• Metabolic alterations: organic changes that affect the functioning of organs, such as body weight gain and risk to contract diabetes. On the other hand, an altered metabolism can cause cardiovascular problems since the clinical values ​​of each organism system begins to function deficitly.
• Cognitive damage: Antipsychotics interfere with the capacity for attention, reasoning and memory. This is because these medications inhibit some neuronal connections that occur in the central nervous system. In these cases, there is the possibility that the person develops Alzheimer's or problems in the reasoning of specific and abstract situations, among others.
• Involuntary patterns of body movements: In some cases, the person can develop muscle stiffness, tremors and involuntary movements that are performed without an intention.
• Sleep alterations: Due to the sedative effect that the majority of antipsychotics carry, deregulations in sleep patterns may occur. The alteration of circadian cycles that are used to establish adequate break can lead to insomnia or hypersomnia.
• Low blood pressure: The blood flow that occurs in the body can be altered and cause episodes of fainting, dizziness and nausea.
• Sexual problems: Hormones for sexuality can be stopped. Likewise, it has been shown that it can cause erectile dysfunction and premature ejaculation in men or menstrual alterations and a deficit in breast milk in women in women.

In this article you will find information about types of psychosis.

What to do if someone takes antipsychotics without needing them

Given the knowledge of the risky effects produced by antipsychotics without the need to consume them, it is important to know how you can proceed at the medical level. In this section, we will address this theme:

• Education: Faced with the suspicion that someone is ingesting this kind of psychotropic, it is essential. Thus, it is possible that the unfavorable harmful effects for the body are understood.
• Professional orientation: In general, the consumption of antipsychotics responds to specific causes that must be specified in each person. For this reason, it is important that special emphasis is made on the need to go to a health professional to treat the underlying problem.
• Emotional containment: demonstrating support and security is a way of containing the person who is suffering. This not only implies listening to the condition, but also offering a space for comfort and well -being to display the anguish.
• Understanding: It is not about judging the person who takes antipsychotics without needing them, but about showing him that he is understood and that there are reasons for him to have come to consumption. Anyway, it is also not advisable to strengthen these ideas because they could increase the intakes and cause other problems.

This article is merely informative, in psychology-online we have no power to make a diagnosis or recommend a treatment. We invite you to go to a psychologist to treat your particular case.

If you want to read more articles similar to Risks of taking antipsychotics without needing them, We recommend that you enter our category of Psychopharmaceuticals.

1. American Psychiatric Association (2013). Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders (5th edition). Arlington: Pan -American Medical Editorial.