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» Medications » Antipsychotic Medications
Antipsychotic Medications
A person who is psychotic is out of touch with reality. He or she may “hear voices” or have other strange and untrue ideas (for example, thinking that others can hear their thoughts, or believing themselves to be the President of the United States). He or she may get excited or angry for no apparent reason, and may become difficult to communicate with, saying things that make no sense, or barely talking at all.
These kinds of behaviors are some of the symptoms of psychotic illness, the principle form of which is schizophrenia. While all of the possible symptoms may not be present when someone is psychotic, some of them always are. Antipsychotic medications, as the name suggests, control psychotic behaviors: delusional thinking, hallucinations, and behavioral instability. Although these medications cannot "cure” the illness, they can work to significantly take away many of the symptoms or make them milder. In some cases, antipsychotic medications have proven effective in shortening the length of the illness.
Just as individuals vary in their responses to antipsychotic medications, they may also vary in their speed of improvement. For many people, substantial improvement is seen by the sixth week of treatment. The length of medication treatment also varies. In some cases, antipsychotic medication prescribed in low doses may become part of ongoing treatment. This approach, called maintenance treatment, prevents relapse in many people and removes or reduces symptoms for others. Working closely with the prescribing doctor or therapist is crucial to the optimal control of any psychotic disorder.
Antipsychotic medications include
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