bill at nsma.arizona.edu (Bill Skaggs) wrote:
>There's a little more to the story than this. Neuroleptic drugs work
>by antagonizing the effects of dopamine. Now it so happens that
>dopamine also plays a central role in the brain's reward system. (The
>role of dopamine in reward might or might not be independent of its
>role in schizophrenia.) Thus, neuroleptics quite literally take a lot
>of the pleasure out of everything. It's no wonder that patients are
>so often reluctant to use them. Any drug that can make an orgasm
>boring is not likely to excite much enthusiasm.
All the more reason for redoubling research efforts to pinpoint even
more precisely the mechanisms we know are involved in the dopamine
model so as to affect pathology and thus reduce side effects further.
Part of that consensus model considers that acute environmental
stressors (is EE still given much credence? My experience shows it to
be a significant factor in exacerbating symptoms) may interfere with
typical antipsychotics' efficacy. The more average a mental patient's
life can be as a result of medical science, meaning no chance of
inappropriate blunting of affect, the lower the dosage window probably
would be. In my opinion, there's more to sex than orgasm, but all
things considered, many unmedicated shizophrenics probably would give
ten years off their lives to be able to function adequately enough to
be able to date normally and enjoy the company of a sex- partner when
the time comes.
I never said antipsychotics were perfect, just that they are the best
solution I've found to date.
--
Legislate the in$urance indu$try out of the business of preventing
medical care. Bean-counters have a DNR order with *your* name on it.