Psych drugs & brain injury, antipsychotics & brain shrinkage http://wp.me/p5nnb-aak

[GiaK]

Joanna Moncrieff revisits a very important issue…one of which has been discussed on Beyond Meds many times. I like to remind people that “antipsychotics” are really misnamed. They are a class of drugs called neuroleptics and quite often do not do anything at all to mitigate psychosis. They are major tranquilizers and neurotoxic drugs that harm and use should be minimized as much as possible.

 

 

Antipsychotics and brain shrinkage: an update

Evidence that antipsychotics cause brain shrinkage has been accumulating over the last few yearsbut the psychiatric research establishment is finding its own results difficult to swallow. A new paper by a group of American researchers once again tries to ‘blame the disease,’ a time honoured tactic for diverting attention from the nasty and dangerous effects of some psychiatric treatments. In 2011, these researchers, led by the former editor of the American Journal of Psychiatry, Nancy Andreasen, reported follow up data for their study of 211 patients diagnosed for the first time with an episode of ‘schizophrenia’. They found a strong correlation between the level of antipsychotic treatment someone had taken over the course of the follow up period, and the amount of shrinkage of brain matter as measured by repeated MRI scans. The group concluded that “antipsychotics have a subtle but measurable influence on brain tissue loss” (1). (read the rest)

 

 

 

Brain shrinkage or not, it’s clear that psych drugs, in general, can negatively impact the brain in numerous ways

More on Beyond Meds about psych drugs and brain injury of various kinds:

 

• Dear psychiatrist part two: benzos and brain damage
• Neuropsych doctor confirms thoughts about psychiatric drug iatrogenisis, PTSD, brain injury
• “This is a brain injury situation”
• Psych meds can shrink the brain, but meditation is found to increase brain size: heal your brain!
• Sleep, insomnia and iatrogenic injury – an update
• More evidence that antipsychotics cause brains to shrink
• Yes, psych meds DO shrink brains
• Psychiatric Drugs as Agents of Trauma — “Drug Stress Trauma Syndrome”

 

More posts that feature Joanna Moncrieff’s work

 

Please do not attempt to discontinue psych drugs without first very carefully educating yourselfon the risks involved so that you might minimize the chances of developing grave iatrogenic illness if you decide to withdraw: Psychiatric drug withdrawal and protracted withdrawal syndrome round-up

 

original post here: http://wp.me/p5nnb-aak

[Barbarannamated]

A brain CT done in 2012 showed "volume loss". It wasn't mentioned to me at the time. Later MRI showed cerebrovascular damage and demyelination. I was never on neuroleptics /antipsychotics for more than a few months for depression (Abilify).

I was on SS/NRIs continually for 17 years.

I don't have schizophrenia or any form of psychosis.