Neuroleptics in progressive structural brain abnormalities in psychiatric illness

Neurotrophic Effects of Electroconvulsive Therapy: A Proton Magnetic Resonance Study of the Left Amygdalar Region in Patients with Treatment-Resistant Depression

“…There is considerable evidence that antidepressant therapy exerts positive neurotrophic effects . Since it was shown in animal experiments that ECT induces mossy fiber sprouting in the rat hippocampus Lamont et al, 2001;Vaidya et al, 1999) and stimulates neurogenesis (Madsen et al, 1998), a neurotrophic mode of antidepressive action was also proposed for ECT (Duman and Vaidya, 1998). However, neurotrophic effects are difficult to detect in the human brain in vivo.…”

Treatment of Acute Psychosis Without Neuroleptics: Two-Year Outcomes From the Soteria Project

“…However, prescription of conventional antipsychotics carries substantial risk of drug toxicities (Popp and Trezza, 1998) and structural brain changes (e.g., Madsen et al, 1998). While atypical antipsychotics exhibit a more benign short-term side-effect profile (Worrel et al, 2000), there has not yet been adequate time observing their effects to rule out emergence of additional long-term toxicities.…”

Reservasjonsrett i psykiatrien nå!

“…By the late 1990s, investigators had reported that antipsychotics caused basal ganglion structures and the thalamus to swell, and the frontal lobes to shrink, with these changes in brain volumes "dose related." 36,37,38 Then, in 1998, Raquel Gur, from the University of Pennsylvania, reported that the swelling of the basal ganglia and thalamus was "associated with greater severity of both negative and positive symptoms." 39 This was disconcerting news: the brain volume changes induced by antipsychotics were associated with a worsening of the very symptoms the drugs were supposed to treat.…”