Haldol, a schizophrenia drug, turns on protein factories in cells

An antipsychotic drug may banish hallucinations and delusions by prompting neurons to churn out proteins that reshape the cells, a new study suggests. The results, published in the January 14 Science Signaling, may help scientists develop better psychiatric drugs, and might explain what goes wrong in some mental disorders.

Since the 1950s, haloperidol has been prescribed to quiet the debilitating symptoms that mark schizophrenia. Despite its long history, scientists still don’t know how the drug works, or why it starts to relieve symptoms within hours but takes weeks to fully work.

Haloperidol kicks off a cellular chain reaction that ultimately leads to changes in neuron shapes, neuroscientist Eric Klann of New York University and colleagues found. Haloperidol initiates a series of biochemical events that enables the protein mTORC1 to turn on the production of a flurry of new proteins.

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Thanks for this post. I like reading anything to do with Haldol as I just started this medicine @4.5mg about 5 days ago.

I have heard voices 24/7 for the last 7 years. Nothing has worked to stop the voices so far.

I noticed that Haldol worked within the first 30 minutes in terms of getting a degree of relief from the voice I hear, but then it returned to normal. So far, that relief hasn’t returned.

So basically I still hear voices while on Haldol, and I’m actually feeling a little bummed because I would have expected that initial relief to have lasted permanently while taking the drug. I think my brain automatically adjusted so as to remain in the same state it was before the drug.

I will give Haldol another 3 weeks…if it hasn’t worked by then, I’ll have to think of the next drug.

I can tell them how it worked, i was on it myself.

“Someone” was in my head, communicating with my brain in different ways, the haldol turned me off.

Me and them were talking one day, they suggested “how do you suppose they found these pills? you think they just randomly started throwing chemicals together? do you find it odd how they found a treatment for “us”? it’s worth looking into actually. (wink wink)”

Oh it’s enough to drive you crazy!

If they want to know how it worked for my “little problem” then they need to ask how it’s turning my brain off in certain ways, thats all that it’s doing really, if someone was in your mind hurting and scaring you not to mention causing visions and sounds then how might a pill severe my mind from that?

It’s weird, but I sort of need my voices to prove the blood is still pumping around up there. No inner dialogue really upsets me. I had a period of NO voices and I was physically ill and off balance until a few came back. Then I could walk a straight line again.

I can handle the flare up in hallucinations, I just need to calm down and keep what I learned in therapy.

Now… if there was away to banish negative symptom, lack of empathy, poverty of speech, deep disorganization and all the other wax-build ups… I’d be the first in line.