Long-term effects of pescription medicine

I am not trying to make a statement of whether or not to take medicine, I am just wanting to hear feedback of the negative or positive effects of long term medicine use. Based on my own experience on and off medication, in my case they both had negative and positive results.

You can cause irreversible damage to your brain if you don’t take medicine. Long term effects from taking medicine can include tarditive dyskinesia, weight gain, cholesterol problems, breast tissue growth in males, and so forth

Latuda is a safe medicine if you can be on it.

@cactustomato where did you hear that from “you can cause irreversible damage to your brain from not taking medicine”

http://schizophrenia.com/?p=692

Someone compares “with and without prescription drugs” to “bad orange and bad apple”. Hard choice to make. It is ‘bad enough’[1] to take medication, BUT it is worst not to take medication at all.

[1] The side effects of prescription drugs

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@cactustomato the test was to determine grey matter changes in the brain on and off medicine. Not the multitude of brain neurons and other parts of the brain long term medicine use has. I will say it is a persons individual decision to take medication or not, but I find that comment to be in a small scope of the field tested with many other research out there.

Long term use of APs (52 years) has led me to conclude that APs cause cognitive deficits (a general dumbing down), although the deficits might be due to repeated psychotic episodes or old age as well. Another negative effect is dependence on the drugs, the prescribers, the pharmaceutical companies, the pharmacies, and the insurance companies. The positive effects go without saying. As far as grey matter goes, I don’t know.

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I think they all can cause diabetes. I get a general physical weakening from all the ap’s, typical and atypical. When I am on the typicals I am completely joyless. For me the typicals are horrible. I’m willing to put up with just about anything to not have to stay on the typicals.

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I have been on one type pf psych med or another since I was a kid - I am 51 years old now.

I realize that this site is a pro medication site, I am certainly not anti meds or anti psychiatry, but I will say that these psych meds have some serious side effects, like causing metabolic issues like diabetes, meds can cause cardiac issues, hormonal problems like high prolactin, sexual dysfunction, weight gain, CNS issues etc…

Our livers and kidneys can be affected as well.

This is why its a good idea to go as low as possible on our meds - a dose that is low but effective in controling our symptoms.

Getting regular blood tests can help with minimizing the side effects as well.

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Over two decades of AP use. Main problems are weight and diabetes. Not having cognitive issues. Not having problems with tremors. Haven’t grown moobs.

Pixel.

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For a long time I was anti-med… and there weren’t very many pros to that. I was in hospital a lot and I ended up alone and homeless.

The past 7 years med compliant… and clean and sober… yes… I have to watch for diabetes… I have to keep an eye on the weight… TOO much Seroquel is very sedating.

But I can keep the head circus under control and I can get through my day with not much drama.

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Tardive dyskinesia that I was going to mention but I see was already broached upon is a serious and sometimes irreversible movement disorder. The chances increase the longer someone takes a specific med that can’t be predicted at all. I had something like this happen for a few years in the latter years of taking Abilify where my eyes involuntarily wanted closed all the time where I was effectively blind. Very very luckily when I switched to Latuda and got my Cogentin changed to Trihexyphenidyl the problem soon disappeared for me and I have no problem seeing now, and I will never take for granted my eyes ever again even if my vision really sucks from astigmatism.

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Latuda doesn’t cause me cognitive deficits. It is my ADD that does but there no anticholergenic effect on my Latuda just weight gain.