Re: “Use of antipsychotic drugs among youth alarms doctor,” June 13.
Someone is finally paying attention to the over-prescription of antipsychotic medications — we just happen to be 50 years too late.
The evidence, which has been around for decades, continues to grow that the use of neuroleptic medications in both youth and adults should be used sparingly, if at all, and temporarily in the vast majority of cases. Other parts of the world already know this and use these medications with extreme caution.
The long-term mental-health outcomes of people in the Third World who experience episodes of psychosis are actually better than the long-term outcomes in Canada and the U.S. What’s the difference? Patients in the Third World do not have access to expensive antipsychotic medications.
There are effective therapies — rarely used systemically in North America, based on creating long-term therapeutic relationships and which help people experiencing these very unsettling conditions — that have better outcomes but no negative impact on the health of the individual taking the therapy.
Shouldn’t this be the primary source of treatment?
There is a place for antipsychotic medications, but it needs to be the back shelf, and reserved for the most extreme situations. Currently, our mental-health system seems to think that high doses of these medications are the only option — they are not. In many cases, they are not even the best option, and for some they are the worst.
It’s time to start telling the truth about these medications.
Andre Serzisko
Victoria
