Other Harmful Drug Effects

In the film, �A Beautiful Mind,� Nobel Prize winner, John Nash, is depicted as relying on psychiatry�s latest breakthrough drugs to prevent a relapse of his �schizophrenia.� This is Hollywood fiction, however. Nash himself refutes the film�s portrayal of him taking �newer medications� [latest antipsychotics] at the time of his Nobel Prize award. In fact Nash had not taken any psychiatric drugs for 24 years and had recovered naturally from his disturbed state.

Minor tranquilizers or benzodiazepines can cause lethargy, lightheadedness, confusion, nervousness, sexual problems, hallucinations, nightmares, severe depression, extreme restlessness, insomnia, nausea and muscle tremors. Epileptic seizures and death have resulted from suddenly stopping the use of minor tranquilizers. Thus, it is important never to stop suddenly or without proper medical supervision, even if the drugs have only been taken for a couple of weeks.

Major tranquilizers, antipsychotics, also called �neuroleptics� (nerve-seizing) frequently cause difficulty in thinking, poor concentration, nightmares, emotional dullness, depression, despair and sexual dysfunction. Physically, they can cause tardive dyskinesia�sudden, uncontrollable, painful muscle cramps and spasms, writhing, squirming, twisting and grimacing movements, especially of the legs, face, mouth and tongue, drawing the face into a hideous scowl. They also induce akathisia, a severe restlessness that has been linked to assaultive, violent behavior. A potentially fatal effect is �neuroleptic malignant syndrome,� which includes muscle rigidity, altered mental states, irregular pulse or blood pressure and cardiac problems. As if that were not enough, silent coronary death �may be one of the most serious threats of prolonged drug use,� wrote William H. Philpott, M.D., and Dwight K. Kalita, Ph.D., in Brain Allergies .

Newer antipsychotics: One in every 145 patients who entered the clinical trials for four atypical (new) antipsychotic drugs died; yet those deaths were never mentioned in the scientific literature. Thirty-six patients involved in the clinical trials committed suicide. Other severe side effects include blindness, fatal blood clots, heart arrhythmia (irregularity), heat stroke, swollen and leaking breasts, impotence and sexual dysfunction, blood disorders, painful skin rashes, seizures, birth defects, extreme inner-anxiety and restlessness, and death from liver failure.

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