ABSTRACT
I have known for years that neuroleptics taken over a period of years will cause neurologic damage resulting in “tardive dyskinesia (up to 40%), tardive dystonia, anticholinergic poisoning, restless agitation, confusion, disorientation, tachycardia, and grogginess (known by patients as appearing like a zombie)” (1). But what I didn’t know, until recently, is that psychiatric drugs can also produce an increase in psychosis as a result of the neurological damage caused by anti-pyschotic drugs (Whitaker, 2). That is, a patient may start out with a relatively mild degree of psychosis, but the drugs, because of their increasing damage on the brain, will cause greater degree of psychosis.
