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Antipsychotics: Nonmotor Side Effects

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Psychotic Disorders

Part of the book series: Current Clinical Psychiatry ((CCPSY))

Abstract

Nonmotor side effects of antipsychotics are as important as motor side effects of antipsychotics since they reduce quality of life and increase morbidity and mortality. The main side effects reviewed in this chapter include weight gain and metabolic complications, prolactin elevation and sexual side effects, cardiac side effects including sudden death, and anticholinergic side effects. It is often overlooked that antipsychotics also have effects on the eye and teeth.

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Additional Resources

    Article

    • Beach SR, Celano CM, Sugrue AM, Adams C, Ackerman MJ, Noseworthy PA, et al. QT prolongation, torsades de pointes, and psychotropic medications: a 5-year update. Psychosomatics. 2018;59:105–22. – A colleague of mine from my hospital’s CL service has published a seminal review in 2013 of QT prolongation that he updated in 2018. While geared towards medically ill patients seen in the hospital, the review summarizes what is known about QT prolongation and makes pragmatic suggestions how to manage this risk.

      Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

    • Lester RM, Paglialunga S, Johnson IA. QT assessment in early drug development: the long and the short of it. Int J Mol Sci. 2019;20:1324. – More than you ever wanted to know about the QT interval, including its measurement variability.

      Article  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

    • Naber D, Moritz S, Lambert M, Pajonk FG, Holzbach R, Mass R, et al. Improvement of schizophrenic patients’ subjective well-being under atypical antipsychotic drugs. Schizophr Res. 2001;50:79–88. – An article that introduces the idea of “subjective well-being under neuroleptic treatment,” a construct that reminds us of the central importance of a patient’s experience with our medications (including side effects).

      Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

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    Authors and Affiliations

    1. Department of Psychiatry, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, MA, USA

      Oliver Freudenreich

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    1. Oliver Freudenreich
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    Freudenreich, O. (2020). Antipsychotics: Nonmotor Side Effects. In: Psychotic Disorders. Current Clinical Psychiatry. Humana, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-29450-2_15

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    • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-29450-2_15

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    • Publisher Name: Humana, Cham

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