I was taught in my classes that the newer the antipsychotic, the fewer problems and side effects it had. But I'm finding that newer doesn't mean better. It just means that we aren't as aware of the side effects yet.

My brother might still be alive if he hadn't had the problems that he did with medications. He needed treatment for schizophrenia and depression, but Zyprexa was starting to cause hypertension and other health problems. Abilify had intolerable side effects for him (prolonged erection that he probably interpreted with a lot of shame and also contributed to an incident that landed him in jail). In jail, he didn't get adequate treatment, or sometimes any treatment at all. After holding him in jail for two years with no trial, they started to transition him and had him in a different placement. He had said that they were withholding about half of his meds. He committed suicide.

My brother needed meds that worked, and that didn't have health-threatening or otherwise intolerable side effects. But he also needed someone to show him and teach him that he could still live his life. He didn't think that he could, because anything he tried, someone told him he couldn't. He believed that he was worthless, and meds contributed to the problem. Sometimes he was overmedicated and couldn't do much of anything. I don't know what the answers are, but these meds are not the solution that we have been told that they are. They might have their place, but we can't just settle for a prescription and call it good.