April 13, 2005
Dear Readers,
In the time that I have been doing this wonderful mental health recovery work I have seen many, many people take back control of their lives. Their lives have become rich, full and satisfying. However, there is one area where many of us continue to be lax—taking responsibility for our use of psychiatric medications. While many of us choose to use these medications as a wellness tool, many of us still do not learn about our medications and manage them wisely. Sometimes we think we know all we need to know and we don’t. Unfortunately the results can be tragic. That is why I asked Ellen Liversidge to write this article for you. Please take the time to read it and share it with others.
Mary Ellen Copeland
Saving Your Own Life
By Ellen Liversidge
This information, and this story, are not meant to scare you or have you stop taking your medication if it is helping you. But your life is precious and you must have information like this, to be safe, and to be well.
If you are taking an atypical antipsychotic drug, usually given for those labeled with schizophrenia or manic depression, there are some things you must know to be sure that you take the best possible care of yourself.
The atypical antipsychotics are Zyprexa - olanzapine (likely to gain weight), clozapine - Clozaril (likely to gain weight), risperidone - Risperidal, Seroquil - quetipine, Geodon - ziprasidone, Abilify – aripipradole. All of these drugs have helped people, but they have also, in rare cases, caused diabetes, hyperglycemia (high blood sugar), and even death. In my son Rob's case, they caused death. We were never given any warning of complications (nor was anyone else in this country). He gained a great deal of weight on olanzapine (Zyprexa). After a few days of feeling "funny", he went into a coma and died four days later, of profound hyperglycemia and other complications. Rob was 38 years old, had bipolar disorder, and was the smartest and greatest guy you would ever want to know.
After his death, we found out that other countries required warnings on the labels of some or all of these drugs, and with the help of many, got front page stories about the problem in the Baltimore Sun, New York Times, and Wall St. Journal. After all this exposure, the Food and Drug Administration was embarrassed into requiring warnings on the labels of all these drugs.
If you take one of these drugs, ask your pharmacist for the long, thin label; not the one that comes stapled to the bag. You will see the exact warning on this label. It explains what hyperglycemia symptoms are (thirst, or polydipsia. frequent urination - polyuria, hunger - polyphagia, and others. Rob showed a lot of fatigue, and vomited once. These symptoms did not seem "psychiatric" in nature, and we were so used to keeping an eye out for those that we didn't seek medical attention until it was too late.
If you are taking any one of these drugs, you should have a discussion with your doctor about the drug and about monitoring your blood sugar. There is no clear protocol developed as to how often you should get your blood sugar checked, but it should be done. If you are gaining weight, you should go on a good diet, as the weight gain seems to be a contributing factor to the serious complications. If you have diabetes, you should not be taking these drugs.
Take care, and good for you for taking your wellness, and your life, into your own hands.
