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Side effect of antipsychotics?

Jane241Senior Contributor

Side effect of antipsychotics?

Hi

My adult daughter is prescribed 2 atypical antipsychotics. She was on a monthly depo injection for one of them and taking the other one orally at night. Unfortunately she had stopped getting the depo for a couple of months and a few days ago got new scrip for taking it orally. She also has not been too regular in taking the other antipsychotic.

About 10 days ago she was unwell and started getting excessive saliva, which is very difficult. I told her to go to the doctor, but she is reluctant and as she is paranoid, she is convinced it is caused by an outside agent. I'm concerned that it might be the medication, even though she has taken them for the past 2 years, on and off, and I'm not sure how consistently she is taking them now. The constant drooling makes her life very difficult and its only been going on for 10 days. I don't know what to do as she doesn't see a psychiatrist since she stopped seeing the community care team and she doesn't believe there is a medical cause for the excessive saliva.

4 replies

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In response to: Side effect of antipsychotics?

AppleblossomSenior Contributor

Re: Side effect of antipsychotics?

Yes @Jane241 i have seen it as a side effect of antipsychotics. Managing it with your daughter and her concerns and the services… takes deep diplomacy and care. As there are competing priorities. It is not simple. Wish I could give an easy answer. I also walk a similar path. Tbh my son is more accepting of his meds and side effects than I. We can’t change the situation easily …here to talk if you want…

In response to: Side effect of antipsychotics?

AuntJobiskaSenior Contributor

Re: Side effect of antipsychotics?

Sialorrhoea, in other words drooling or excessive saliva, is a classic side effect of THE antipsychotic used for treatment resistant schizophrenia (for patients who have failed two trials of antipsychotics) - it's the one that comes with lots of monitoring in terms of regular blood tests at the beginning and has agranulocytosis and severe constipation as life threatening side effects (sorry for some reason this forum thinks if I actually name the med you'll explode)! I'm not aware of it as a side effect for any other antipsychotic, but I haven't done a deep dive into side effects. So yes, if she's on that med, then absolutely it is very likely the culprit. It also sounds like she might have some psychotic symptoms going in the background, so important to touch base and let her clinician know. I very much hope you've got a private psychiatrist... The public system's a struggle.

In response to: Re: Side effect of antipsychotics?

Jane241Senior Contributor

Re: Side effect of antipsychotics?

Thank you. Yes the competing priorities is my concern. If she would see the doctor then alternatives could be prescribed instead of just stopping.

In response to: Re: Side effect of antipsychotics?

Jane241Senior Contributor

Re: Side effect of antipsychotics?

It's not that one but another one with the same last 6 letters in the name, so presumably would have some similarities. We haven't had any luck getting on the books with a private psychiatrist and atm she's averse to seeing one anyway.

Thank you.

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