Psychotropic drugs are a Fan Dance, frantically waving their hands to hide their true effects.
The psychopharmaceutical industry has started voraciously advertising another antipsychotic drug called Fanapt (generic iloperidone), although it has been available since 2009; and this one has even more contraindications and adverse side effects than other antipsychotics. Similar to the other antipsychotic agents, iloperidone carries a black-box warning for increased mortality in elderly patients with dementia-related psychosis.
As iloperidone is metabolized by cytochrome P450 enzymes, a person’s genetic abnormality with these can lead to the drug or its metabolites reaching a toxic level in hours or days, correlating with the onset of severe side effects. Other drugs which affect the levels of cytochrome P450 enzymes in the liver can also severely interfere with iloperidone metabolism and its elimination from the body.
Iloperidone, like similar psychotropic atypical antipsychotics, is an antagonist for dopamine and serotonin receptors in the brain, which means that it binds to and blocks the activation of these receptors, leading to a decrease in dopamine activity, under the unproven assumption that schizophrenia is caused by an overactive dopamine system.
Like all other such drugs, “The mechanism of action of iloperidone in schizophrenia is unknown.” They’re just guessing to make a buck, and hoping that no one notices the severity of the side effects.
Over 40% of patients relapse within 3 months (i.e. their schizophrenic symptoms return), which is deemed a “success.” With over 20 antipsychotic drugs on the market, iloperidone is not even supposed to be considered as a first option due to the severity of its adverse reactions. It does not appear to offer any distinct advantages to set it apart from other antipsychotic drugs, other than to make money for its producer, marketer, and prescribers, while ensuring subsequent income for treating its side effects.
So why all of a sudden is this drug experiencing a surge in advertising? Could it be that this is related to the expiration of an exclusivity agreement and the appearance of a generic iloperidone on the market?
This drug, however, is not even the real problem. Recognize that the real problem is that psychiatrists fraudulently diagnose life’s problems as an “illness”, and stigmatize unwanted behavior as “diseases.” Psychiatry’s stigmatizing labels, programs and treatments are harmful junk science; their diagnoses of “mental disorders” are a hoax – unscientific, fraudulent and harmful. All psychiatric treatments, not just psychiatric drugs, are abusive.
