Haldol

[simplysimplerose]

why do they treat bi-polar with Thorazine or haldol? Are they trying to knock the person out, so that their brain heals? I have a 24 yr. old son who is in the midst of a psychotic episode. He believes that he controls all t'v.'s & electronic media. we just put him on haldol, how long does it take before he can get on some other medication?

[Jackie1214]

From my experience working in the mental health field, most prescribers do not use Thorazine to treat Bipolar, and actually try to not use it very much at all since so many newer medications have become available.
As far as haldol goes it depends on the prescriber. Haldol is usually not a preferred treatment for bipolar disorder, and in the majority of the cases that it's used to treat bipolar it is usual during a crisis situation where a person ends up at the hospital in crisis.

[kitolongo]

Hi There,
I stumbled upon this while researching for my own son, who is 23 and going through some similar things, and I live in Sonoma County, also.  If you would like to meet, or just talk online, let me know.  It would be nice to have someone local to talk to who understands what we are going through :).  Let me know, and I will send you my email

[simplysimplerose]

Thanks everyone....we went to the doctor yesterday & they immediately took him off the Haldol...he was having extreme side effects, which is what scared me so much...his heart beat was really high..it was at 106 after 12 hours of taking the Haldol, & probably way high when it first kicked in...he's semi-stable, so they put him on Zyprexa & lammoprimine...we'll see where that takes us...but now I know to put that med on his do not take list...

[adel_ezz]

neurazin, Haldol and the sort are typical antipsychotics used to stabilize pts quickly than atypical ones like seroquel, zyprexa or abilify etc...my experience with them when I am manic pdocs refer to them first then once recovered they resort to a mood stabilizer or an atypiical

[simplysimplerose]

Thank You....I had a real bad experience with the Psychiatric care here in Sonoma Co., CA....The problem is that there are so many people in need in this community & no beds....everyone who goes thru the system with delusions of grandeur are treated with the same meds...Haldol...it scares me...but this is what they prescribed...these are the steps that they take to stabilize people....The Psych RN is coming over on Friday, at which time I will talk with her about alternative meds...Thanks for the heads up...I'll keep you posted

[ILADVOCATE]

   Since the thoughts he has are psychotic so that's why they put him on an antipsychotic but you could ask the psychiatrist more about that. The older (typical) antipsychotics from Thorazine to Haldol can often be more difficult to tolerate than the newer atypicals (Risperdal to Abilify, Saphris and Fanapt) although each person responds differently to each medication. I found them to be more effective as do many people but each individual is different. The atypicals have less of a concern for causing long term movement disorders such as tardive dyskinesia but more of a potential for causing diabetes and weight gain. There are newer generation antipsychotics in Phase 2 FDA study which don't appear to cause these side effects but they are not FDA approved yet. You could discuss all this with his psychiatrist.
   The most important thing to discuss is whether they believe psychosis will be part of this concern long term in which case most likely within their clinical discretion he would need an antipsychotic for life or if they are at this point trying to obtain stability and then will transfer him to  a mood stabilizer. Bipolar can have variants such as bipolar with psychotic features or schizoaffective disorder (such as I have) that have both mood and thought disturbances and can often require both a mood stabilizer and antipsychotic (as is true of myself). You could discuss this with the psychiatrist as well.