suicide" he mentions stuff about the sereotnin receptors being
'abnormal' or different. The neurobiological solution would be to change
the neurotransmitter levels artifically to compensate and this would be
done using an SSRI.
Clozapine has a totally different action I think. It may work on the
serotonin pathways as well but it's primary action is as a broad
spectrum thing that works on dopamine. I'll probably have to look for a
paper on the neurobiology of suicide in schizophrenia however I suspect
that, based on the biomedical model, all information about suicide would
point to quasi-depressive symptoms (or misery or unhappiness or
pscyhache or soul pain) or, perhaps, to reckless suicides.
Also, I think there are two types of suicide (and there may be a
continuum between them or they may be discrete entities): planned
suicide and reckless suicide. In fact there are more
Argh! My stupidness, lack of knowledge and inability to put my words
down properly is frustrating. What I'm trying to answer or say or
whatever is this: is the action of clozapine not to make patients
'happier' or less depressed to treat the risk of suicide but to reduce
the risk of reckless suicide or perhaps just to induce apathy or
passivity and thereby 'treat'? It has anti-aggression properties and
this sounds great except that what it really means is that it's like a
chemical straightjacket for the mind.
I really, really want to try clozapine. I need to understand this from
the inside. I'm going to keep hunting through the research looking for
good qualitiatve data (and probably getting side tracked in whatever
study comes across my purview) but at the moment my efforts are leading
to less rather than more clarity on how clozapine works and how an
alternative can be found. I also need to understand exactly what it
feels like and no amount of words will ever teach more than personal
experience.
No comments:
Post a Comment