Antipsychotic drugs may trigger addiction to narcotics

By Staff Writer

Doctors may be triggering new drug addictions in their psychotic patients as a side effect of the very medicines they prescribe, according to a preclinical study published in Neuropsychopharmacology.

Psychologists are already aware that antipsychotic drugs can cause secondary effects such as facial tics, apathy, depression and weight gain.

The new study suggests that those same drugs may also be related to the fact that almost half of all schizophrenics consume narcotics, nicotine or alcohol. Those patients often require treatment in therapeutic residential schools to recover.

Many schizophrenics consume other stimulants to appease the secondary effects of their prescription pills. Their self-medication only makes matters worse; increasing their risk of hospitalization while decreasing their chance of recovery, according to the Université de Montréal researcher who wrote the paper.

In the study, rats who received a continuous - but not intermittent - supply of antipsychotic drugs combined with an injection of amphetamine intensified their pursuit of rewards. The reason is that antipsychotic drugs create a hypersensitivity to dopamine and amphetamines by blocking dopamine receptors in the central  nervous system.

Humans in that situation would develop an uncontrollable craving for the sensations felt after drug consumption.