How to Treat Depression With Antipsychotic Medication

While antipsychotic drugs are generally used to treat serious psychoses, such as schizophrenia, bipolar disorders and delusional disorders, they are sometimes used in small dosages to treat severe forms of depression. Using antipsychotic medication to treat depression, however, should only be done under the close supervision of a qualified health professional, such as a psychiatrist.

Instructions

Difficulty: Moderate

Things You’ll Need:

• Mental-health professional, such as a psychiatrist
• Antipsychotic medication

Treat Depression With Antipsychotic Medication

1. Consult with your mental-health professional to determine whether antipsychotic medication is the correct way to treat your specific form of depression. Usually, antipsychotic medications are only prescribed in small doses to treat depression. Also, they are only prescribed when a major-depressive episode is a mere component of a larger psychosis, such as manic depressive or bipolar disorder.
2. Choose atypical antipsychotic medication over older, more traditional forms of antipsychotic drugs, due to the reduced severity of many of the side effects. Traditional antipsychotic drugs can cause seizures, involuntary motor tics, tooth damage, impotence and weight gain. Approximately two-thirds of all patients who are prescribed antipsychotic drugs ask to be released from them due to the intensity of the side effects.
3. Investigate some of the antipsychotic drugs that are more effective in dealing with depression, mood disorders and bipolar disorders, as opposed to the medications that were designed specifically to treat schizophrenia. They include amisulpride (Solian), ziprasidone (Geodon) and olanzapine (Zyprexa). Note that while Solian has been clinically proven to be more effective in treating anxiety and depression than many common antidepressants, it has not yet been approved by the FDA for use in the United States.
4. Use antipsychotic medication to treat your depression in conjunction with an exercise regimen. Activities like yoga or tai chi can raise serotonin levels in your brain, treating your depression naturally. Even spending an hour per day exposed to sunlight may help.
5. Maintain your dosage levels in strict compliance with your prescription. Never adjust, lower or stop taking your medication without the close supervision of your mental-health professional. If you do so, serious side effects may occur, such as an increase in feelings of depression or suicide.

Tips & Warnings

• Some atypical antipsychotic medications are available in a "depot" form, which means they can be delivered in a single dose via an injection that may last 1 to 2 months at a time.
• Some antipsychotic medications, such as Clozapine, may cause rare types of blood diseases if you do not carefully monitor their use. Often, a blood test must be administered every 2 weeks.