Why Are Regular Blood Tests Required For People On Certain Anti-psycotic Medications?

Anti-psychotic medications are extremely powerful and cause many unpleasant side effects. This is why many psychiatric patients with a psychotic illness such as schizophrenia stop taking their meds. With these meds, the good news is that they eliminate the hallucinations and delusions of psychosis; the bad news is that they cause side effects of stupor, lack of muscle coordination, and sexual impotency.

When treating a psychotic illness, psychiatrists routinely order regular blood tests to see how much of the medication is getting into the patient's system. This is particularly important with two drugs: Lithium and Clozaril. Lithium is a great mood stabilizer, but it has a very narrow therapeutic window; too little, and the drug has no effects. Too much, and the drug can quickly become toxic. Psychiatrists carefully monitor the amount of Lithium in a patient's system.

The antipsychotic drug Clozaril is extremely effective in stopping psychosis. However, it can cause a fatal effect of reducing white blood cells in the body. When this happens, the patient develops agranulorcytosis and will die of infections of all kinds. Thus, patients on Clozaril must have weekly blood tests to make sure their white blood cells are sufficient.

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