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So today my preceptor had to duck out early to care for one of his small children, and I got the chance to work with a guy who mostly does compounding at my site and also consults for a special needs psychiatric group on the side. During the course of a conversation on atypical antipsychotic drugs, we got on the subject of aripiprazole.
I mentioned how much one particular professor of ours seemed to tout it as one of the best things since sliced bread in the psychiatric world (use in multiple disease states, lack of sedation, fewer metabolic profile changes, etc) and this fellow mentioned that he thinks it's a horrible drug, especially in patients with decreased function/IQ.
When I pressed him for why he thought as such, he joked: "It rots your brain. Literally." He says that in his years of experience, he and the doctors & other pharmacists that he works with have observed a disturbing but consistent trend: that using aripiprazole in this population of patients seems to favor a decrease in IQ. None of them will allow their patients to use it, except in extenuating circumstances.
Has anyone else heard/observed this? What other little interesting nuggets of information have you all picked up while out on rotations?
I mentioned how much one particular professor of ours seemed to tout it as one of the best things since sliced bread in the psychiatric world (use in multiple disease states, lack of sedation, fewer metabolic profile changes, etc) and this fellow mentioned that he thinks it's a horrible drug, especially in patients with decreased function/IQ.
When I pressed him for why he thought as such, he joked: "It rots your brain. Literally." He says that in his years of experience, he and the doctors & other pharmacists that he works with have observed a disturbing but consistent trend: that using aripiprazole in this population of patients seems to favor a decrease in IQ. None of them will allow their patients to use it, except in extenuating circumstances.
Has anyone else heard/observed this? What other little interesting nuggets of information have you all picked up while out on rotations?
