Neuroleptic-Induced Brain Damage and Cell Death

DEMONSTRATING NEUROLEPTIC-INDUCED BRAIN DAMAGE AND CELL DEATH 

A recent study involving primates has demonstrated that both the older and the atypical neuroleptics shrink brain tissue during routine clinical exposure. Dorph-Petersen et al. (2005), from the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Pittsburgh, subjected three groups of six macaque monkeys each to oral haloperidol (Haldol), olanzapine (Zyprexa), 

The authors concluded that their data raised the possibility that changes seen in the brains of patients diagnosed with schizophrenia might be due at least in part to antipsychotic medication. This was a dramatic suggestion from researchers who were sponsored by both NIH and Eli Lilly, the manufacturer of Zyprexa. As this chapter will confirm, in fact there can be no serious scientific doubt that the destructive changes seen in the brains of patients labeled schizophrenic are wholly attributable to the medications inflicted on them. 

Neuroleptics can damage or destroy brain cells through a variety of mechanisms. They not only suppress the gross function of dopaminergic neurons, they disrupt a variety of metabolic functions within neurons and other cells throughout the body. 

It has been known for several decades that these drugs inhibit most enzyme systems in the mitochondria (Teller et al., 1970), which are the principal sites for many of the most important metabolic processes in the cell. Research by Inuwa et al. (1994) demonstrated that neuroleptics are absorbed into human cell mitochondria, where they interfere with metabolic processes and cause structural abnormalities. The authors suggested, It is possible that such interaction may be cytopathic leading to premature cell death (p. 1091). 

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