"Typical" antipsychotic side-effects.

[rjh]

My psychiatrist is considering switching me from an atypical to a typical antipsychotic because I'm not getting a lot of relief from the paranoid delusions and hallucinations I suffer.  I've done a lot of reading on the whole class of "typicals", as well as on the individual drugs themselves and the side-effects seem so much worse than those for the atypicals I've been taking.  What I'd like to know is:  Are the typicals are proven to give more relief from positive symptoms to go along with those side-effects?

[Roger Gould, M.D.]

The reason the atypicals are so frequently used is because of the side effect issue, but the typicals have been proven to be as or more effective, so picking the one with the least side effects is what you and your doctor need to do, but often it is a matter of trial and error.  I don't think you can make the generalization about  positive symptoms without considering each medication separately.

[tuffty]

You can try clozapine. it's atypical and mostyl peopl find it the best one, and  btter than the typicals. It helps many people who didn't get better with other antipsychotics.Good luck.