Medicine? At what cost?

It was during my first term in training that I got the chance to speak to the in-house oracle: the pharmacist. I knew very little about anti-psychotic medication and I wanted to know some information about how such things work. She told me that you can tell how good a drug is by how little side-effects come with it.

By way of introduction, anti psychotic medication work as 'major tranquilisers' - without causing impairment to consciousness [so they say]. In the short term, they are used to calm acutely 'ill' patients; alleviating severe anxiety. Medication relieves florid psychotic symptoms such as hallucinations (auditory, visual, olfactory etc.), thought disorder, delusions (like thinking there is a God!?) and most importantly, they help to prevent immediate relapse.

So, to take the most common - what's called a typical, called 'Haloperidol'. The cautions and contra-indications include:

"Hepatic impairment, renal impairment, cardiovascular disease, Parkinson’s disease, epilepsy, depression(?!), myasthenia gravis, prostatic hypertrophy, susceptibility to angle-closure glaucoma, respiratory disease, akathisia (restlessness), tardive dyskinesia (rhythmic, involuntary movements of tongue, face, and jaw)..."

and it continues:

"Drowsiness, apathy, agitation, excitement and insomnia, convulsions, dizziness, headache, confusion, gastro-intestinal disturbances, nasal congestion, antimuscarinic symptoms (such as dry mouth, constipation, difficulty with micturition, and blurred vision; very rarely, precipitation of angle-closure glaucoma), cardiovascular symptoms (such as hypotension, tachycardia, and arrhythmias), ECG changes (cases of sudden death have occurred), endocrine effects such as menstrual disturbances, galactorrhoea, gynaecomastia, impotence, and weight gain, blood dyscrasias (such as agranulocytosis and leucopenia), photosensitisation, contact sensitisation and rashes, and jaundice (including cholestatic), corneal and lens opacities, and purplish pigmentation of the skin, cornea, conjunctiva, and retina."

(British National Formulary)

Nice. Ok, so how about one of the newer anti-psychotic medication? Surely it can't be as bad as Haloperidol? Let's take Aripiprazole - an 'atypical' medication. Admittedly with fewer cautions and contra-indications, the list includes:

"Cerebrovascular disease, hepatic impairment, gastro-intestinal disturbances, tachycardia, fatigue, insomnia(?!), akathisia, drowsiness, restlessness, tremor, headache, asthenia, blurred vision, depression(?!), anorexia(?!), dysphagia, oropharyngeal spasm, laryngospasm, hepatitis, jaundice, hypersalivation, pancreatitis, oedema, thromboembolism, arrhythmias, bradycardia, hypertension, chest pain, agitation, anxiety(?!), speech disorder, suicidal ideation(?!), seizures, hyponatraemia, stiffness, myalgia, rhabdomyolysis, priapism, urinary retention and incontinence, blood disorders, sweating, alopecia, photosensitivity reactions, rash, weight loss, and impaired temperature regulation."

(British National Formulary)

Oh boy. With all the life-threatenting side-effects, one has to ask, "Is the medication worth taking?"

In Luke 9, he records Jesus saying, "..."The Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders, chief priests and teachers of the law, and he must be killed and on the third day be raised to life." Then he said to them all: "If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will save it."

Jesus, the panacea comes at a price - it has a side-effect, which is: death-to-self.

A step of faith in Him? Do we really know we're in for the long haul? Prepared to be broken? Is it worth it?