psychosis and amphetamine and cocaine use

[ihavequestions]

would occasional use of amphetamines or cocaine use likely to cause drug induced psychosis or possibly trigger full blown schizophrenia?

has SWIY ever has drug induced psychosis? what was it like? and does SWIY have a history of schizophrenia in there family?

[TheMorphineMan]

Swim has experience meth-induced psychosis, the worst episode being after accidentally inhaling a bunch of paint-thinner after having been tweaked for 3 or 4 days. Swim was locked out of his friend's apartment and was running around the courtyard to the complex for about five hours waiting for him to get home. Swim was afraid everyone else in the complex was either trying to kill him or was doing recon work for the DEA. Every car seemed to be an undercover narcotics car. Swim went and told the landlord that his other tenants were plotting against him and were involved in a huge police conspiracy to catch us tweakers and blah blah blah

By the end of the night swim was having full open eyed hallucinations furthering his delusions...finally swim's friend got home and let him in, where he began hyperventilating on the couch and passed out. Swim woke up the next morning sober and feeling a hell of a lot better than the night before.

Anyways, it's hard to describe exactly what swim's "psychosis" felt like, he was just acting insane, thinking insane, FELT insane, yet couldn't ignore his delusions. I guess that's what schizophrenia is supposed to be like, but I dunno for sure. I've never heard of a someone having true schizophrenia triggered by a meth or coke incident, but some literature I've read says it is possible with acid, but that may be BS. As far as I know, even with the worst psychoses, amphetamine-induced episodes last at the very longest several weeks or maybe months, and coke-induced episodes only few days max.

And swim's second cousin has schizophrenia, and his family says it was drug-induced, but they may have been biased in their opinions

[JudgeJudy]

SWIM has had an amphetamine-induced psychosis due to mixing it with SSRI (Prozac)

SWIM's older brother has paranoid schizophrenia.

It felt like adrenaline was running through the body every 15-20 minutes causing all thinking abilities to diminish (like being sucked into the abyss). Thought SWIM was going to kill some one, or herself. Thought husband was going to kill her. Couldn't reason these feelings away, couldn't breathe, and heart beating fast. Husband took SWIM to the ER and was hospitalized until it ran its course. (3 days of hell) and about a month of uncertainty. This was all legal prescribed medications but just can't be mixed together for some reason.

Another bad combination was Darvocet and Wellbutrin. Caused intrusive thoughts and the feeling of dying. SWIM is sensitive to medications

[theWasp]

Originally Posted by JudgeJudy

SWIM has had an amphetamine-induced psychosis due to mixing it with SSRI (Prozac)

Hmmm, my friend swim takes 20mg of paxil (also an SSRI) per day. After doing meth a few times (and not noticing any adverse reactions) he asked his doctor if this was safe to mix with paxil. Swim told me that the doctor said that there was no danger of interactions but that "methamphetamine of course, has its own dangers."

In reading through the forum, it seems that some people mix meth and paxil, and others say it's dangerous. Can anyone give me more info on this (especially links to studies/articles)? If meth and paxil is a dangerous mix, I need to warn swim, and tell him to get a new doctor.

[SmokingBowls420]

Swim smoked meth on binges, he'd stay up for 3 days out of the week for 6 months when it started getting out of hand.....Swim only got psychosis after about 2-3 months of this...It's just a lack of sleep mixed with the paranioa meth gives swiy....Swim has no family histroy of schizo, but just smoke it and stay up for a day or two and swiy should be ok if this is done once a month.

After 3 days swiy goes into a mild psychosis, he hears things and sees strrraaannnge hallucinations like pieces of his vision will shatter like glass and all thats there is a black hole, or a black hole in the wall with someone staring at him....but this goes away once swiy gets some sleep....It takes a few months of this for it to stay with swim even after sleep.

[staples]

There are several threads about amphetamine/stimulant psychosis around here...

Ritalin Psychosis
drugs that could trigger schizophrenia?
Effect of antipsychotics on the brain?
Combatting Amphetamine Psychosis
Amphetamine Psychosis
Amphetamine Psychosis - Opening Doors
Hear voices every time take amphetamine
Toxic Psychosis from Ritalin overdose

It is important not to confuse amphetamine psychosis with sleep deprivation or some other medical condition...

Amphetamines have some affinity for serotonin and are considered to pose a risk for a moderate drug interaction with SSRIs. Amphetamines and SSRIs are prescribed together, but care is taken to introduce the second medication slowly to make sure that there are no problems. The danger here, however, is not amphetamine psychosis, but serotonin syndrome--since the interaction occurs with serotonin, not dopamine.

Depending on the dose and the person ('s metabolism), amphetamine psychosis should last as long as the plasma concentration is above some (ridiculous) threshold. Supposing one manages to take even twice the dose required to reach this threshold without suffering cardiac arrest, the psychosis would last at most around 13 hours. It would not last weeks and certainly not months. It also wouldn't cause schizophrenia to manifest permanently (it's probably not even really exactly like paranoid schizophrenia, just very similar).

If you experience amphetamine psychosis, dial the appropriate emergency number for wherever you live.

[insomnizombie]

yeah just don't make the mistake I did. first i thought i went into meth psychosis then I was diagnosed schizophrenic. ultimately turns out all the supposed delusions were actually happening. i was hated that much that everyone really was out to get me. says a lot about me doesn't it.