The news has reported that Andrea Yates is currently taking Haldol for her psychological problems. It was also reported that she showed “little emotion” as the original verdict was read as well as when she was sentenced.
No surprise there. Based solely on my personal observations of people on Haldol, it seems that it basically does a “personality-ectomy” on ya. I wouldn’t’ve been surprised if Andrea Yates had taken a nap during the proceedings.
A friend of mine that came back from Viet Nam a little lopsided, and he ended up on Haldol. He told me that it was like living in a cotton ball and just watching as thoughts go by.
I was wondering if any Dopers have had any personal experience with that drug? To me, a person on Haldol is not really capable of assisting in their own defense.
I’ve known or worked with many people who were given Haldol; the majority of these folks were manic and/or psychotic and the medication often was given to keep them from injuring themselves or others. Besides making these folks very groggy it both flattened affect and made them much more malleable. Personally, I think it’s too often used as a chemical restraint (it was referred to as “vitamin H” at the facilities where I worked).
In regard to Andrea Yates, I wouldn’t consider her competent to assist in her own defense either on or off Haldol. In my experience drugged or psychotic people don’t have the cognitive ability for rational thought.
Haldol (haloperidol) is a butyrophenone neuroleptic, and, like most of the neuroleptic drugs, does a major number on neurons, shutting down what they do for a living.
Despite pharmaceutical-industry propaganda that would have you believe that antipsychotic drugs are “magic bullets” that home in on the specific portions of the brain that are responsible for psychotic behavior, they are, in fact, more of a “magic shotgun”, or even a “magic bomb” that mess up neurotransmitters indiscriminately.
There are people who say that we can’t have it both ways. Either a person is a competent adult or they are not. Most of us who are activist on behalf of mental patients’ rights and self-determination issues strongly prefer that we be treated and legally considered to be competent adults unless a competency hearing specifically finds otherwise. If Yates was competent when she agreed to take Haldol, she is as responsible for her actions under its effects as if she had voluntarily taken heroin.
However, many people taking Haldol are doing so under at least moderate duress, up to and including physical coercion and forcible injection; and many who do take Haldol of their own consent do not take it under circumstances of **informed ** consent, i.e., their psychiatrists do not tell the truth about the drug’s efficacy (variable), specificity (low), and harmful side effects (many, some permanent), or even tell them things within these categories that are fundamentally not true.
I’d tend to agree. The friend of mine that was under Haldol therapy was effectively forced to take it for six months even thought he didn’t want it anymore after the first dosage.