Review Atypical Antipsychotics (vs Typical Antipsychotics) and their mechanism of action.
Atypical antipsychotics are drugs used to treat psychosis associated with schizophrenia or other psychotic disorders and are also used as mood stabilizing drugs for the treatment of bipolar disorder the atypical antipsychotics can be tricky to commit to memory but this mnemonic will help you master these drugs in no time let’s get started we’re in the apartment of
Our good friend who is in art and drama enthusiast shh she’s not here yet but today is her birthday and we are surprising her with the famous painting of the scream since it’s her favorite piece of art anyway we’re going to use the scream painting as our symbol for psychosis see the way the man in the picture is holding his head while reality swirls around him
This kind of reminds me of psychosis when people lose their sense of reality makes sense and today we’re talking about the antipsychotics which are drugs used to treat psychosis that part is easy it’s right in the name antipsychotics moving on a painting like this belongs locked up in a museum not in someone’s cramped apartment and especially not in a bright and
Cheery apartment like this yeah this painting doesn’t really belong here which is our way of symbolizing that we are talking about atypical antipsychotics because the scream painting is in an atypical setting right now atypical antipsychotics can be intimidating because there is no common ending in their drug names making it hard to memorize which drugs fall
Into the atypical antipsychotic category but don’t worry we’ve incorporated all that into the mnemonic for you let’s take a look as you might have noticed this is a surprise party you know the kind of party where everyone hides and then surprises the birthday person as they turn on the lights my friend here has found the best hiding spot of all in the closet
This closet is our symbol for the drug clozapine closet for clozapine they sound pretty similar don’t you think when you come across clozapine on test day now you know that it’s an atypical antipsychotic next this isn’t just any ordinary closet i mentioned that this friend of mine is super into the performing arts on top of just paintings that’s why she has a
Costume closet in her apartment it’s stuffed with all sorts of costumes and i even see a lance spilling out a lance you know the spear looking thing medieval knights would use for jousting this lance is the symbol for the drug olanzabine lance for olanzapine or you can think of it as olanzapine if that helps let’s talk about a few more drugs to pass the time
Waiting for the birthday girl my friend in the closet is chilling to some music he’s smart he brought his air pods with him when you think of these air pods i want you to remember the drug erapiprazole airpods for air epiprazole it’s the aripiprazole airpods aripriprazole is yet another atypical antipsychotic drug name you should commit to memory some people
Are whispering over here in the corner they don’t want to be too loud in case the birthday girl shows up so they’re whispering to keep their voices down by the way whisper is our symbol for the drug respiradon just think whisperidone alright the one on the stepstool there is in charge of planning this whole surprise gig and she hears someone coming to the door
Shh everybody quiet especially youtube whispering over there the way the woman is shushing everybody to be quiet is our symbol for quetiapine get it quiet for quetiapine now you’ll have no trouble remembering that quetiapine is an atypical antipsychotic last drug name here before we move on the woman in charge is carrying around her purse which has a large
Zipper on it this zipper symbolizes ziprazodone just think zipper acedone okay that’s it those are the typical antipsychotics clozapine olanzapine aripiprazole risperidone quetiapine and ziprazodone next let’s move on to the clinical uses of atypical antipsychotics we’ve kinda already covered this previously so i’ll keep this part short atypical antipsychotics
Are used to treat psychosis that was what the person with the wild crazy eyes in the screen painting represented remember now this is especially useful in people who have schizophrenia in fact atypical antipsychotics are first-line treatment for schizophrenia beating out the typical antipsychotics this is because atypical antipsychotics can treat both the
Positive symptoms of schizophrenia like hallucinations and delusions as well as the negative symptoms like the flat affect and antisocial behaviors i want to note that psychosis doesn’t just show up with schizophrenia it can appear postpartum and in patients with dementia as well therefore you may see atypical antipsychotics like quatiapine used in a variety
Of clinical contexts to calm patients down in the hospital just remember this scream painting to remember that antipsychotics treat psychosis okay let’s make our way back to that costume closet true to her character the woman living here had some greek drama masks in her closet what can i say she loves the arts the dual happy and sad faces on these greek drama
Masks have historically represented comedy and tragedy but here they are also our symbol for bipolar disorder you know since people with bipolar disorder are known from swinging between manic and depressive states which is kind of like swinging between the happy and sad drama masks here atypical antipsychotics like rispiridone have mood stabilizing effects which
Makes them effective in treating bipolar disorder right with the clinical uses out of the way now let’s move on to some side effects of atypical antidepressants false alarm the person at the door is just the eps delivery man here with a package to the apartment we were able to hear him coming even before he knocked on the door because of his large noisy rattling
Eps truck out front the eps delivery truck is here to remind you that atypical antipsychotics cause extra pyramidal abbreviated eps so what is eps anyway well eps can be simply summarized as a drug-induced disorder that affects the muscles specific symptoms include tremors like this rattling truck muscle spasms restlessness and involuntary actions like
Lip-smacking or sticking out the tongue all of these muscle movements have specific names that you should try to get familiar with have you heard of tardive dyskinesia or dystonia or akathesia while we won’t explain these in detail here it would be a good idea to review the topic on your own in general you should remember eps as a set of movement problems
Characterized by tremors that can be induced by taking antipsychotic drugs the package the eps delivery man is carrying looks super heavy he looks like he’s barely going to make it to the door this heavy overweight package is here to remind you that atypical antipsychotics can cause weight gain get it an overweight package for weight gain this weight gain is
Part of a bigger concept called metabolic syndrome which also includes high blood sugar but it is most important to know that it is expected that patients taking atypical antipsychotics will gain weight this can often be combated with a healthy diet and consistent exercise man how much longer do we have to wait before this girl shows up i mean my friend in the
Closet has completely fallen asleep at this point between the calming music and the dark closet it’s no wonder he’s sleeping when you think of this guy sleeping i want you to remember that atypical antipsychotics make people sleepy drowsiness and sedation are other side effects of atypical antipsychotics and as such people taking atypical antipsychotics should
Be advised to avoid other substances that also cause sedation like benzodiazepines and alcohol because we want to avoid over sedation right i mean at least my friend tried to stay awake i can tell because he has some empty cola bottles on the floor next to him here at pixar eyes we use cola to represent choline or acetylcholine so these empty fallen cola bottles
Should symbolize anticholinergic effects because choline or cola signaling is decreased get it antipsychotics can cause anticholinergic effects which include a set of findings like dry mouth blurry vision tachycardia urinary retention and the like personally i don’t recommend memorizing this laundry list instead i simply remember that acetylcholine causes most
Of the actions in our rest and digest or parasympathetic system therefore anticholinergic effects block our rest and digest system which causes constipation urinary retention tachycardia and blurred vision pretty simple right not only was my friend drinking cola but he was also snacking on granola while he was waiting now that he’s fallen asleep the granola
Box has spilled granola crumbs onto the floor when you think of this empty spilled granola i want you to think about agranulocyte spilled granola for agranulocytosis get it you can even think of a granola cytosis if that helps notice that the granola box is right next to the closet this is important because only the drug clozapine causes agranulocytosis got
That agranulocytosis is a fancy word for falling levels of certain white blood cells especially neutrophils without these white blood cells the body is at high risk for infections as the nurse you will want to closely monitor the patient’s white blood cell count and notify the provider if any signs of infections arise like a sore throat or a fever this is high
Yield on the nclex because agranulocytosis can lead to fatal infections and death thereby proving a danger to patient safety and the nclex is all about patient safety right let me just make it clear that this is not a luxury apartment in fact the lead pipes on the ceiling aren’t even covered you know that actually has made it easy to decorate with these streamers
We’ll talk about the streamers in a second but for now let’s focus on these lead pipes the lead pipes are the symbol for lead pipe muscle rigidity a characteristic symptom of a side effect called neuroleptic malignant syndrome or nms basically taking atypical antipsychotics can precipitate a syndrome called nms which is characterized by muscle rigidity often
Called lead pipe rigidity because the patient is so rigid and stiff that they resemble a lead pipe other signs of nms include fever altered mental status and unstable vital signs nms is a medical emergency let me say that again nms is a medical emergency if a patient taking atypical antipsychotics starts to develop muscle rigidity fever altered mental status
Or unstable vitals do not give the antipsychotic drug and call the provider immediately it’s actually a good thing our friend is taking so long to come home because we’re still hanging up the twisted streamers on the lead pipes i think things would go faster if that lady noticed that the streamer is stuck in her zipper hey now that i’m thinking about it these
Twisted streamers remind me of the abnormal heart rhythm called torso they want wouldn’t you agree you see the shape of the ekg or rhythm strip in torsade point forms a twisted streamer pattern which is why the streamers are our recurring symbol for torsa de puan i mentioned the zipper earlier and that’s important because torsa de puan is a potential side effect
For patients specifically taking zipracidone zipracetone prolongs the qt interval which puts the patient at a higher risk for developing torsoth torsade puant is a life-threatening arrhythmia so patients taking ziprasidone should have some degree of cardiac monitoring okay all right that’s everything for the atypical antipsychotics i know it was a lot so let’s
Do a quick summary before we go atypical antipsychotics are a drug class used to treat psychosis and schizophrenia and other psychotic conditions and are also used as mood stabilizers for bipolar disorder drugs in this category include clozapine olanzapine aripiprazole risperidone quatipine and zipracidone side effects of these drugs include extrapyramidal
Symptoms abbreviated eps which refers to a constellation of movement problems like tremors muscle spasms and restlessness atypical antipsychotics are also well known for causing metabolic syndrome and weight gain other side effects include sedation anticholinergic effects and neuroleptic malignant syndrome abbreviated nms nms is a medical emergency characterized
By muscle rigidity fever confusion and unstable vitals don’t forget that clozapine can cause agranulocytosis or a rapid fall in white blood cells and zipracidone can cause qt prolongation in the abnormal heart rhythm of torso de puan thanks for tagging along with me at this surprise party i think the birthday girl is about to show up so i’ll wrap it up here
I’ll catch you thanks for watching for more videos like this one subscribe to our channel and check out our newest lessons for more resources on this topic including fact lists and interactive review images click the image next to the more here arrow i’ll see you next time
Transcribed from video
Atypical Antipsychotics Mnemonic for NCLEX | Mechanism of Action, Side Effects, Nursing Pharmacology By Pixorize