Harley Quinn presents: Fun With Medication
June 24th, 2007
Chlorpromazine (brand name Thorazine) is a strong antipsychotic medication. Like most drugs in its class, chlorpromazine is also a potent tranquilizer. The usual dose is 100 to 200 milligrams, three of four times per day. The maximum recommended dose — and only for severe cases — is 400 milligrams per dose. A 500 milligram dose is over the top, but something I could see a villain using.
From left to right:
1. PAXIL 25 mg
Paxil (generic name Paroxetine) is an antidepressant/anti-anxiety medication. 25 milligrams is a reasonable dose (a usual dose of Paxil is 10 to 40 milligrams, once a day), except for the fact that Paxil does not come in a 25 milligram size. (Paxil CR does, but that’s a different formulation of Paroxetine).
2. HALDOL 25 mg
Haldol (generic name Haloperidol) is an antipsychotic in many ways similar to Chlorpromazine. 25 milligrams is quite a hefty dose, though not unheard of. However, like Paxil, Haldol does not come in 25 milligram pills.
3. XANAX 100mg
Xanax (generic name Alprazolam) is a short acting anti-anxiety medication from the benzodiazepine class (the same class of drugs as Valium). It is a commonly abused medication. The largest size Xanax comes in is 2 milligrams. A 100 milligram pill of Xanax would likely be a fatal dose.
Tags: comics medicine harley quinn thorazine paxil haldol xanax a j lieberman
June 25th, 2007 at 6:53 pm
Maybe the Xanax is for Killer Crock or Solomon Grundy?
Oh, and there’s a blood transfusion scene in the latest Amazing Spider-Man.
It’s weird how reading comics now reminds me of this blog instead of the other way around.
June 25th, 2007 at 9:50 pm
Good analysis of the meds. As a psychiatrist in training, I’ll add that it’s disturbing that the antipsychotic, antidepressant, and anxiolytic were all prescribed by different doctors. You are right about all of the dosages. And dear Lord, someone needs to bomb all of the factories that make Xanax, that stuff is awful awful awful. I have seen more of that prescribed indescriminantly by primary care docs that ends up just causing a big mess…
Chlorpromazine does not paralyze limb by limb. It is highly sedating, but paralysis is something else entirely. In terms of dopamine blockade, chlorpromazine is classified as a “low potency” antipsychotic and it has relatively high (the most) sedating effect compared to its effect on hallucinations/delusions etc, for which haloperidol would be a “high potency” medication.
I have seen chlorpromazine used in a dose up to 400mg for people who get the medication on a regular basis and are acutely agitated on the inpatient psychiatry unit. Frequent blood pressure monitoring after a dose like that is usually needed, even in those who are used to thorazine as their usual medication.
June 30th, 2007 at 7:56 pm
Like most drugs in its class, chlorpromazine is also a potent tranquilizer.
The euphemism my husband’s various doctors generally used was “anti-convulsant.” The fourth or fifth time I asked about the latest med only to get the same response, I snapped: “They’re all anticonvulsants!
…paralyses limb by limb…
That sounded weird to me anyway - I assume he meant that the paralasis starts at the extremeties and works in? Otherwise it sounds like he’s saying that one leg goes numb before the other, and then maybe an arm; like some reverse version of Hangman.
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