Living with antipsychotic medication side‐effects: The experience of A ustralian mental health consumers

The present study explores people's experience of living with antipsychotic medication side‐effects. Qualitative data were gathered through semistructured interviews with 10 mental health consumers in a community care setting in A ustralia. The interview transcriptions were content analysed, and enhanced by combining manifest and latent content. Important contextual cues were identified through replaying the audio‐recordings. Several main themes emerged from the analysis, including the impact of side‐effects, attitudes to the use of medication and side‐effects, and coping strategies to manage medication side‐effects. Each participant reported between six and seven side‐effects on average, which were often pronounced and had a major disruptive impact on their lives. Of these effects, the most commonly mentioned was sedation, which the participants described as leaving them in a ‘zombie'‐like state. Most participants expressed an attitude of acceptance about the side‐effects. The participants' most common strategy to manage side‐effects was to change the dosage of the medication. Other common side‐effect management strategies involved using other medications to control side‐effects, and diverse self‐help techniques, the most common of which was relaxation/distraction techniques.