My 34 Year Old Daughter Is Diagnosed With Schizophrenia .

Posted on Sat, 26 Jan 2019

Medically reviewed by Ask A Doctor - 24x7 Medical Review Team

Sat, 26 Jan 2019 Answered on

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Question : My 34 year old daughter is diagnosed with schizophrenia. Recently she was put on a 30 day Haldol injection. It suppressed most positive and negative symptoms and she was greatly recovered from constant voices, delusions of persecution and isolation. She took her 2nd injection XXXXXXX 8th. By XXXXXXX 19th she developed low back pain that is better with naproxin and 2 chiro vists, but still exists. She has tried a few other anti-psychotics before (5 total forced hospitalizations in 3 years) but she refuses to believe she is ill or to stay medicated. She is right now med compliant on Haldol but has been unmedicated most of the last 3 years. Is the Haldol perhaps the cause of her back pain? Will it get worse with continued shots? She is due another on Feb 8th. She won't allow me to talk to her psychiatrist or to participate in her care.

Answered by Dr. Ashok Kumar Choudhary (16 minutes later)

Brief Answer:
Consultation

Detailed Answer:
Hello,
Thanks for using Healthcaremagic.

I read your query and understand your concerns.

Haldol (Haloperidol decanoate) is not known to cause low backache which increases with time. It is possible that backache is result of muscle spasm due to haldol (which is rare) but there are no known mechanisms which can worsen it in future.

There is good possibility that Haldol have no direct connection with recent onset low backache and there is need for more evaluation in respect to low backache provided it persists longer. Since there is no direct connection it is unlikely to progress with further Haldol shots.

I hope this helps you.
Feel free to write back to me if you have more questions.
Thanks and regards.

Above answer was peer-reviewed by : Dr. Chakravarthy Mazumdar