Help possible tardive or possible hypochondria?

My 24 yo SA son has been on antipsychotics for 10 years. Tried several only thing that helped was clozapine. Now he’s deveopled strange neurological symptoms. He keeps researching all these different ailments. He started with severe back pain then pelvic pain then shoulders and neck and weak legs. Profound weight loss. Neurology and fam med ran all kinds of bloodwork no answers. He was convinced it was MS then ALS now tardive dyskensia. His psych dr disagrees but hasn’t seen him in person for months. To me he seems obsessed and manic. His pain seems real but now he says he needs disability and there’s going to be a lawsuit. His girlfriend backs him up on all of this. I know he is beyond frustrated but I don’t know what is real??? Help

Well I would say looking at the evidence of what you said, he is suffering from a schizophrenia delusion that he is suffering from all sorts of illnesses and pains. Clearly, when the blood tests all indicate no issues and the psychiatrist doesn’t agree with tardive dyskinesia, that he is suffering from a delusion. I suspect some of the pain he mentions are a form of tactile hallucinations.

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It sounds like it could be somatic pain from google;

While challenges exist in treating patients when they present with somatic delusions alone, it becomes far more difficult when somatic delusions present in patients with schizophrenia . Physical symptoms such as pain or discomfort are often incorrectly perceived or misinterpreted by psychotic patients.

Pain More Common With Schizophrenia

The most common pain complaint among individuals with schizophrenia is headaches. … They found that patients experience pain from both physical and psychological causes , and the most common pain sites were head, leg, and back.

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When our loved ones with mental illness complain of physical illness we often attribute it to their disorder. But if you read the side effects of the medications you’ll see that the complaints may be caused by them. We don’t want to believe this especially when a medication final helps them but read the following about clozapine. My son takes it and it has “only” given him a weight gain of 90 pounds and h sleeps 12 hours a day. But it works for his psychosis so we live with the trade offs.

Case presentation

In this report, we describe a healthy 43-year old Caucasian male who experienced onset of a full body deep burning pain several months after the onset of treatment with clozapine. The pain worsened over time, ceased with cessation of treatment, and returned soon after the patient was rechallenged.

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Hi Sandy , hope all well with you and your son , i know its a year later but i just read your post and it stood out to me as my son is the same way ,obsessed about many things wrong with him , back pain , leg pain , skin , hair , height , it goes on . I was wondering how your son is and perhaps give me some tips how to deal with this . I dont know if the meds are causing this or the illness .

A neurologist should be able to clear this up and hopefully set his mind at ease.

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Hi Linda
My son went off all meds due to tardive and akathisia. I believe they are real but not as severe as maybe he feels? It’s hard . I can’t argue with a mentally ill oerson. I’m his mind and body it is all real. I just try to guide towards eating and resting. He and his girlfriend are temporarily living with us so I like having eyes on him. He insists on making dr appts but refuses any med so I try to tell him drs prescribe to treat symptoms. Why go?luckily he is holding his own but not financially able to take care of himself. What does the future hold?
All u can do is let them see med professionals, they’ll never be happy with the results but then you are not the bad guy

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They won’t believe doctors in my case.