Desperately seeking any mumsnetters with experience of Clozapine especially withdrawal an or/ cannabis psychosis.

[Thandeka]

My lovely Bro has been on Clozapine for years for cannabis induced psychosis. It was the only drug that worked for him. He is 26 and recently found out he had a minor heart attack, cause still being investigated but most likely the Clozapine (not a nice drug if you read wikipedia!) so they have rapidly reduced his meds except he is going mental again, having been relatively normal for the last couple of years. My parents are beside themselves and his cardiologist doesn't seem to be communicating with his psychiatrist so there are all sorts of issues in his care. My parents are both retired and his fulltime carers and they are knackered and in desperate need of respite but there doesn't seem to be any available unless they were to disown him which obviously they are not going to do.

Sigh. Can any mumsnetter with any experience of similar help?

Your poor brother Have you read this blog? The man described in it is about your brother's age and developed heart problems on clozapine. You could try emailing the author...

that drug sounds hideous How awful. Presumably he's tried all the other anti-psychotics then: olanzapine, quetiapine etc. etc.

Can he be an inpatient for a while. May give your parents a bit of a break at least

I don't really know loads about my brother's care as he got ill while I was at Uni and my folks protected me from the worst :( but afaik he tried loads of drugs and clozapine was only one that was any good (and made him massive - from a skinny whippet to obese and makes him dribble at night and have tremors in his hands- horrible drug but at least it made him "normal" well normal for him. He went rapidly downhill while he stayed with me this week with my folks in a novel environment but since they got him home he seems to have become a bit more sensible so it seems he needs the home environment at the min but he could go back to the unit I suppose except he really really doesnt fit in there and it possibly makes him worse- there are some proper cases in there! I wish there was some kind of assisted living or something he could do like a halfway house.