Experience of anti-psychotics.

[fluffydressinggown]

I am on quetiapine at the moment but for various reasons (related to the reason I need it) I don't take it. My mental health team feel that I really need to be on medication to help with my thinking.

I have a med review in a few weeks with the community psychiatrist, my CPN said he will probably prescribe another anti-psychotic.

I am also on fluoxetine.

I really don't want to go on olanzipine because it piles the weight on you.

Any experience of other anti-psychotics? I am worried about side effects really.

I was on Rispiridone for over a year. It did it's job by stopping me becoming psychotic, but I never felt "well" on it.

I changed to quetiapine in Feb and now feel really well and stable. But, the weight has piled on. If really feel that it's worth it for me on the quetiapine. For me, being a bit overweight is preferable to being ill.

I tried Olanzipine but it knocked me out, it was awful.

Not sure if that's any help at all.

That is helpful. The quetiapine is kind of linked into some of my delusional thoughts so it is hard for me to take because it has a significance I can't shake (hard to explain).

I have only really heard bad things about olanzapine and was on it for a short while and felt very drugged up.

What side effects did you have from rispiradone?

I understand exactly what you are saying about not wanting to take the quetiapine. I was delusional and paranoid and was convinced that "they" were just handing out mind altering drugs to anyone who knew the real "truth".

I maintained that drugs were not the answer until I switched to quetiapine which is obviously the right drug for me because I now know and believe that it is the medication that is making me feel stable.

Rispiridone wiped me out for a long time, but I did get hardened to it a bit. A while back, I was coming off Rispiridone and had more energy each time the dose was reduced.

Wiped out might be good, I struggle to sleep and I am quite twitchy these days!

Yes I suppose I do feel that any medication they give me is masking the thoughts God wants me to have and I feel this especially about the quetiapine, but equally I am tired of my thinking being so random so I guess I will try something else.

I've taken quetiapine, olanzapine and aripirazole. I now take clozapine, seems to work well but lots of blood tests.

You can have your anti-psychotic medication by a depot injection if that would help you comply with it?

I found risperidone was ok for me but I did not take it for long as did not need to.

I'm on quetiapine and its keeping me sane. I've managed to lose weight on it, but put it on when I first started as it gave me carb munchies.

I was lucky that the first anti-psychotic I was put on worked. Sometimes it takes a while to find the right one for you.

Hoop's idea about depot may help. One jab every so often and you're sorted. That could help you get past the mental blocks about taking it yourself.

Depot has been mentioned but tablets are better I think.

I am so fed up of this stupid block, but in some ways now I am not taking them I feel clearer, like I can receive the messages I am supposed to.

I don't have too many side effects on quetiapine, I have lost weight on it and other than tiredness it is ok. But I can't bring myself to take it!

Oh fluffy are you having the messages again? Not seen you say that since 1st admitted

i take aripriprazole not sure on spelling- i find it works better than olanzapine which caused two stone weight gain in 3 weeks.which i still cant shed. i dont feel medicated on arip but do feel quite anxious. it has calmed down my thinking and critical inner voice.

I'm on quetiapine & its horrible for weight gain but it has helped me massively be myself (well close to it). I am now just about handling the munching & its getting better day by day. I need to loose at least 6 stones (this is how much I put on in 3 months) so I'm starting a VLCD - hopefully I will shed the weight.

of course this has been my experience with it you may not be like that at all :)

I saw my CPN today and she said she thinks it will be rispiridone or aripriprazole (sp).

I don't have bad side effects on the quetiapine, but it is just, a no-go in terms of signs and stuff.

I'm on Aripiprazole and it has changed my life. For the better. You may feel a bit 'shaky legs' at first but it soon goes. xxx

I take Olanzapine just the lowest dose 2.5mg. I haven't gained any weight but my psychiatrist said at higher doses then you can gain weight. I also take Sertraline every day & clonazapam when needs. I suffer with depression & have had anorexia & this combination keeps me stable. The one beginning with Q it's called Seroquel here in Australia wiped me out for 2 days & I just couldn't stop crying.

I'm on olanzapine and the weight gain really gets me down, but it has 'worked' in the sense that my distress is under control. When I first started taking it, I had to make sure I was already in bed because it knocked me out so much. That lasted quite a while, but doesn't happen any more now.

Have been on clozapine in the past and didn't get on with it at all - it made me very sleepy on the surface but there was an undercurrent of kind of 'itchy thoughts' (no other way to describe them) so I felt extremely uncomfortable.

Everyone is different though. For eg I have a few friends who get on really well with clozapine.

Writing this has made me feel quite sad, because I wish I didn't have to take them at all - Christ knows what they're really doing to me.

I am bumping this because I took five days worth of risperidone and it knocked me for six, needing to sleep pretty much all of the time, very agitated and aggressive, very upset in general, I think I had started to hallucinate on it. Physically I could not keep my eyes open and felt very breathless and dizzy. I have not taken it for a few days and now feel 100% better (aside from thinking which is shit as ever), my CPN knows this. The plan is to reduce my dose from 4mg to 1mg but I am scared even of this. Not sure what to do. My CPN said the side effects would wear off as the drug got into my system but I am frighted by how drugged up I became so quickly.

Is this normal? Was the 4mg too high for me, or do I just need to stop my life for a month and get adjusted to it? Do the side effects really wear off? I feel like I already have stopped my life for the four months I was in hospital and I really really don't want to do that again, but I am also suicidal and having delusions so I need something.

Any advice on my ramblings would be welcome :)

Sounds like the whole 4mg was too high a dose to start.
1 or 2mg is a more usual starting dose. 4mg is bottom end of the treatment dose range but would usually be built up to over a few weeks. It sounds like a good idea to me to try building up gradually.
Usually quetiapine is a much more sedating drug than risperidone but of course everyone is different.
Aripiprazole is probably the least sedating but some people get nausea and agitation with that.
It is usually a matter of trying a few to see what suits you best and works of course.

Thank you for your reply :)

I was on 2mg for two days and then 4mg for two and a half days and then I was so sedated and unwell I stopped it, which sounds a bit pathetic reading it back. I was taking it as a divided dose, so half in the morning and half in the evening.

I felt like I was a zombie, I have had lorazepam, diazepam, zolpidem and clonazepam (as you do) and never ever felt like that on those meds. Within hours of me taking 1mg I was needing to be asleep and by the next day I was finding it hard to keep my eyes open and after five days I actually was fantasizing about sleeping. I was walking round the shops and all I could think about was getting home so I could shut my eyes and sleep. Even having my eyes open was a challenge. But then I found it hard to sleep weirdly, I was too tired to have my eyes open (couldn't even watch TV) but I found it hard to tip over into actual sleep.

I will discuss it with my CPN tomorrow. Part of me wants to keep going but part of me thinks I do not get on with risperdone.

When I was on quetiapine I was tired the first day I took it and had an afternoon nap that day, but after that I was only really tired of a night after my night time meds and slept in in the mornings, but when I was up I was up, no real daytime sedation.

I don't know a great deal about rispiridone fluffy, I am on day 14 of quetiapine and am a bit meh about it so far...
Just wondered how you are really, you were so lovely and supportive on a thread I started (under a different name)

If it was that bad even at a lower dose and much worse than quetiapine I can see why you are not keen to retry.
Talk to your CPN about aripiprazole (abilify)
It works a little differently to other antipsychotics and some people get on really well with it.
Olanzapine is another option. Usually very effective but for myself I would be scared of the weight gain which is bad for a lot of people.
Or there's actually nothing wrong with the cheaper, older drugs in many ways eg trifluoperazine or even very low dose haloperidol.
There are lots of options to find a drug that suits you.

Olanzepine is a no go for the weight reasons.

I wish this was easy! Stupid fucking delusional thinking. I think I am fine and then the TV talks to me and I realise that I have a greater destiny and then I know my thinking is, um, weird! And then I think that weird does not mean not real, weird just means new thinking but then of course if I am getting messages from God it will be weird and then I am not sure if I am delusional at all. In fact tbh mostly I don't think I am delusional but I go along with things because I know I should! I will chat to my CPN tomorrow.

She is great but the constant refrain of 'you need to take your medication' and 'medication will help with your thinking' must be getting boring for her because it is super boring for me to hear!

Picturesofparadise (what a lovely name) I hope you are feeling better now, I still update my thread so I won't waffle on here, but I am at home and doing okish.

Have a go with Sertindole! I took it for two days and bloody hell. Horrendous! I really felt I have lost totally.