I remember caffeine being a quite strong stimullant for me while on meds it just not anymore. Was told by another patient that on APs he treats his coffe like a tea and could drink it before sleep with no effects. Anyone feels similar?
You’re probably on a sedating antipsychotic and it cancels it out. I’m on abilify which is more stimulating than other antipsychotics and I get manic and really talkative after coffee.
1 Like
I don’t get a buzz from coffee because of AP’s either. I’m on zyprexa. I could drink an energy drink late in the day and still have no problem going to sleep.
Actually I had the opposite effect. Abilify made caffeine much more potent than it usually was to the point where I had to stop drinking it because it induced anxiety attacks. But I also know abilify specifically amplifies effects of caffeine due to some mechanism I forget about.
1 Like
Thanks for this info. I get REALLY amped up from coffee. I have a medium coffee every morning. Might switch to a small only. It like ruins my day I get so manic I talk on the phone and excessively on this board for like five hours straight from mania, then I can finally do work after it finally wears off!
I couldn’t imagine how crazy abilify+caffeine would make me if I didn’t have klonopin 
I’m on Abilify and Caffeine products and other stimulants (adderall), have greatly reduced effects on me. I would say stimulants are only 10-15% effective for me.
It does the trick but I don’t get the buzz like I used to I think I’m tolerant
They generally do that…there some meds which are more “activating” than downing.
I mean most antipsychotics are basically super downers.
But yeah abilify is much less sedating, it has a novel mechanism of action called “partial agonist” at the D2 receptors. That is a brain thing that can make psychosis when it is too high. It also works on upping a serotonin receptor that leads to increased dopamine (D, we quacking ducks call it that) in the front of the brain. That’s where some very important decisions are made.
I take a med called Rexulti which is basically a sequel to abilify. I wake right up after my morning coffee and can stay up at night on tea. On other meds, other than geodon, I was very tired and needed more caffeine. That’s probably in part due to the serotonin thing that both Geodon and partial agonists do. Geodon does other stuff as well, like norepinephrine (that’s an upper) and also works on D2 but not very much.
It’s normal if that’s what you’re asking…I sort of ramble.
Haldol totally killed any effect from caffeine for me. However, there was this one time when they had cut down on my Haldol injection a lot, and I was taking large amounts of ephedrine, and I was drinking large amounts of coffee, and I was exercising rigorously. That combination got me going. I stayed awake a whole week and ended up having to go back to the hospital.
If your caffeine buzz comes from dopamine then it makes sense that you might not feel it as much since the antipsychotics change your dopamine. I personally get the normal effect from coffee on antipsychotics, but everyone’s different.
I used to get euphoric on coffee before I was hospitalised. When I got out of hospital, I went to a Starbucks, and I had to ask the barista if they’d given me decaf by mistake.