I have read that meds aren’t particularly effective for treating cognitive dysfunction and some make it worse. Has that been your experience? Have you discovered any supplements that are particularly helpful?
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Yes tha’ts true!
Cognition in schizophrenia is an urgent unmet clinical need, and the negative
symptoms fit it as well.
You are spot on!
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My cognitive functioning has improved a lot since I quit Zyprexa and remained on just Seroquel. It has also improved a lot since I started reading and exercising, and it has slowly but steadily improved ever since my meds pulled me out of my psychosis. There is hope, and new and improved meds aren’t the only way to get better. Good luck!
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Thank you Treebeard,
I keep telling myself that a schizoaffective with PTSD who finished a master’s degree with a 3.8 ten months ago ought to be thrilled with her cognition but something has gone wrong since then. I cannot focus. I read, I exercise, I’m still in school, I take my fish oil and so on and my brain is all over the place. I suspect the culprit is living in a construction zone but the options are to keep fixing it or burn the thing down, so I’m kind of stuck on that. It’ll get better; it always does. Thanks again.
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That’s good to know you felt better after quitting zyprexa. I’m considering switching to vraylar but I will miss the weight gain from zyprexa
I also enjoyed the weight gain from Zyprexa. Seroquel doesn’t make me gain weight, unfortunately. What I do now, apart from just trying to eat more, is to drink a protein shake with a lot of calories after my last meal and just before going to bed. It’s not very expensive and it doesn’t replace any of my meals, it just adds the extra calories that I need to slowly gain weight. It’s also easy to drink a protein shake even if you feel full, but I recommend doing it before you sleep so you don’t skip any meals afterwards. I don’t struggle with sleep, though, and it might interfere with your sleep if that is an issue for you. Besides that, counting calories is also a great way of gaining weight, but it’s not easy to do that every day for a long period.
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Ive been trying to drink a shake before bed every night, it seems to be helping, I’m up about two pounds but I also upped my zyprexa dosage
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The new antipsychotic Rexulti is supposed to be procognitive. The antidepressant trintellix improved my cognition significantly.
What helps me gain weight is eating small high calorie foods. Peanut butter and nutella are indispensable, anything with a lot of fat like milk and cheese are easy ways to get in calories. Protein is a bad way to gain weight, your body uses some of the calories to digest the protein. Fat and carbs together like pizza or pasta will help you gain weight. Drink your calories, try drinking fruit juice, it shouldn’t make you feel full. Whenever you can sit or lie down, you burn less calories. That’s all the advice I have, I have gained 50lbs since being put on Seroquel.
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There is a med called “ginko biloba” that is supposed to increase your brain power. I took it for a little while, and it did seem like I was thinking better, but it is so easy to delude yourself about that kind of thing. It’s the old placebo effect. They did a study of ginko biloba, and they found no evidence of increased brain power from this supplement, but they might not have done the study right.
You guys that need to gain weight should ask to go on Invega. You’ll pack on the pounds for sure