Cariprazine/Vraylar + Latuda combination

Medications
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I switched from Latuda to Cariprazine more than a month ago but am not quite satisfied about it’s effects on me (too much anxiety, cognitive decline, less improvement in negative symptoms and the most terrible I’m having intrusive thoughts again. As for positive symptoms it’s OK though).
On Latuda I was quite satisfied but it intensified my negative symptoms too much.

Right now I’m going to try a combo of both.

Who else is is on this combo? What is your experience, which drug helps with which symptom?

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-edit- Oops… posted in the wrong section, admin can you please replace it to medication.

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Moved to Medications category.

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Sorry you’re not having a good experience with Cariprazine. That is so odd how people are affected differently by the same med. For me Cariprazine helped anxiety and even made my muscles really relaxed, helped cognition a lot and most importantly beat by a mile any medication or supplement(I’ve tried about 15 to 20 supps for sz) for my negative symptoms.

Cariprazine did next to nothing for my positive symptoms though, which was fine because I was on other APs at the same time. I’m actually debating trying it again, even though it gave me hellish tinnitus(9 months later I’ve almost cured it).

I’m thinking and hoping it was an interaction with Wellbutrin because all the cases I’ve read about Cariprazine causing tinnitus, and there are 4 I’ve found, the person was also on an antidepressant, one of whom was on Wellbutrin as well. It would be a huge risk but the effect was that good, it gave me my life back.

Good luck with the combo I hope it works for you.

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Yeah it’s really weird how I react so far to partial agonists, first Abilify, now Cariprazine. I would say I reacted better to Abilify than Cariprazine, the anxiety on Abilify was 10 times worse but the antidepressant effect of Abilify was 10 times better (while the pro-cognitive effects of Latuda was 10 times better) . While switching to either of them my positive symptoms also exacerbated quite quickly and I got really emotional for some reason when I tried to up the dosage on both.

I didn’t ditch Cariprazine though, I just switched back from 3mg to 1.5mg and added 37mg Latuda (and maybe up it to 74mg), so far the Latuda is taking care of the intrusive thoughts and I am very pleased with it. What I do like about Cariprazine is that it somewhat dampened inner chatter/dialogue.

I might even throw 1/2mg Abilify in the mix to see what it does (too bad I threw away the old meds a month ago or I wouldn’t have to rely on my pdoc to prescribe me that also :joy::joy: )

I hope for you it was a interaction with the other med and you can safely get back on Cariprazine. I’ve noticed one major side-effect on 3mg Cariprazine and that was double (cross-eyed) vision that was really disturbing/annoying and I do not know if it would have resolved since I only stayed little than 2 weeks on 3mg.

Also the thing is, maybe it does help a little with negative symptoms like Abilify did a little. I neglect going to the gym on both drugs, just felt okay to not go. On Latuda I am really forced to get of my ass and get me my endorphins and feel really relaxed the rest of the day.

Also do you by any chance vape? I vape and also have (inner) ear issues but I know the cause is the PG used in vape-liquids. Some people get tinnitus-like (or other ear problems) symptoms from PG vape-liquids.

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Heard vraylar costs a pretty penny because it’s a relatively a new drug.

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In America it does @roxanna, supposedly depending on which insurance you have. In Europe we have some sort of “Obama-care” and are forced to have a insurance and every drug that gets approval from the European medicine agency is free (no extra charges than the monthly insurance costs).

If I lived in America there’s no way I could afford Cariprazine, 1 month pills is like 400-500 USD. One month European insurance is 110USD.

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Thanks, I hope it was an interaction too. And no I don’t smoke or vape or use nicotine. I had eye problems on Cariprazine too but those went away after a while.

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I get vraylar for free otherwise it is 1400month without insurance.

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I just don’t get Americans @insidemind, they’re against something like Obama-care. Some people are forced to be on “old” meds in the US just because they cannot afford new/approved drugs and the prices are double, triple or even much much higher than Europe. The US is a paradise for the pharmaceutical company’s… no wonder they’re always focused on bringing the newer meds to the US market first (pure monopoly).

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Did you check up with an ENT for your tinnitus problems? I would do that also just in case it’s not Cariprazine but maybe Cariprazine makes it worse… Just saying… it’s free for us anyway, might as well get it double-checked :wink:

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I did go to an ENT right after I got it. They measured my hearing loss at 85 decibels at the higher frequencies, which is insane. She said there was nothing that could be done and I’d have to live with it. She was very sympathetic and even seemed shocked I had hearing that bad.

Its true that theres no official treatment but I now know 5 to 6 things that really help that she wouldn’t know about probably. They’re more experimental and only a third of them are supplements(theres so many tinnitus supplement scams, I mean stuff that really works).

In 2 months I’ll see her again and hopefully shock her again, this time with my recovery. My tinnitus is basically same it was before the incident but my hyperacusis, though improved mightily, is still a bit of a problem.

It used to be so bad that i had earmuffs on every time flushing the toilet bc it was that painful, even running water was really painful, now I only protect riding in a car. But the whole ordeal scared me and I’d rather not go trough it again and I’m not sure I’ll make the same recovery twice.

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WOW… that bad? You sure this is Cariprazine related? Might as wel be provoked by Cariprazine like obesity by Zyprexa.

Be cautious though, some things are not worth the risk, this might be some of those very rare side-effects that happen rarely in people using Cari (and never has been reported).

I used to hyperventilate really bad when my hearing problems occurred when working out but now I’m just annoyed instead of panicking, be careful!

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Almost entirely sure yea. What I’m not sure about is if it was an interaction with Wellbutrin or Cariprazine alone causing it. It also could have been an interaction with one of the other 3 APs I was on.

Every day at 12.00 when i took the Cariprazine it spiked like crazy. My doctor was sure it wasn’t the Cariprazine causing it and even told me not to quit. I did quit ofc and during the 3 months I was off it got a bit better on its own, then I started treatment.

Im leaning towards not trying it and waiting for Rxulti which would be safer probably(already on Abilify). Then in a few years Lumateperone, so it’s not like I’d have negative symptoms heavily forever, there are new drugs coming out which will work on them too. But the packs sitting on my shelf are enticing, probably not going to take them through, because I’d literally be risking my life.

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Well… it’s up to you I guess… but those tinnitus symptoms sounds terrible to live with and the fact that it only got better and not has been resolved is another thing to take in account in deciding if you want to take Cari again.
Btw have you checked out longecity.org to treat/resolve tinnitus issues, those guys there are quite advanced in treating themselves.

As of today I decided to drop Cari since it has not much value in helping with my symptoms anyway. I’m back to 72mg Latuda and wait for Rxulti which will be out in months.

I’m not sure about the few years that Lumateperone will be on the EU market since there’s totally no indication that it’ll be filed in the EU soon. The only thing I read somewhere a while ago is that the company will run trials of Luma XR in Europe so I’m guessing roughly another 5 years? Or do you have more info?

Our best bet in a newer med that will hit the market in 2020/2021 is MIN-101. Phase III data will be available half 2019.

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Yes I realize that. But all of the 4 cases of tinnitus that I read about were with taking it with an antidepressant. I am no longer on Wellbutrin for almost 9 months. There has been no reports of it without an antidepressant.

Just that the effect was that good. Also the tinnitus got really bad when i got up to 4.5 mg and I was taking it for weeks, in total I was on Cariprazine for 1.5 months.

Even the 1.5 mg had a really good effect on my negs and I didn’t get much extra benefit from going higher. We wanted to go higher for extra benefit from negs but mainly to lower Risperdal.

For start I would take a very little amount of cariprazine, way less than 1.5 mg, and gauge my reaction. If it spikes the tinnitus, I’d quit it immediatly and never try it again.

I have not checked longecity but I used to read that forum years ago when I first got sz, I’ll check it out thanks. I’m mostly on tinnitustalk, the biggest forum dedicated to tinnitus.

I’m aware of the severity of tinnitus not only from my own experience but reading countless posts. There is way more “suicide talk” on tinnitus forums than on this forum, this should tell you a lot.

Some very frequent posters have gone trough with their plans and there has been confirmation that they did it. Very severe tinnitus is terrible. Its not comparable to sz, at least my sz symptoms, when it gets really bad it’s at least 20 times worse.

At my worst I was unable to read, it was that distracting and terrible. Like I said I’m leaning towards, probably even strongly, to never trying it again.

Ok, you probably know way more than I. I figured it’s in second trial of phase III and fast tracked so it’ll be out in the USA soon, like a year or two, and 2-3 years later in EU, guess I was wrong.

Min 101 would be perfect for me because I really need to treat my negatives and positives are not much of a problem, especially if I could get on Rxulti and lower the Risperdal that has terrible sides.

Thanks for your concern and making your posts.