My negative symptoms were best on Abilify but Dr say Clozapine is even better, I never tried Clozapine. I have the option to go on Clozapine now. But Vraylar was submitted for review in Canada this June so it will likely be approved by Health Canada soon. Idk if I should believe my pdoc. The other pdoc is against changing meds saying previous meds might stop working but I think thats bs as I stopped Abilify 4 times and it still works.
Clozapine is a weak dopamine antagonist while Vraylar is a partial dopamine agonist like Abilify.
vraylar and brexpiprazole isnt that much different from aripiprazole. Side effect profile wise are quite similar, not sure why they didn’t put the compulsive warning on vraylar, maybe because its a different company. I wouldn’t get my hopes up on it
I know an article about OCD and clozapine was posted here, but you won’t know if you personally will have that or not. It affects everyone differently.
Just try the clozapine if it’s prescribed to you. There is a lot of good to that med. I can’t take it medically but I’m hoping you at least try. It is a game changer for a lot of people
I’d wait for vraylar, it has been under review by Health Canada for the last 6ish months so a decision could come soon. Clozapine isn’t going anywhere so you can try that if vraylar doesn’t help, but clozapine is a serious drug, with a host of potential serious side effects, and of course the constant blood tests which are a pain in the ass, so I’d keep it as an option, just my last option.
I don’t think its bcz its a different company so not sure if Vraylar causes the same compulsive problems as Abilify and Rexulti. Vraylar doesn’t have an FDA warning about it and doesn’t have any lawsuits about it unlike Abilify and Rexulti.
I am leaning towards Vraylar as it has much less side effects like weight gain, glucose abnormalities, hyperlipidemia, metabolic syndrome, sedation, etc
I will be adding Vraylar to my Risperdal, I won’t stop risperdal as I don’t think Vraylar is as effective as Risperdal. Will see once Vraylar gets approved.
Antagonists often cause secondary negative symptoms, so some pdocs try to lower them or switch to partial agonists to exclude secondary negative symptoms. As for primary, i think very few people are lucky to see any aps work for them. personally i think that exercise helps more.
Abilify is similar to Vraylar and Rexulti so I think if you don’t have side effects on Abilify, stay on Abilify. All 3 meds are partial dopamine agonists so supposed to be less zombifying and better for negative symptoms.