Which one was better for you and why?
I have horrible negative symptoms and gained 171lb on 5-6mg Risperidone. The only AP I can still try is Clozapine according to my pdocs. Abilify, Latuda, Zyprexa, Seroquel were all failures to my positive symptoms vs Risperidone.
My last pdoc refused changing my risperidone as he thinks I can’t be stable on other meds. I ended up finding another pdoc who suggested Clozapine, she said its better for negative and cognitive symptoms as it blocks much less dopamine than Risperidone. Problem is that she referred me back to my last pdoc as I am not allowed to change pdoc, also her Clozapine blood test clinic is in another city.
My last pdoc said he doesn’t recommend me Clozapine as I will gain much more weight and will have metabolic problems and the side effects of Clozapine can be dangerous.
I have a feeling that Clozapine won’t help with negative and cognitive symptoms, also just read studies that show that Clozapine causes much more weight gain and metabolic problems than Risperidone
Whatever it was with clozapine I kept passing out at one week mark. Risperidone I couldn’t sit still. Are you as tired as I am of meds? I would take risperidone again over clozapine any day. I hope you find a med that helps. It’s trial and error.
Clozapine is a serious drug. I’m not going to water this down, but it really is a very complicated drug.
Week in week out you have to have your bloods checked and ECG taken weekly.
This comes under the clozapine license and is mandatory.
It’s got some interesting effects, I wanted to go out more, but one day something snapped in my head and I wouldn’t leave the house. I put more and more weight on and lost self esteem. What little I had left.
It costs the NHS or health care US £$1000’s each month looking after you on this drug.
When I wanted off this my pdoc said no. Week after week I would basically beg him but it was always no.
I had to change my pdoc to get off this drug as I found it sucking the life out of me.
My pulse on waking was over 120 bpm. Throughout the day it would keep rising. This was another reason I came off this medication.
Make sure you are sure you want to make this change. Risperidone is better regarding side effects. Usually a doctor would suggest palperidone if Risperidone doesn’t work
Risperidone caused me more weight gain than clozapine. This is even though I took the former for less time. However, my age was very different when I took each of them. I think nowadays I might actually do better on risperidone with regard to adverse effects (especially swallowing problems and sedation). Incidentally, I’ve even lost considerable (5+ kgs) weight while on clozapine.
I have a suggestion. Maybe ask your doc to taper you so that your med free??? I did that sort of take 25 mg lamictal for some unknown reason becuase im feeling fine but anyway…maybe your not symptomatic any longer. I was very very symptomatic symptomatic and through time and egerything became fine mostly.
