Hey guys as above, it was a miracle drug for me, treatment resistant for 15 years, then clozaril, so since i was put on clozaril 10 years ago, i have stayed out of the hospital side effects can be tough and include weight gain, drooling at night, some sedition and a few others overall though the pros outweigh the cons!I would urge anyone with treatment resistant schizophenia to try this nedication, it has been a godsend to me!
i really like clozapine… the combination of clozapine and risperdal consta has done wonders for me… my positive symptoms nearly all went away on it.
clozapine is only good at low doses. At medium and high doses its very bad in terms of side effects.
Weight gain is also seen at low doses. But sedation is less at low doses.
Try combing clozapine with amisulpride or risperidone. Right now im on clozapine 50mg and amisulpride 200mg. Doing fine.
I love Clozapine. It has made a big difference to me. I do take Ziprasidone as well, but this combination works well for me.
I’m on 200mg of clozapine and its ok
I take 25 mg of clozapine to help me sleep. Does wonders.
Not a fan. I was called treatment resistant and “high acuity”, and Clozaril seemed like the answer. I was on it for 13 years. I gained 120lbs, even while doing TaeKwonDo 3x a week and almost starving myself. I became pre-diabetic. I hated my body and myself. It gave me night drooling and even sometimes incontinence, which made it impossible for me to have a relationship from the ages of 20 to 33. The doctors blamed my weight gain on eating, which I wasn’t doing much of, and not exercising, which I was doing a bunch of. I slept 18 hours a day.
The blood tests left permanent tracks in my inner elbow, which I now have to explain to doctors. And my platelet count is permanently low after all that time on it, which causes easy bruising and prevents my blood from clotting normally. It definitely stabilised my positive symptoms, but I’m glad i was taken off of it.
Once I needed a surgery that had to be postponed for a month, because Clozaril gave me tachycardia (I was 134 beats/ min at rest), and i had to spend that month on Haldol, just to get my heart rate down enough so they could safely operate on me. The surgery went fine. I went back on Clozaril. And by the way, if you ever stop taking it, it doesn’t work as well the second time, nor do any other antipsychotics.
I got off of it by going on Invega. I dropped 50 lbs while doing NOTHING different. So, I’m not a fan of this med, no. But I’m only sharing this in case someone is weighing their options. It does do well for some people, but the benefits didn’t outweigh the side effects for me. If you can manage on something else, try that first.
PS. Saphris is a derivative of Clozaril, and it did the same thing.
I’m not going to say anything bad about others choices of antipsychotics so I will say that it realy helped the positives to a degree that I was free of thought disturbances and voices. And I got a damn good sleep on it. One of my friends got put on it after he had tried all of the other antipsychotics that didn’t work. And this last resort saved his life. Because of some unpleasant side effects I quit the drug 25 years ago.
I had treatment resistant sza all my life and I always refused clozaril. Well, it was offered to me once. After my pdoc explained the risks, it scared the hell out of me so I refused.
Hey bangarang, i am on 525 mg of clozaril every night!
Didn’t you relapse after being off antipsychotic? How long were you off for?
Didn’t you relapse while being off the drug?or you switched to another antipsychotic?
Im going on it soon (clozaril) hope it works.
I was given Invega when I came off of Clozaril. I was a little bit of a zombie until the Invega settled out, but I didn’t relapse.
Clozapine is good in lots of way however I still get breakthrough symptoms so it’s not wonderful
I get good nights sleep on it
I take 500mg a day. 200mg in the morning and 300mg at night.
I cannot take clozapine. it causes my heart to inflame.
Very good med for me, except that I’m one of the exceptionally limited number of folks who reacts to it and got agranulocytosis. That is SUPER RARE and most need not worry, but don’t skip those blood tests! I had good luck with it for the limited time I was on it until I didn’t, and I certainly don’t blame the med for that.
I am taking my medication. I’m just not on Clozaril anymore.
I have avoided it as the side effect profile to me read like it could have been Olanzapine - which was a serious weight gain drug for me.
My old pdoc tried to get me on Clozapine for 5 years and I refused. Instead we tried 6 different medications, and Amisulpride worked!