How long after you started your antipsychotic was your cognition better? I started invega 6 weeks ago and my cognition in fact worsened. My mind is quite blank all the time and i don t know if i should wait more or I need to discuss with my psychiatrist a change in medication.
Also , which AP worked best for your IQ , processing speed and thinking and problem solving skills?
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Geodon, but it took me years to get here. I needed to be on heavier APs for a while until I stabilized and developed strong enough insight that I could start to cope with mild positive symptoms on newer APs at lower doses. The older typicals are murder on cognition and your energy levels. I’m now able to function well and compete with neurotypicals at a day job with a high cognitive load.
Welcome to the community.
Welcome to the forum @Alexander11 I’m sorry you are having difficulty thinking. I think it’s worth discussing with you pdoc (psychiatrist), they may recommend a change, you never know unless you bring it up.
I do want to make a recommendation for brain health that will help with working memory and general brain function. Fish oil. It takes a month or so to really notice a difference but it really does help. I would never go without it now that I’ve found it. Before I started using it I couldn’t hold 2 numbers in my head, now I can hold an 8 digit number in my head. Before I had a hard time balancing my checkbook, now I always balance to the penny. Also my memory has improved and it’s helping to balance/lower my cholesterol.
Welcome to the forums. I’ve heard others complain about this problem too so you are not alone.
I’ve been on a bunch of different classes of psych meds. I’ve only tried 4 different APs. I was on 40mg of olanzapine for about 15 years. then I was on Abilify and Haldol for a short while, now I have been on 60mg of Lurasidone for over 2 years.
Over the last 20 years, before and after I was diagnosed and put on meds, I have been doing IQ tests online for fun and I consistently average around 130 (range 117-152). AP’s haven’t effected my cognition or IQ at all, maybe I am lucky.
That 117 score was after taking a few hits from a Bong so marijuana obviously affects my IQ and cognition but with antipsychotics, antidepressants and anxiolytics I haven’t had any problems with cognition, although I have had some other pretty nasty side effects.
welcome to the forum @Alexander11
i can’t help you as my meds also lessen my cognitive skills… i dunno if it is because of the meds or the illness.
For me idk if the problem is negative or cognitive symptoms, both affect each other so idk. I wasnt more functional when I went off meds for 2yrs so its probably the sz and not just the meds.
I started experiencing negative and cognitive symptoms 3yrs before my first psychosis diagnosis. They slowly got worse with time but now they’re not getting any worse since being on working meds with no positive symptoms.
I get 120ish in IQ tests. I was tested in the hospital for IQ and they said everything is normal. IQ is almost useless.
@Headspark I think negative symptoms affect functioning lvl without affecting IQ.
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geodon worsen my cognition but solian was way better
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Perhaps, I’ve heard arguments on both sides of the argument about how useful IQ is and what it is an indicator of. I think it’s a good indicator of your ability to think logically and to recognize patterns, but it fails on things like memorization, emotional intelligence, etc…
Other than some emotional flatness “The flat effect” I don’t have a huge problem with negative symptoms. In my case I had pretty severe positive symptoms though. Maybe that is why my cognition hasn’t really been affected.
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I can do good in IQ tests yet I cant get out of bed, I pass most of my time in bed with 0 energy. I always feel tired and drained. A therapist made me do intelligence tests and she said I did pretty good, she said I am wasting my intelligence by always staying in bed, she doesnt understand negative symptoms.
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That’s gotta be frustrating, you would think they would understand them, it’s their job as a mental health professional to understand these things. I’ve had doctors say dumb things to me, I just ignore them and have learned to take care of myself as best I can when stuff like that happens, or talk to a different doctor if it is something I can’t solve on my own, but when talking to several doctors I’ve gotten contradictory advice, I just try to muddle along as best as I can, c’est la vie.
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My previous pdoc told me that I want to be sick, that I am causing my negative symptoms, he said I want to stay in bed all my life. Ridiculous.
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None,blocking dopamine means you think Slower
Welcome to the forum!!! I am having cognition issues too. I’m on 15mg of Haldol, but I still can’t think clearly. And I often have poverty of thought too. It’s scary to me
Abilify is great…
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I had this on haloperidol too. Wasn’t nice
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Wow. So it is the Haldol. I wondered about that
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I just want to tell you that without meds your cognition worsens quite a lot. My mother told me that she took 40 mg olansapine by mouth. Today my brother and me found out that she only take a blue olansapine 15 mg by mouth. We found a lot of
Blue ones and that explains quite a lot, As far as my cognition goes. I would say it was quit dull for harf a year but the last two days I have done a little bit of coding again. After the last meds adjustment where my injection was lowered and my seroquel uppered my cognition has improved
Sorry, you have fallen foul to this realization that most of us do arrive at during our experiences of med’s, TBH their are better ways to deal with this experience than services recommendation’s of drugs and compliance.
I wish you luck upon your journey.