In the 3 years since my illness started I only took medication for 5 months and survived sufficiently well. As you may have read in my previous post my condition has started to decline and today my psychiatrist and I have agreed that I will go on Clozapine next month… I would be grateful if those of you who have tried or are still on the medication could furnish me with your experiences.
I am particularly interested in the side effects and of course the impact it has on Positive, Negative and Cognitive symptoms
Clozapine is one of the best things to ever happen to me. For the first 6 months I was fairly drowsy and immediately went to sleep when I took the night time dosage. My legs felt like jello for those first couple of months. I would sleep around 13 hours. I’ve been on it 7-8 months now. When I take the evening dose it takes about 2 hours to kick in.
Before I was on it I was living day to day. I could barely get through the day on Risperdal. I always thought about my future I didn’t think I was going to make it. On Clozapine I feel much more comfortable. It also allows me to exercise. I couldn’t exercise on Risperdal. I’ve lost a ton of weight.
The biggest thing you will notice is how much you are going to sleep on it. Take your meds at night and you will pass out shortly after. Also you might get constipation and you could go on laxative sachets to take it back to normal.
Hold up, hold up. You only took meds for 5 months and now they want to put you on clozapine? Like, the past five months, or 5 months at some other point in time? What other meds have you tried? My pdoc says that clozapine is dangerous and is much harder on the body than any other antipsychotic in existence, and as such, it should only be used as a last resort, once it is apparent that at least 5 atypical, typical, and pairs of AP’s aren’t keeping you from being too psychotic to function. Is there a certain reason that your pdoc is willing to put you on such a strong drug after only 5 months of proper treatment?
I was on medication from September 2016 to January/February 2017 then I stopped. During this time I tried 4 antipsychotics:
Orlanzapine, Aripripazole, Risperidone and Quitiapine. (Sorry for my spelling)
Right… Okay, so not a single typical, no combinations; how did they do the dosages? Did any of these drugs help at all, even just a little, on a low dose? Perhaps your pdoc would be okay with you trying a few more AP’s, do you think?
@Sardonic They did a little bit it came at the expense of something else. Namely, cognitive functioning and it precipitated severe negative symptoms. I am unsure what the dosages were or how they were configured as it was a long time ago. But he explained I would be on a low dose of clozapine. I have requested to be an in patient for the first two weeks, so they can monitor me more easily but also I believe I would struggle to be around people during this time as I have heard it is severe
I took Clozapine for about a year, but my immune system had a problem (which is rare). You’ll start with a weekly blood test, then monthly. It also made me drool while I slept.
For many people it’s a miracle drug, and I hope that’s the case for you.
There’s probably something that can help/eliminate the drooling. I was living in a group home at the time, and really out of it, so I never looked into it.
