Depot Antipsychotic Injections

When I had to go to Court and see the Judge because of my Involuntary Commitment Status, the Judge briefly mentioned that I could benefit from Receiving periodic Depot Injections as part of my discharge plans.

I was not Med Compliant for a while so AP Injections were brought up but the idea was eventually dismissed.

Anyone receiving Depot Shots?

Were you Court ordered or was it your decision to receive them?

I may consider getting Depot Shots in the future, it might be easier and more practical for me.

Where do you go to receive them?

I don’t think that my private psychiatrist would administer the Injections, but I could be wrong.

Any thoughts or info on this matter would be greatly appreciated.

I receive them from the psychiatrist I see at his office. Before it was a nurse practitioner at another office that was a little bit further. For me it was recommended as I wasn’t very med compliant. I’ve tried several different medications in injection form. I think it is down to the individual but some have been horrible some have been decent and others have been more efficient. I gained a lot of weight when I first began taking injections. The first one was every two weeks, then later another one was every three weeks. Yet another one was once a month and the last one I’ve tried on is once every three months. Some have been on my bum, some on my arms. Some knocked me out, others made me sleep a lot, but most helped with the symptoms of schizophrenia. I finally got tired of being injected so I’ll be switching to abilify on February, part of me wants to try life without meds again but I’m not sure that’s the best idea. Anyway, good luck, one thing I can say is you won’t have to worry about missing a daily dose. Also the newer ones aren’t too bad.

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Some time ago I was on Clopixol depot, a typical AP. I was on it for about two years. Had lots of weight gain and some other nasty side effects. It was always a challenge to find someone to give me the injection. Sometimes it was my GP or his nurse and sometimes the nurse at the pharmacy. All of them asked a fee for their service. I’m on Abilify now for more than three years and I find taking the pills less troublesome than the depot shots.

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I have my depot at the mental health clinic which is about 5-6 minutes walk from me. It’s done every fortnight.

My assessment of my depot(Risperdal consta).

Paranoia-moderate effect. Still there but less likely to go off the deep end because of it.

Weird thoughts/delusions?- strong effect.

Intrusive thoughts/pseudohallucinations – between moderate and strong effect. Very occasional breakthrough symptoms.

Emotional reactivity- Mixed effect. Less reactive but maybe too much in the other direction.

Negative type symptoms- minimum effect on drive,motivation and goal directed behaviour.

Side effects- some weight gain. Intermittent restlessness sub akathisia? Intermittent mouth clicking. Possibly increased anxiety.

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I was on the Haldol depot shot for about seven or eight years during the '90’s. It controlled my symptoms, but I was so miserable. I don’t like any of the typical antipsychotics in any form. Some people can tolerate them well, though. I was on the Prolixin depot shot for a short period of time. Again, it controlled my symptoms, but I was miserable. For me, life on a typical antipsychotic in any form isn’t really living.

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Just as a matter of interest what about it made you miserable?

On depixol depot for 4 years. It is my favourite med. good for positive symptoms with and possibly even negatives. Have less side effects on the depot opposed to pills.

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I was on haldol depot involuntarily because i didn’t agree with taking meds. I got them from my psychiatric team. It was horrible. It felt like an invasion and i felt depressed, flat and suicidal on it all the time. I switched to oral haldol again now and lowered the dose. Which makes me function a whole lot better.

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The drugs made me feel bad. I can’t describe the feeling. It was in my head, and it was almost physical. I used to think that the human body can suffer far more than the human mind, but now I’m not sure. I think I would rather have a broken leg without painkillers than have to take 40 mg of oral Haldol a day. Just a little bit of any of the typical ap’s totally destroy any creativity I have. I cannot write at all when I am on a typical ap. I wouldn’t take my experience as the final word, though. People have different experiences on the same drugs. I talked to one guy who found Haldol easy to handle, and Geodon hard to tolerate. That sure isn’t the case with me.

Thanks guys
Like I said before, I may consider getting Injections, unless it’s court ordered.

I’ve been pretty good taking the oral form of meds until lately.

I’ve been getting the Aristada (aripiprazole) shot for a few months. It does a pretty good job, though I think I did better on oral Abilify. The only reason I went off the oral Abilify is that I have no insurance and when it went generic my doctor could no longer get free samples for me. Even the generic costs around $1100/month. Aristada is new, so there are free samples and a patient assistance program. It is administered to me by a nurse at the mental health clinic where I see my doctor. The first time I received it, it knocked me on my ass for a good 24 hours, but since then no side effects. I never had any side effects from oral Abilify either, though. Aristada is meant to be given every four weeks, which I had been doing, but now I’m being upped to every three weeks, starting with the shot I’m getting on Tuesday.

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I’m court ordered to get the shot, haldol. I didn’t take my meds and ended up in the hospital for the 6th time so they court ordered me.

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taking abilify mainteina otsuka version pretty good tought. i think its very good for paranoid schizophrenia whatever. positive Symptoms wont brake trought everybody is difference iknow. now switching to 10mg tablets. what is next big thing to me. good luck for ya all.

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I was similarly enforced to get injections. It pssed me off so much with akathesia that when I finally got through the six month period I stopped taking my usual olanzapine altogether and have not taken any medication at all for over two years.

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