My brother was diagnosed in 2017 with Paranoid Schizophrenia, Bipolar Type 2 with Psychotic Features, then later they added Schizoaffective Disorder. He was in and out of the hospital because he would quit taking his meds. Finally the doctor put him on an injection called Invega Sustena 117mg which is supposed to last a month, but it wears off after 3 weeks. They bumped him up to 153mg these last few months which works better at keeping him level but still wears off after 3 weeks. In addition to the shot they have him on 300mg Seroquel to be taken at bedtime, but he rarely takes this because it makes him sleep so much. Now, his doctor has added 12.5mg Seroquel to be taken 2x a day (I had to cut the 25mg pills they gave him in half). I have asked his doctors nurse to ask the Dr. to give him some invega pills to help him get through to the next shot, but unfortunately they have yet to do this. I am at my wits end. I can never speak directly to his dr, i have to call and speak to her nurse named Ken and I suspect he isn’t the best message giver because nothing ever gets done. My brother became violent with me this week because there was a mixup and his script for the shot was sent to the wrong pharmacy and he was a week late getting it, and he got news from his lawyers secretary that they denied his disability (his lawyer got cancer and only had records from 3 separate visits to 1 facility my brother went to instead of the probably 20 times he was hospitalized at various other facilities, lawyer died and now we have to start all over) . After he got his shot and came out of psychosis I told him he had to leave unless he agreed to let me witness him take the seroquel 2x per day and he has to take the 300mg one at least 3 nights per week plus get the shot on time every month. He agreed to do this since he has no where else to go and this first day of being on the shot + 12.5mg seroquel 2x a day has gone ok so far, he is manic and won’t shut up, but stable as far as psychosis goes. We will see how it goes in 3 weeks when the Invega shot wears off again. Hopefully the 12.5mg of Seroquel will tide him over…
Does anyone else here take this Invega Sustena shot, and if so have you or your loved ones noticed that it doesn’t quite get you through the 30 days its supposed to last?
BTW I am also Paranoid Schizophrenic. Was in and out of the hospital for many, many years. I have been stable since 2009 after my PDOC found the magical combo of Geodon 40mg 2x a day plus 100mg Seroquel at bedtime (Initially I was Rx’d 500mg Seroquel but it was WAY too much for me). So to those of you suffering from this, there is hope that your doc will eventually give you a combo you can tolerate and that keeps you from going over to the “other side” (psychosis). It should be noted that for the first 2-3 months of being on the Geodon I felt like I was going to die. After that I felt “normal” and now if I MISS a dose I start to feel like I’m going to die just like when I first started it! I have an alarm on my phone that goes off at 11am and 11pm to remind me to take my doses, and I take the seroquel at around 11pm to 1am, it varies.