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I want to reduce my Olanzapine because it makes me very hungry and im putting on weight. Only problem is i have schizophrenia. I have also been eating alot of junk food on this medication and im worried about diabetes. I crave sugar alot and when i eat alot of sugar over many days i get more paranoid. So i dont really know what to do.
I cut sugar out of my diet and it was brutal for about a week.
Now I feel better and am losing weight.
I still get cravings but they’re not as bad.
Are you overweight?
Not yet no but i am worried about it
Better to look for a switch than reduce. I doubt that reducing the dosage will reduce the cravings, maybe a bit, but no notecibly. Also if you reduce the dosage you could relapse quickly
I guess so i had a bad relapse coming off abilify
Well If you wanna change meds you can.
Do What you feel is right.
I’d be tempted to reduce my meds too but maybe it’s best you ask your pdoc about it first. Maybe he or she can put you on a different med
I don’t think that reducing the dose of olanzapine will help reduce your cravings that much but I could be wrong.
Ask your doctor
Be careful. I recently reduced my Invega from 12 mg to 9 trying to lower my prolactin (with professional support), and I started relapsing 5 days later. Took me another five days to see it. Restarting 12 mg in the morning and just hope it works as well as it did before.
I’ve been gaining weight too, but I’m losing weight by sticking to 1500 calories. It’s hard, but it can be done. I’d rather be hungry than psychotic.
If you go to gym and do a lot of exercise that will tire your body and you may be able to reduce this olanzapine , I was on it for a short term it’s quite powerful stuff!
I’m also on 20mg olanzapine. I was thinking of cutting it down but I forgot to take it yesterday and boom, symptoms flare up.
I gained a lot of weight on it. 
I guess that’s the price I have to pay for being Sz and being sane.
Don’t quit!! You need it! 
I also think you should ask to switch medications.
Lord knows I hate Olanzapine, but you were put on it for a reason and reducing your dosage without medical oversight could turn out badly for you. Suggest discussing it with your doctor before doing anything drastic.
I am not a fan of Olanzapine at all.
But, try other options if you can, and work with your doctor
Olanzapine like rispirdone is a very effective drug for posative symptoms. I have personally found it quite sedating and imo it would be a good choice weight gain aside.
Depending on where you are in your journey the sedation can actually be a good thing. What doctors tend to do here is use the heavy hitters first up during your acute phase. It is also best practise to swap patients to 2nd gen APs with a more favourable metabloic side effect once they stablise. Namely Lurasidone and brexpiprazole/aripiprazole.
My advice would be to document you weight and let you doctor know now what you weight. Comment express your concerns about weight gain with them early so that you have flagged it as an issue with them in their mind. That said until you have actually gained weight then I would personally say if the medication is working well for your positive symptoms then fix something that isn’t broken yet. Especially if this medication is new!!
Again how you sit with weight gain is a personal thing, it might concern some people where as others might feel best when they are just mentally stable have a combination of medcations that works. Really how much this concerns you is a personal thing.
Personally what I would do is stick with it, mention it to my doctor and then long term think about a swap. Lurasidone/Cariprazine/Ziprasidone/Asenapine/Amisulpride are options to look into and you can do your reseach on each. Metformin could help too but no reason to add extra medication if you can avoid it. Good luck!