While switching meds, if I stay on the old medication (zyprexa) with the original dose, and then take the medication I switch to (abilify) on top of it, will the abilify work? I tried lowering my old medication but I got too much symptoms. But I’ve heard some say abilify can take time to work. I was wonder if it will get to work if I don’t taper down on the old medication (until the abilify has time to work). Or will it not work because it has no symptoms to work on and the old medication takes care of it?
Yes, I’ve tapered off meds while starting a new one. It worked very well for me in the past. You have to make sure to do it under supervision though. A lot can go wrong.
Hard to say. The drugs are probably competing to bind to some of the same receptorsites in the brain, but a cross taper done correctly should reveal if abilify works for you. I would try 2.5mg zyprexa combined with 10mg abilify for a while, but if you get too many symptoms it probably won’t work. Did you get symptoms on Latuda too or was it just too much anxiety?
There was zero increase in symptoms switching to Latuda, only anxiety. While at 5mg zyprexa (2.5mg decrease) and 10mg abilify I got symptoms. It was too much so had to increase zyprexa.
I think you got a point there, that they are competing for the same receptors, that’s why I’m doubtful that the abilify will start to work if I stay on the same dose on zyprexa. I’m starting to believe even if abilify works over time (a month or so), it will be impossible to make the switch. I could try a super slow taper maybe? decreasing by 1/4 of 2.5mg zyprexa instead.
My doctor said that the abilify would work even if I stayed on the same dose of zyprexa. But, I have this thing where I often doubt what professionals say, so I wanted more opinions.
I think it is good to be critical of what professionals say. But I have never heard of this theory. And intuitively would think that’s not how it works (guessing though, don’t trust me for it). And either the Zyprexa withdrawal was too much. Or the abilify did not work well. In the first case a superslow taper would work. In the second, not at all.
There is the issue that abilify works different on dopamine which doesen’t suit everybody. Sounds to me like latuda was a better option for you, maybe you just needed something to help deal with the anxiety.
But I guess you should give the abilify a little more time to see what happens.
Magz is talking about the time to receive full therapeutic effect assuming that the medication needs more time to work and not that the medication doesn’t work for them which may or may not be the case. The are talking in terms of staying on a full dosage of both medication for a month before tapering. Which is not a cross taper and again may or may not work. The issue is that when you are taking one medication you would not fully acclimatise to the other. The main issue is that you don’t want to be taking double me medication for no reason since it will zombify you for the entire time you’re doing this. If you need to go to hospital for a month to do a medication swap then that would be okay but out in the real world it’s not ideal. Also not guaranteed to work and more likely that the medication either doesn’t work or the dosage is too low.
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I would think that if the medication needs more time to work is that what you would do is step up the initial dosage (within reference range) to where you stop getting symptoms. Then as the medication takes time to work you can slowly taper back. Taking more should make it work faster not necessarily so but even if that’s not the case at least you’ll know that you got the dosage right. Then after a stable period you can test if you can tolerate less of the medication then you initial gambited on taking. Always know that if you increase your medication you can always decrease it which isn’t a big deal while you still get positives and side effects are lower
I don’t know, on Latuda I felt the exact same I did on olazanpine + anxiety. I was down on 2.5mg zyprexa while taking the latuda but I kind of doubt I would feel much different completely over on Latuda. I don’t know if there’s any effective anxiety reducing medications worth taking, I know benzos isn’t an option. I’ve tried sertraline before but it gave me some problems.
I don’t think. Actually when I was getting pdoc 's appointment. Then my pdoc asked me about the symptoms and change the medicine and it’s dose.
Actually the dose (mg) of new medicines count the withdrawal effects of old one.
Interesting! As said: I know nothing about it. I normally did not use different meds at the same time, just quit one and started another. So I have no idea.
Yeah I’m trying to mix bunch of stuff to try and get a synergistic effect but if they work via the same pathway that isn’t always necessarily the case. You actually don’t know if a lot of medications are synergistic but it also reasons that taking 2 APs is stronger then one at therapeutic dosages since you only need 70% dopamine occupancy to get therapeutic effect so you could probably get closer to 100% occupancy but then side effects would also kill you at the point so it’s more of a balancing act. Taking one thing at time is always really the best way to go about things
You should be but I’m trying to basically cure my schizophrenia
From day one that I said I would do 6 months on them, then 6 months rolled around and then I said I do 1 year on them. 1 year rolled around without even blinking and so I said I do 2 years on them. I’ve been on the continuously for almost 4 and half years now. The research evidence of taking antipsychotics only really goes up to five years. With clinical evidence infering continued use and emergent evidence thinking otherwise. So yeah I’m trying to taper off. My doctor said that relpase rate is basically 10% per month. But most people become psychotic in the first couple of months after discontinuation but thats on a rapid taper. I think I get the feeling I might get stuck in the 5-15mg range of latuda for a good amount of time, but also the more I tolerate my reductions the more bold I get and then the more I’m inclined to keep reducing. It’s the same mentality that effects everyone wanting to quit cold turkey and it’s a pretty hard bias even with full knowledge of the risks involved and good insight. The replase rates balance out at 3 years so if takes me another year to taper off then I won’t know if I can actually survive relapse and it live antipsychotic free for sure untill ~2027/2028 which is kind of frustrating because I’ll basically have to be thinking about it carefully for at least the next 5 years. But you can’t give up hope and I’m willing to take risks to do it. Everyone is different in their risk tolerance. Even if I can come off them the amount of time I would have lost to is pretty devastating in terms of it’s impact.
On the brightside I know heaps off cool stuff about psychology now.
Yeah. I have learned more about psychology too than I ever wanted to know.
Take it very, very slowly. I spent years in sheer panic about medication, because I had terrifying side effects (e.g. suspected NMS and thrombosis and long period complete black-outs) and withdrawal effects. I did idiotic attempts to quit way too fast. It was very destructive to me and people around me. And would have been faster and easier to take it slow. I could not think, because I got literally deadscared of doctors and meds. Just spoke with doc about it again…my body can’t process meds well…so all this time they accidently overdosed me.
I have been off now for a year. I had moments that were hard, when I was triggered. I’m okay-ish now. Hope it will get better, the next 2 years.
I too am sad and angry about the lost time. And lost…everything…attention for kid, cognitive skills, personality, friends, partner, et cetera. Wish someone had taken the issues medication caused in me seriously (they do now, I’m recommended not to take them anymore). And helped me carefully find alternatives and plan withdrawal. And I had had the awareness/calmth of mind (?) to be more careful. I regret how I approached this in the past.
Better be on the careful side. A good life is the goal. Not quitting meds.
That a good point yeah the brain issues are chronic so chronic use of medication is warranted that make sense. But also in a chronic disorder it’s mainly about function. If you are more functional without medication regardless of positive symptoms then you are better off without medication. Having 5 years on medication is a long time period to develop coping skills and insight. So equally in a chronic disorder you can’t fix it anyway so being most functional is most important which raises the question after some treatment period of time are people more or less functional without medication?
Again Marian’s point is relevant what is a good life and is it possible that can look better without medication?
I take aripiprazole and olanzapine at the same time. I find that olanzapine is too helpful for me to get off of. I would like to get off aripiprazole but I don’t know if that’s possible. Good luck to you. @magz
abilify takes care of your negatives and Zyprexa takes care of your positives. A friend of mine is on a similar combo and that works quiet well for him. If it ain’t broken why fix it.
