Does anyone have experience with taking Buspar & Prozac?

I have recently - within the last 2 months - been diagnosed with Schizophrenia.

I have been taking Zyprexa, but my psych just added both Buspar and Prozac to my medications. Does anyone have experience with taking all of these medications? I’m still hearing voices and feeling pretty hopeless, and I’m not sure if the medication hasn’t kicked in yet or it just isn’t working.

I’m pretty freaked out by the dianosis honestly. And just looking for some insight from people that have experienced this before.

Ok first off don’t worry and literally that feeling of dread like “how am I gunna live the rest of my life like this?” And that feeling when ur doing fine and then some insidious voice chimes in and ruins everything signaling a spiral of loneliness and despair… that goes away after time and the right meds. You WILL be fine again, maybe not extremely joyful for awhile but I just remember feeling so lonely and suicidal when first realizing I had sz that it just felt like the worst thing in the world constantly…

I’ve been on Prozac before I got sz, it just made me kinda blank, not blank in an antipsychotic side effect kinda way, but emotionally empty. Like when I smiled I didn’t mean it… idk… I’m on welbutrin now and it’s the best “antidepressant” I’ve tried, the ssri’s just weren’t what I needed…

As for Buspar it’s so so… I mean u have to remember to take it like 3x a day, but I do know it’s also used with antidepressants as a way to augment the treatment Of anxiety and stuff.

Zyprexa was sedating but didn’t limit my cognition. Be careful tho bc it’s known to cause diabetes and it made me feel like I had the munchies allll the time. I’m just trying to imagine the cocktail ur on and it’s not too bad, the buspar will definitely be a plus in terms of helping ur mood. But zyprexa took awhile for me to work, don’t worry the positive symptoms should go away. It’s not like invega where I was literally not psychotic or having any issues by like day 3 (I DO NOT recommend invega tho)

Sorry for the rant but don’t forget the buspar it needs to build up in ur system. I liked the mood boosting of Zoloft and buspar so I imagine Prozac and it should help theoretically.

Any questions?

Thanks for the reply.

So far I’ve been feeling alright on the current cocktail I’m on. I don’t notice any difference as far as hallucinations and general mood go, but it sounds like that’s pretty normal.

idk how i missed this, im on abilify rather than zyprexa but i am on both prozac and buspar, i had buspar added at the same time that my prozac was maxed out and the biggest thing they help with is panic attacks, less so with general anxiety or obsessions

Buspar in my pharm class we were told was not really a great anti-anxiety agent, it’s given as a sub for benzos but it’s efficacy is questionable. Prozac is an SSRI, which are very tame side effect wise when it comes to psych meds. They are often prescribed first choice bc of their low side effect profile.

Zyprexa is a very solid & strong AP. How long have you been on it? If you’ve been on it for 2 months and have tried raising doses and it still hasn’t worked, I would say that’s bad luck and you should try another med.

I’ve been on that combo of meds before, not those specific meds but like the same med classes.

I’ve never tried Zyprexa but I’ve had a ton of Prozac in my life. It’s a good little med. It’s a little stimulating and I like that about it but my pdoc doesn’t like it for me because it does have a tendency to make me hypomanic. Buspar never helped me even a little, so I hope it works with your body chemistry better than it did for me.

from what ive read about buspar, its said that its usually used at too low of a dose to show much effectiveness. ive also read that it can take quite a long time to even work, in the hospital when i got put on it a therapist told me it can take several months to really feel any effect. i think the psych in the hospital intended for me to be on a higher dose of it, she started me out on 15 mg but said “the person in charge of your medication will probably titrate it to a much higher dose” but my nurse practitioner didnt want to up it because she was scared of serotonin syndrome, which i disagreed with but w/e. so i probably dont get much benefit from it, the improvement ive seen has probably been from the 80mg of prozac. with that i didnt really see much reduction in panic attacks when i was on 60 mg but it took getting put in the hospital for one of the psychiatrists to up it to 80 mg, after which i saw a definite reduction in panic attacks. i have also read that ssri’s like prozac usually require a maxed out dosage when it comes to treating panic attacks and ocd compared to depression or GAD. personally im split on my thoughts because im scared of benzo side effects and i can see why my nurse practitioner would be hesitant to put me on one (if she can? i think she can prescribe controlled medications) but even on this dosage of prozac my anxiety is still present. anyway, i hijacked this thread lol shout out to anyone who made it to the end of the post without checking out :wink: