I am currently taking Latuda for the 3rd time (plus Lithium Carbonate). I’m almost out of options. My psychiatrist mentioned Clozapine as a last resort, but I’d have to get a new psychiatrist because she is not licensed or whatever to prescribe & manage Clozapine.
I absolutely love my current psychiatrist. She’s very knowledgeable, empathetic, and she really seems to care about me and my husband and my life. I would hate to have to find a new psychiatrist.
But I’m not doing well. I’m considering Clozapine. I know about the weekly blood tests and whatnot.
If you have taken Clozapine, what was/is your experience?? Thank you in advance.
I was on clozapine for 3 years and it was so beneficial. However the side effects led me to stop it cold turkey. Now I was put back on it back in October and it wasn’t anywhere near as effective. I’m coming off of it now as the side effects wayyy outweigh the benefits
I’m in the same boat as you, on latuda again and my doctor says we are running out of options. She hasn’t brought up clozaril yet but idk. I hear it’s good for a lot of people that otherr meds don’t work as good. I hope you feel better
Since I started taking meds for sza I never stopped taking clozapine.
I tried risperidone, abilify and now zotepine all with clozapine.
In my opinion it’s a good med, and yes you drool a lot at night when you’re in bed but it’s not that big of thing. I had my worst time with abilify.
You also might have to do blood tests from time to time to check your white cells, but having low numbers of them it’s kinda of a rare thing.
Once I had a test that gave low numbers and in the same week I did another test and the numbers were good, sometimes the labs screw up.
Taking clozapine with another ap is better than taking it alone because usually meds work better when they metabolise something before and in that way they have a greater effect than taking them alone.
I went from olanzapine which is one of the stronger AP’s to Latuda which is a weaker AP and it worked better. You don’t necessary need clozapine because it is considered the strongest AP. i would suggest you try other options first if you haven’t already. Clozapine is a last resort option, or so I am told.
It’s possible you could try another AP, that is considered “weaker” yet it works wonders, that happened for me when I went from olanzapine to Latuda.
Clozapine was by far the worst medication I have taken. The side effects are awful.
I agree with Headspark. The strongest medications didn’t work for me at high doses, and one of the weakest one worked for me at a low dose. It really depends of what works for you.
A lot pf psychiatrists are incapable to treat patients in my experience. They all told me that once I was on Clozapine it was a lifetime medication. They tinkered with the doses, they added and subtracted other medications, but they kept Clozapine in the mix for approximately 8 years. Once you are on it, you are deemed treatment resistant, and it becomes a lifetime medication.
Finally, I told a new doctor that I couldn’t simply take Clozapine anymore. After that, I settled on the weakest medication supposedly, Ziprasidone, at a 40 mg dose. I also take Abilify with it, but I had to take Abilify with Clozapine as well. Abilify/Ziprasidone combination has no side effects for me.
I am on clozaril for the past 11 years, it is the only medication that worked for me, side effects are pretty severe such as drooling at night, weight gain, sedation ect but overall the pros outweigh the cons!
I was on clozapine for half a year I 1998. I was on 600 mg clozapine and clopixol depo 300 mg every other week. This drug …, Clozapine handled my psychosis very well but caused some severe side effects that made me quit it.
