Hi Everyone
To cut a long story short I have had it tolerating the side effects of clozapine. eg IBS, all the
blood tests, weight gain, sedation.
I am thinking of asking my psychiatrist if i can go from clozapine to a combination of
abilify/amisulpiride. I have been on this combination before and it worked. I don’t remember
exactly why I came off it in the first place.
Has anyone who has experience of this or similar please reply.
I used to wet bed, had postural hypotension and had serious weight gain on clozapine. We reduced clozapine dose and side effects went away. But weight gain was still there but I changed my lifestyle and had diet changes, this caused alot of weight loss. I empty my fridge before sleeping so I have nothing to eat when i wake up middle of the night craving food. I fast in afternoon, which helped too.
Abilify did not work for me, it worsens my psychosis. And amisulpride elevates prolactin even more than risperidone/paliperidone. You can search for symptoms of hyper prolactin.
I take clozapine for a half year now.
I have no side effects
I also had severe side effects on clozapine so I switched to risperidone. The only thing is one must come off clozapine very gradually or the withdrawal symptoms will be severe. I had a pdoc who switched me to risperidone drastically and I had a severe crisis and had to go to hospital for a few days till the meds adjusted in my system.
So yes you can come off clozapine but make sure your pdoc helps you off it gradually.
I’m on amisulpride and olanzapine and got good results on it. Never tried abilify so I can’t say how that is.
Good luck. Its better getting off an ap with serious side effects. Clozapine is known for agranulocytosis so my doc didnt recommend it.
I am happy you don’t experience side effects but everyone is different. What
about weight gain. I have never come across a no-side effects anti-psychotic.
Personally I don’t want to go into hospital if I need to retitrate clozapine if all else fails.
This is a big risk I am taking as I need to be outside of hospital to look after my children.
From memory I needed 2 AP to work together for me to be sympton free.
Be careful changing
I’m on clozapine and I have bed wetting and drooling I have weight gain I would like go back to amisulpiride but I can’t handle risk of relapse I’ve been on clozapine for about twelve years I don’t want to rock the boat so I make do now
I came off Saphris to go on clozapine when I developed TD. It was working great, and I didn’t mind the regular blood tests as I am on Coumadin and have to get them anyways. Unfortunately, my WBC count dropped, and my pdoc didn’t want it to go any lower, so she put me back on Saphris. Yesterday, however, I asked to be switched to risperdone. I don’t think it’ll make a difference in my TD, but it was suggested by a forum member that it might help with energy (I have none). Not sure if any of that helps you… Whatever you and your pdoc decide, good luck!!!
I can understand fully with what you are saying.
Do you find clozapine helps with anxiety?
I think that clozapine helps the anxiety a lot more than some medication but I have to deal with anxiety in other ways
I always get a really good sleep on clozapine and it’s quite calming
I too find clozapine better at helping with anxiety but does not get rid of it altogether.
Do you have constant anxiety
I pretty much have it all time
I do a lot of walking that helps
I’m trying to face my fears more now
For instance I used to avoid train journeys for years but now I go on the train quite frequently
I have background anxiety but it only ever troubles me
when I get panic attacks 2-3 times a week. I have found the winter blues doesn’t help.
Saw psychiatrist today.
Basically I cannot come of clozapine as I have been classed as having treatment resistant
schizophrenia.
Great another label to contend with as if being a (normal) schizophrenic in itself was bad enough.
Did your TD go away with clozapine? I read somewhere that clozapine eliminates TD. Also, does Saphris have a high probability rate for TD? That was one of the meds I was considering switching to.
I have been fortunate that TD was not much of an issue on AP’s.
I tended to get them when starting a new AP.
From memory TD was also not an issue when starting on clozapine - just a big belly.
I have treatment resistant sza and I’m on clozapine. It has helped a lot but I’ve gained weight and I drool at night. I’m only on 500mg. Along with lamotrigine and zoloft things are going pretty good