Gotta Quit Clozapine

Medications
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Well, I’ve decided to visit my clinic tomorrow on a walk-in appointment in order to request assistance in titrating off of Clozapine and onto a different medication. Clozapine has been miraculous in treating my psychosis and self-harm, but the cardiac side effects are diminishing my quality of life. I keep having tachycardia and shortness of breath, and it’s hard to just walk slowly without breathing hard, and I get dizzy whenever I stand up.

I’ve tried beta blockers for the tachycardia but kept passing out from low blood pressure. I’m seeking help at my clinic cuz I know that quitting cold turkey can cause rebound psychosis and bradycardia.

Has anyone else had to come off a med cuz of physical side effects? What about coming off of actual clozapine? Should I be scared?

3 Likes
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Make sure to taper off slowly antipsychotic withdrawals are pretty awful I hope you feel better soon

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I had to taper clozapine because of tachycardia. I used to take 200 mg. Now I take 25 mg for sleep (next to Invega).

Be prepared for insomnia when lowering clozapine.

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I’m in the exact same boat!
It was the first and only medication at the time to stop my hallucination misery.

I too have tachycardia! We are changing due to this. My pdoc said in order to titrate off , I must do an ECG. He wants to see what’s my “QTc interval”

Being on 2 APs temporarily apparently can possibly bring you into a more “redzone”

Hoping it’s fine and I can get off clozapine once and for all. The monthly visits to the nurse kinda sucks too

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I came off Clozapine, it took about a month to switch me off too something else. I had terrible tachycardia and weakness with this med so now it’s on my allergy list at the VA.