Hi everyone. I am lowering the dose of my antipsychotics soon. I was wondering if anyone here has done that? Did it workout? Did you regress? Did side effects lesson? Thanks.
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I tried it. It didn’t work out.
Don’t lower the dose without your doctor being involved.
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I never understand this. If you are tolerating them ok - and you are stable why would you wanna lower them? If it aint broke - dont fix it.
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I was on a really high dose, too high in my opinion, and I had a lot of side effects. 40mg of olanzapine
I lowered it slowly and at around 10mg I started having symptoms. My side effects improved at that dose but things were still not good.
I am now on 60mg of Lurasidone and all is well.
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Word
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When my pdoc switched me to Abilify, he put me on an extremely low dose. My hallucinations and delusions came back and it was hell. I personally wouldn’t reduce your AP if you are doing well on it.
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In a way yes but i need meds id suggest speaking with a professional
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I once tried lowering my dose. Had to go back up again. So, it didn’t work out. I’m not going to try again anytime soon.
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I did this.
It did not work out. I lost my husband (now ex), access to my daughter, home, benefits and also my finances were affected. I also lost my self respect, physical health and other relationships were wrecked. It was not fun. Major set back.
10/10 don’t recommend.
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I lowered my dose and thought I was okay but had a break… I thought my philosophy professor was talking to me telepathically as well as jesus and angels… I’m on a low dose now… not going any lower than this again.
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Yes I have successfully lowered the dose of my antipsychotic. I started with 234mg of a monthly injection of Invega Sustenna and I was on that dose for 9 months then I got it lowered to 156mg but my mind was constantly racing and I had sexual dysfunction and high prolactin levels. I was on that dose for 2 years and decided to go even lower over time I slowly got it lowered to 117mg where I am currently. Still stable and doing even better than before. My mind has stabilized and it isn’t constantly racing anymore and when I ejaculate there is semen being produced. My sleep has improved as well and I will go get my prolactin levels checked in another 4 or 5 months to see how they are. The other doses had my mind racing all the time and my sleep was very disturbed. Even though I was stable And not delusional I was overly medicated.
I got the dose lowered with my psychiatrist’s approval.
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I go up and down on my dose now as I feel is necessary, with some conditions:
- I have to email my pdoc and let her know when, how much, and why.
- I have to make sure my wife is looped in as I caused a wreck the last time I played with my meds behind her back and I promised her it wouldn’t happen again.
- I’m to go up and down max of 20 mg at a time and I top out at 80 mg per day. Geodon. I’m at 80 and next week I can drop down to 60 mg. Have to stay there at least a week and then back down to 40 mg. Eventually want to be back down to 10 mg per day, 5 in the morning and 5 in the night.
- If things go badly sideways from my dose being low I am to get my arse to an ER at once while I still have insight. She has promised to have my back on this.
I have this arrangement because I am very high-functioning and stable for the most part. Also because I am pretty good about not screwing around with my meds or my doctor or not telling the truth, I’d say I’m honest with the pdcoc 95% of the time (there’s that episode some years ago I’m still making amends for).
Yeah, I can lower my dose, yeah it mostly works out, but it took me a quarter century to get to this point. My case is also kind of exceptional - I’m one of the unicorns here. (No I don’t fart glitter. Sorry.)
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I wonder if farting glitter would be considered a bad side effect or a good one?
I used to fool around with my meds without my pdocs approval, and EVERY time it turned out bad! I had an a-hole doc at that time, tho. I’ve learned my lesson and now am compliant. I also have a new pdoc who doesn’t treat me like I’m an idiot.
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I lowered my Zyprexa from 7.5mg daily to 5.0mg daily about three months ago. Things have been fine since then. I’ve lost almost 10 pounds and feel more awake during the day. However this is the first time a dose lowering has been successful… I tried it a few times last year and the voices got really mean within a few days so I had to go back up. Not sure why it’s working out now when it didn’t previously. Maybe it’s just because I’ve had more time to recover.
I worked it out with my doctor first, I didn’t do it on my own.
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I have only reduced down on Haloperidol with permission from a doctor.
My old pdoc didn’t want me on a high dose of it, but that drug never worked out in the end
It depends on the drug you’re trying to reduce.
Which AP are you reducing?
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I tapered from 300mg quetiapine XR to 150mg XR. Was doing alright before I thought it was a low enough dose to come off cold turkey and had relapse worse then ever. God help us
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I don’t fool around with my dosage. Being on the ward locked down not able to do anything other than walk the halls makes me a bored boy.
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I’m jealous. I’m on 80 2x/day, and I have to take a second AP, and it’s still not enough. Treatment resistant.
Like you, though, my doctor works with me, and I can adjust my meds within a certain framework, too. We work together, he trusts me, I’m totally honest with him.
I’ve gone through very high functioning periods of my life. Right now is not one of them, unfortunately. I would love to drop meds to practically none. I’m very impressed with how hard you work.
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My DX technically still says I’m treatment resistant. I know this because my new family GP brought it up after she read my file. I guess they can take it out at this point???
I’d be using double the APs if it weren’t for the Amyloban, I can tell you that. I run out and holy shiznit do the voices start to ramp back up and it’s all I can do not to claw out my pacemaker.**
Also, drop the sarcosine and it feels like I have brain fog. That stuff works. If it’s placebo effect, boy howdy is it ever consistent. I’m still doing CBT for 15 min to 45 min a day. A couple weeks without and I backslide. It takes ongoing concious effort here to keep my positives mitigated.
Hope this helps?
** I went through a period where the skin on my pacer site ripped open while I was using resistance bands and stayed ripped open. The scar tissue got THAT thin from multiple operations to replace batteries and failed leads over four decades. Wouldn’t heal and close up. Kept getting bigger, actually. Went through months of constantly losing blood volume because of the open wound and the blood thinners I eat like candy. Had to go to the ER for regular re-ups on circulatory fluid (thank gawd for my port-a-cath as it really saved my wrists). Anyhoo… This meant for several months that my pacer was visible through the wound in my shoulder and was held in by wiring and dressings. The urge to reach in and just pull it out was unbelievable. I took a lot more APs than normal during that stretch to make sure I didn’t pull it out.
Because that would have killed me within minutes. @anon4362788 spent too long listening to me whine about it on FB.
Isn’t life fun?!?!?!?
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I’m glad you left it alone!
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