I recently had a long chat with one of my moms friends (my mom’s in a care group for SZ folk) and she had developed TD upon stopping APs after 30 years of being on them.
She told me she swears by a magnesium + vitamin B6 that alleviates her TD symptoms and she’s been virtual free of symptoms for 2 years.
I stopped APs about 2 months ago and I’m pretty sure I had a dyskensia-parkinsonism problem which Clozapine alleviated, but I get the occasional jerks from time to time.
I’m scared of developing any hypokentic-hyperkinetic disorder so I took the precaution of ordering the supplement myself.
We had a nice long talk, she seems very knowledgable about psychiatric meds.
Dont take those TD meds ! They have a similiar affinity to dopamine receptors as APs do.
Anyhoo, figured I’d share this information in hopes it could be a helpful remedy to prevent a serious side effect which could ultimately damage a SZs life even further.
I do already take magnesium for migraines. It’s funny you posted this, because right before reading it I was doing some research on TD. (See this article)
Virtually everything I take makes it worse. However, all hope is not lost. The article indicates that Propranolol can help; since I have migraines, it might help those, too. Also, benzos make it worse- except clonazapem. I asked my neurologist/pdoc (she serves as both) if she would put me on Propranolol and switch me to clonazapem from diazapem. Hopefully, I can get her to do it and see if it helps. I may even try the low-dose caffeine the article mentions. It might make my essential tremors worse, but if it would help the other symptoms, it’d be worth it.
As it stands, my tongue is thrashing in my mouth (not out of it yet, thank goodness), my head jerks (even on my pillow as I try to sleep), and my hands keep grasping. It worries me about what’s to come.
I wish I could take multi-vitamins. I’m on blood thinners, so I have to be careful about what I take in lest it combat them. Vitamin K is the killer in multis.