I am on 35mg Zyprexa and 20mg Abilify and I still have symptoms I live in constant paranoia and I do not know what is wrong with my brain that the Zyprexa does not make me sleepy at all I sleep 9 hours and I am not bedridden I am the whole day doing things which would be good if I weren’t living under constant paranoia delusions and schizophrenia brain damage the “delusions” (I can’t tell apart what is real and what is not anymore) are so dominant that they control some of my actions beside this I suffer from auditory hallucinations which I don’t know when they are real or not
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That’s scary. 20mg is supposed to be the max dose of zyprexa.
But if the meds aren’t working, then it’s time to switch. It’s all just personal trial and error.
You may have to consider Clozapine or a first generation med eventually.
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The only medication that helped me get out of the auditory hallucinations and paranoia etc was Clozaril (clozapine)
I tried 5-6 other treatments that were not successful at the time
Like @everhopeful said , you must try other meds
Not sure as to why you are on 2 APs , usually pdocs start with one at a time…
Are you new to antipsychotics?
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No I have been taking APs for 5 years
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I agree with @everhopeful and @keylow time for a med change.
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I will talk with my psychiatrist about clozapine it is the only one from the atypicals we have not tried yet the rest just did not work at all except for Zyprexa but now it is turning useless as well
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@CMBS87 your sleeping plenty so thats good and keeping busy, also good. How long have you been on this med combo?
Im treatment resistant too i haven’t found a med that fixes anything but i appear more stable to everyone on these meds so will have to keep taking them, been on them about 3 years
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Yes
Clozaril could very well be you’re miracle drug, as it was for many others
Only pain is the blood tests
Here in Canada the first 6 months of treatment you need to do blood works every week. Then from 6 months to a year bi-weekly. And then after that , a blood test every month for as long as you are on the medication
It’s a pain, but I guess the exchange is worth it. Auditory hallucinations, delusions, disappeared after a week or 2. Been on this med for roughly 10 years now
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I have been one month on this dose before this I was on 30mg Zyprexa and 10mg Abilify for a year. I used to be on 20mg Zyprexa for three years and I was doing well but then we reduced the Zyprexa to 10mg and it stopped working since then we have been increasing the dose and nothing.
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I live in Chile here we need the blood test weekly the first four months and then the blood test is monthly
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Speaking to your psychiatrist is best, they will know how to fix the med situation since the meds have stopped working. They might change you to different meds altogether.
Ive had troubles with side effects on meds but when my dose wasn’t helping my anger, irritability would start so he just put it up slightly. But that hasn’t worked for you. Im no longer angry irritable now so its the best i can be with this schizophrenia. I tried clozapine but it made me very sleepy so i went on abilify and now im on clopixol an older med for past 3 years. It really is trial and error to what suits one person to the next. I wish you good luck
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CBS 25 years ago no antipsychotics worked 100% so I went on Clozapine 600 mgs and all my positives went away…I just couldn’t live with the side effect of this drug so I quit it after 6 months.
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Yeah, that’s the way I felt as well. What did you switch for?
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I got an add on of 1200 mg Solian(Amisulpride) to my Clopixol depot. I kept my depo the whole time I went on Clozapine.
@columbus how does the amisulpride works for you?
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I don’t think that it worked alot but my depot worked enough.
To all of you if I mention a pill I.have.had the last 27 years it has allway been with.Clopixol Depot.
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Tachycardia is a side effect from Clozaril that I dislike, so am trying to get of it now and change to another
Need to take another med to slow my heart rate
But at least Clozaril stopped the positives for me for well over 10 years
Hoping for the best, 
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Key low remember that Clozapine work when nothing else works. Keep in mind that all of the other antipsychotics improves positive equally well. So going of Clozapine is risky because it might.not work that well anymore if you go off and on Clozapine. You risk that your treatment team must.upper the dose of the Clozapine.
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I’m at very low dose now
We went all the way down to 100mg
I been at that dose for 4-5 months now and I actually feel better. More alert, energy etc
Only problem for me is I got the negatives
Social withdrawal, avolition etc
So we will try to go as low as possible and pdoc wants to give a second AP (Vraylar) in effort against negatives and cognitive function
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That sounds good lowering the Clozapine instead of quitting it and an add on antipsychotics.
I.think that’s common sense.
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