Honestly, what is your opinion on this?

Antipsychotics can stop working even if you don’t attempt to quit, and the acute treatment effect will be worse than the maintenance effect. I’m sorry, I just won’t believe an anology over actual studies. And my psychiatrists have always recommended that I attempt to quit the meds after a certain amount of time had passed if that’s what I wanted. No warnings about loss of effectiveness from any of them. I’m doing my second attempt now. It just doesn’t make sense to me at all. If this were known to be true, there should be plenty of studies on this and treatment guidelines would not recommended that patients make several attempts to quit APs.

Yes, sometimes anti psychotics can stop working or not work at all.

But if you have one that is working and and you start and stop it over it may stop working altogether. There are other people on this forum who have heard the same thing.

I am not going to argue with you, just warning you that you could be ruining a good thing. The choice is yours. I hope it works out for you.

I’m following my doctor’s advice. I definitely won’t listen to you over my doctor, sorry.

Well I am following my doctors advice and wont listen to you over him, sorry.

Difference is I wasn’t warning you or suggesting you do anything else. You were sort of over the line there.

That’s interesting to hear that there aren’t studies journals on it.

On the other hand I have heard of more than once of someone who had to go on a higher dose or whatever after relapsing.
Whether that is simply because they needed to go on a higher dose anyway or linked to coming off the medication is maybe hard to tell.

But my pdoc says it is OK for me to attempt a med free life when I want to.

Maybe that thing about an increase in med or whatever after a relapse depends on the individual, certain factors, circumstances, and such, I don’t know.

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It might just be coincidental. Only actual studies would show whether it is a real concern. I think you should follow your doctor’s advice. If they say it is OK for you to attempt to quit, and you want to quit, then try it. Just make sure you plan it out and reduce your stressors. And I don’t know if you’re on the lowest dose or not, but if you aren’t, do it slowly. I’m waiting one month between each dose reduction at the moment.

Here is one such study, I’m sure there is more info n the net if you look for it.

Read the first line of the conclusion “Discontinuing treatment may lead to exacerbation of symptoms, undermining therapeutic progress”

Like @Zoe above I have heard numerous accounts from various doctors of mine about patients doing worse after relapse. Schizophrenic patients are notorious for quitting there meds when they feel better only to end up doing worse.

I’m just telling you what I have been told numerous times. You may quit and be fine, but there is also a chance that may not happen. It’s risky but ultimately your choice. There are people on this forum that quit, felt fine for months and then relapsed. Schizophrenia is usually permanent.

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That’s not at all what we were talking about. Of course I don’t disagree that stopping meds can cause you to relapse. You realize that’s what that sentence is saying, right? The study doesn’t say anything about the effect of antipsychotics in the maintenance phase of treatment becoming worse after safely discontinuing the drugs with your doctor’s approval.

However, if you do find a study that actually says this, I would like to see it. I did do some quick searches before posting my first post here, and I have browsed and read quite a lot of studies about schizophrenia and quitting meds and not found anything about this.

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Yea I had a search too and there was nothing as far as I’m aware.

Sort of weird that it has seemingly never been journaled or studied.

Either to give people confidence or warn or a mixture.

@Headspark, yea I guess there is a risk I could relapse. I wonder about the effect of coming off meds on ‘med effectiveness’ when going back on them after such a relapse.

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I’m only stating what I was told by my doctor, and I am sure he has seen it happen in his practice, that’s why he told me, so I didn’t screw up my good progress. and then I experienced exactly that, medication ineffectiveness, after I quit olanzapine numerous times. It took me 3 antipsychotics later to find another med that worked.

People will do what they want, I don’t really care, but even this thread is full of people not recommending you quit and that they relapsed eventually.

You can roll the dice and take your chances, but if your doing well stick with the meds.

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I quit a few times. Now i know I need meds rather than people just telling me. I might have some brain damage from that - I don’t notice.

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I agree with @everhopeful . I doubt your meds are doing much at that dose. I would try to get off since you basically already are. I don’t know if you will eventually have psychosis but I think you already are at risk at that dose. If you are truly worried about psychosis I would increase your meds to 10mg. At the dose you are at it, I don’t think it is going to significantly impact your chance for psychosis .

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I came of the meds twice, and the results were terrible

Went into full psychotic mode a few months after quitting meds on both occasion

I really wish I could survive without the meds and weight gain, but I realise now that it’s absolutely vital for me to take meds otherwise I’ll live a horrible life

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Each time you relapsed, did you have to go back on a higher dose than before or the same dose?

Sorry to hear about the relapses.

My psychiatrist told me that if I keep changing and stopping meds, meds might stop working forever.

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Yea, perhaps(!) if the medication changing thing etc. is overdone it confuses the body??, I don’t know…

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Idk either but maybe bcz the dopamine receptors stop responding to meds.

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Thankyou for your opinion, Bowens. It is good to hear.

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You know this is a pro medication site. A lot of people seem to think they should stop, but it just doesn’t work out. I really think it is better to try a better med, instead of going off. Plus you should taper instead of quit cold turkey. Trying different meds is scary, but I think stopping everything without anyone’s knowledge is just a really bad idea because they are such powerful drugs and will hurt you in the long run. Always always consult your doctor first.

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