Anyone know how does clozaril work?
It is a good med for me. It.works as an ap as well as a mood stabilizer and anxiety med. I’m slowly upping the.clozaril and getting rid of the other meds I’m on (lamotrigine and lithium). Clozaril takes quite a long time to be totally effective
According to my pharm book it results from blocking receptors for dopamine and serotonin. It is used for relieving general symptoms of schizophrenia and reducing suicidal behavior.
Why is everyone so afraid of it? Just because of the blood work?
I’ll be signing up to Clozapine on 5th October. Hopefully it will get rid of my unresolved issues. The other AP’s i’ve tried hadn’t work so well or the side effects weren’t tolerable.
Some people just can’t tolerate regular blood tests. There are also some very rare but very nasty side effects it can cause - such as heart inflammation, dropping your white blood cell count really low so you couldn’t even fight off a simple infection, severe constipation, etc. So to monitor and ensure that doesn’t happen to you when you start taking it, you have to have an ECG, an echocardiogram, baseline blood work then a blood test every week for 8 weeks once you start taking it, and then you can go to monthly blood tests where they monitor your serum levels.
I am afraid of it. I take a combo of 3 meds instead