In my case, I ended up in the hospital 4 months later, eventually lost my job, and needed to go back on a much higher dose. I went from the minimum dose to the maximum dose, and had to stay there with all the terrible side effects for 6 months before I got stable enough to start to lower it again.
This might be a bit private but what’s your diagnosis for panss for your illness, like is it mild schizophrenia or moderate or severe
As far as I know, mild, moderate, and severe aren’t actual diagnoses. I have had a PANSS score done a couple times through studies I have participated in, but never at a regular pdoc appointment. My PANSS score went down during the course of the studies I was in, and I was in the active group both times.
So doctor use panss score to judge?do all patient have a panss score?
I don’t even know what that is. I don’t think they use it. I’ve never seen it in my notes.
I’ve only ever seen it used in clinical studies. If I hadn’t participated in the studies, I don’t think I would have been given the test. But maybe other doctors use it regularly. I don’t know. That’s just my own experience with it.
I try not to put too much stock in what the doctors tell me my functioning level is, though. Too often, they take clinical data as gospel, like if you score severely once they decide you will never do better. I prefer to look at pdocs as the medication experts, and look at myself as the expert of how much I can do.
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i don’t know what panss is. can anyone explain?
Positive and negative symptom scale. It assigns a number value to the level of symptoms you have in each category, and is how they evaluate the effectiveness of treatments in clinical trials.
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What happens if i go off clozapine? @lekkerhondje
ah yea thanks for explaining @Ninjastar =)
i’m not sure… that is different for everyone but i think if you’d go off the clozapine and the shot also then you might become psychotic…
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i want to see if im truly psychotic or not
don’t do it without your pdoc knowing it though… i don’t think it’s a good idea but it’s your life though
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I feel it is hard to get off meds without a rebound psychosis, after being on them long-term. I think it needs a careful plan and even then, you need luck to succeed.
I think it can be worth a try though, especially after just one episode. Managed to slowly withdraw to a minimal dose, but i am still less stable than before meds. Im not sure if i ever dare take this last step from 0.5mg to zero. Maybe if i stay well the next half year.
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I went 2 years off meds before being hospitalized. At first it feels good but towards the end its hell. Not worth it again for me. It also brings suffering to ppl around me.
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For how many years were you on abilify
10 or 15mg Abilify 2011-2015. 2015-2017 no meds. 20mg Abilify 2017-2019.
How do you know? I get positive symptoms just by going from 4 to 3mg Risperdal. Maybe on Abilify the improvement in negative symptoms improved my positive symptoms idk Before stopping meds for 2yrs I was on 10 or 15mg, cant remember. After relapsing off meds they put me on 20mg Abilify and I was stable.
Life is yours, your negative symptoms aren’t improving being on 4mg risperidone anyway and ap makes negative symptoms worse
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I know I have lots of negative symptoms on Risperdal and much less on Abilify but on all other antipsychotics I had worse issues than negative symptoms: addictions, positive symptoms, catatonia, metabolic side effects, anger/rage issues, etc
I just dont see how Ziprasidone will improve my negative symptoms, its just weaker than Risperdal so I will need a high dose anyways like 120mg which will bring more side effects and block more dopamine. I will still ask my Dr about it next appointment but I am not going on a dose of less than 120mg of Ziprasidone. I was on Lurasidone 80mg, I had paranoia, some delusions, some catatonia, akathisia and nausea from the pill.
But what if welbutrin is the one causing the paranoia etc, you were fine on 10-15 mg abilify