I think im on too high of a dose. Invega sustenna 234, from what I’ve read they start patients out with the 234 in a “loading phase” and then reduce the dose. I’ve been on the 234 once a month for over a year now and my pdoc seems clueless about the recommended reduction. I had a lot of side effects from the medicine the first year, I want to lower it.
im thinking if I can get my dose lowered, ill get some of my creativity and quick thinking back. also it would be nice if I didn’t have to restrict my calories just to maintain a healthy weight.
I don’t see my pdoc til September, so it’s the 234 dose until then. seems unprofessional to me
Here’s my (short) story. It should help ill keep it simple
Started on risperdal oral pills
Moved to risperdal consta depot.
Life goes on
Start to develop severe negative symptoms and chemical induced depression
Pdoc recommends invega sustenna oral 6mg
Continue risperdal consta depot while taking Invega samples
Tell pdoc I like invega
Switch to invega sustenna 156mg
Quit risperdal completely
Summary : i go through risperdal oral and injectable. It gets progressively worse because i feel terrible. Move up to invega sustenna 156mg. Life is good
I’m on 156mg and i couldn’t imagine it gets any better than this. If you can somehow convince your pdoc to lower it to 156mg, I promise you will be happy.
I got so sick of not being myself on antipsycho’s and feeling like trash. Now I feel great
Also, I am highly against high dose of ap. Especially the depot like we both take. It is so unnecessary. You do NOT need that much medication just to keep your symptoms under control.
I recommend confronting your doctor and telling them that you don’t feel 100% on that dose and you would like to make a change.
Yeah you can definitely try to lower your dose (w doctor supervision) to see if it works, especially if you started out on the high dose and never even tried smaller ones.
I recently found out I only needed half my original seroquel dosage to fall asleep because I was trying to wean off it. And now I don’t get any of the bad side effects I got on the higher one. So it can be a good thing sometimes! When I was on Zoloft too my prescriber at the time kept raising my dose and I didn’t question it even though I felt better at like 75 mg. I got horrible side effects at the dose she ended me up on which was like the highest recommended dose that I still haven’t fully recovered physically from today. When I later tried going back on Zoloft as I suspected I only needed 75 mg and not what I was on before. Awful.
I’m in a similar situation. I crave that “quick thinking” you mentioned. Gonna try to work it out with my doc to get my dose lowered. It just makes sense to be on the lowest dose you need since there are so many side effects associated with APs.
Rogueone put it nicely in another thread: everyone should have some ownership of their treatment.
I would agree it may be too high of a dose. I have been on too high of a dose of it at 100mg a month and they are lowering mine. I’m now on 75mg but I have yet to see any results as it stays in your system quite a while.
I intend to go as low as I can and they are willing to work with me on that as long as not too many psychotic symptoms break through. But as long as I can live happy.
If you explain to your psychiatrist you are not happy he should be willing to work with you.
A handy tip. Tell him or her you want to quit the medication if they won’t lower it. Perhaps then they will meet you half way and lower it. That’s what mine did. Cause I told her I wanted to stop it altogether.
A low does is good if it works for you. My pdoc was able to get me off of two of the meds I was taking. I feel like my cognition has improved (I understand what people are saying now), and it’s nice not to take so much!
They can be terrible. I have had to fight for treatment from the NHS in the UK. I ended up getting so angry with my care coordinator not booking me a pdoc appointment that I had to complain.
Now I see a well-respected doctor, and he is doing his best to reduce meds. Not sure where you’re from, but you may have to fight this to get where you need to be.
Hope you get this resolved, the side effects suck and it can be in the main dose dependent as per my doc’s view on it.
234 mg in deltoid on treatment day 1, then 156 mg 1 week later (day 8)
Recommended maintenance dose is 117 mg IM once monthly, although some patients may require lower or higher dosages (monthly dose range 39-234 mg)