Which medications have you found effective when dealing with anhedonia?
Sadly no current medicine treats negative symptoms
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i have problems with anhedonia right now… i dont know why i feel dead. i stare at nothing for a long time. i try to remind myself to be more active but every movement feels forced.
Antidepressants may help a little. I know sz is not depression but they might help stimulate you. Also things like ritalin or nuvigil may help but it could be hard convincing your pdoc to prescribe those.
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Antidepressants might help. As for the antipsychotics, you have to look for the least damaging drug.
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Wellbutrin in a small to moderate dose has helped me somewhat with anhedonia for years. Before I started it I would sleep in as long as I could because there was nothing I wanted to do. Now I rise early and the mornings are the best part of my day.
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Yeah Wellbutrin can be activating, get you going in the morning.
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Really, only certain meds have shown to be “activating” - latuda and abilify are the top choices. They work on dopamine and serotonin differently than typical (old) meds and they’re prone to backfire in people with low to no negative symptoms like me.
Clozapine on paper has a rep for also helping negative symptoms and in payment causes OCD in people who take it.
These drugs just help a little bit. I drink a strong coffee with a cigarette every time I wake up and I stay very active to keep my energy levels up but not too high. I take Geodon and it seems to help just enough with symptoms. My case is strong, very strong positive symptoms and low negative symptoms.
But yeah, latuda and abilify are the go to meds for “activating” effects.
There is rather complicated upper undergrad level science behind the way the meds work, just know that the newer meds are more like precise antipsychotic meds while the old meds are more like blunt force trauma to positive symptoms.
Abilify is actually unlike every other med, it’s a dopamine agonist (agonist means increases). Hence it backfires rather often. I knew of its reputation and decided to never take it. I’ve met a fellow young man with scz and it didn’t work that well for him, he had a serious relapse on it. But abilify is just like that for some. Some call it “disabilify” because it made them zombies.
Hope this helps.
It’s really more about your profile of symptoms than a magic pill.
No coffee and cig to jump start my brain means no progress every morning for me.
And keep in mind that anhedonia is hard to treat. Antidepressant plus antipsychotic is another way to tackle negative symptoms. That’s an option.
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Risperidone works for negative symptoms.
Also taking Selegiline 5mg morning and 5mg afternoon is a good thing.
Yes I want to try selegiline for lack of interest in everything. Under 6 mg means no dietary changes. It doesn’t interact with risperidone. It does metabolize into an amphetamine, can you sleep?