Unfortunately they don’t have this one in England yet, nor do they have Rexulti.
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Haha I promise I’m not, I just love it!
That’s unfortunate. It’s very interesting these new partial agonist drugs. I think they will be called “third generation APs” in the future because of their unique mechanism of action. Seems like they might be associated with less problems than the normal blocking APs. I also think Vraylar is just fascinating because as far as I’m aware, it is the only one that is preferential for the D3 receptor, which has been implicated in cognitive and negative symptoms.
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So what symptoms did you have before?
Before meds, utter loss of contact with reality, vivid hallucinations in all senses, delusions, and particularly intermittent but severe catatonia that would last sometimes twelve hours at a time. Also very bad flat affect, social withdrawal, and low motivation. Meds helped greatly with positive symptoms, but didn’t do much for negative symptoms; although I did become much more social, I still struggled with avolition. But then I got on Vraylar, and it’s like my life has completely changed. I feel like myself… except my psychosis started in very early adolescence, so I never really had a chance to be myself. I like how I am now. I seem to be functioning happily.
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Their mechanism of action is confusing to me.
They are partial agonists at dopamine receptors. Doesn’t that mean that they partially stimulate dopamine when we are trying to tackle overactive dopamine? Idk
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A partial agonist DOES have some stimulating effects, but also some blocking effects. Partial agonists of anything, not just dopamine, will act as either a blocker or releaser depending on the level of the neurotransmitter while the partial agonist is in the brain. Partial agonists act like “stabilizers” more than direct blockers–if there is too little dopamine, it will raise it, if there is too much dopamine, it will block it. This is advantageous in schizophrenia treatment because it’s not all just too high dopamine. Some parts of the schizophrenic brain have too much dopamine, but others are hypofunctional and have too little. So that’s why I think a “stabilizer” (partial agonist) works so well for tackling all the symptoms.
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Oh yea that word stabiliser rings a bell. Gosh its amazing if that is really wat this drug is doing, keeping us in balance. Though we feel zombified as a result, at least I do
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Do you have disorganized thinking?
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I just saw a commercial for this med. 
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Only during episodes/crisis, which hasn’t happened in a long time. I don’t have too bad cognitive symptoms, although I took an IQ test by a psychologist two years after I was diagnosed, and my IQ dropped over 40 points (143 to 100) from my premorbid score. Although I think my IQ would be still very high now because at the time I took the test, I was recovering from a severe manic/psychotic break that resulted in 4 hospitalizations, was on a med (Lamictal) that made my thinking very dull and scattered, I hadn’t gotten good sleep at all, AND the IQ test was given after literally 5 whole hours of nonstop psychometric testing so I was burnt out and guessed on most of them because I just wanted to go home.
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I had an allergic reaction to it, my old pdoc just said take benadryl 6 times a day, and upped it. I ended up in ER cause of it. I stopped Aug 1st, took till August 28 to stop the reaction, was on 4 allergy meds for it, what a mess. Got rid of pdoc and my therapist filed a complaint against her about it.
I have a bad reaction to all APs so this one was a like Saphris for me. Swollen tongue and throat, couldn’t breathe or sleep.
You come across as well-read and very intelligent.
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What r u on now antipsychotic ?
Thanks! I appreciate that. I’m always very insecure about whether I’m stupid or not.
It didn’t do anything for me. It’s better for treating bipolar mania than schizophrenia, but some have had success with it.
Mania causes psychosis so does it help with that?
I’m not sure. I imagine so, provided the psychosis is solely the result of the mania and not organic.
I’ve been on a low dose of vraylar for awhile now. I take it in conjunction with my main AP, latuda. It helps me with negatives and positives. I’d say it’s a good drug, but everyone is different