I am new to the Forum. Diagnosed with Schizophrenia at 31. Really struggling with the negative symptoms. In particular anhedonia. Has anyone tried ANYTHING that works really well for negative symptoms like Modafinil, a stimulant/s, etc. These negative symptoms are making me suicidal. It is torture dealing with them on a daily basis. Any help is much appreciated.
Relax, its not non sense, others said to you the same as I said, meds are for positive symptoms and you’re the one who gave false info by saying you never had positive symptoms. Yet then later you said your diagnosis is undifferentiated sz which means you HAD positive symptoms and thats why you’re on meds.
“Undifferentiated -type schizophrenia is a classification used when a person exhibits behaviors which fit into two or more of the other types of schizophrenia , including symptoms such as delusions, hallucinations, disorganized speech or behavior, catatonic behavior”
sorry i can’t help you with negative symptoms… i have them too but i didn’t find anything that works for them. I was on ritalin for a while but it made me psychotic again eventually…
According to my research, many years ago, amphetamines work better in schizophrenia than methylphenidate (Ritalin). It was found that the amphetamines sometimes worsened positive symptoms, but this could be balanced out by adjusting the dose of antipsychotics.
Two things helped my negative symptoms. One was time on the medication. It took a good three years before I was feeling about 80% of my old self. The other was finding the right medication. Some of them work better for negative symptoms than others, and you have to try a few and find one that you can deal with, if you have that luxury.
There is no fda approved medication for negative symptoms. Stimulant medications used for adhd might help with cognition but carries a huge risk of paranoia and other positive symptoms as these drugs does the exact opposite of antipsychotics. So if you are already have positive symptoms and taking medication for that then its not an option.
Other options include certain nutritional supplements like nac, thiamine, omega 3 fatty acid etc. Green tea is useful too.