Poor Concentration? (Medication?)

Medications
1

Hello everyone. I have poor concentration. It’s hard for me to focus on anything for more than 20 minutes. I try reading but it’s just very hard. Even watching TV and movies is hard.

I want to live a more productive life but it’s hard when you can’t concentrate.

Have any of you been prescribed medicine for concentration? Does it work?

Please help! Thanks in advance!

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2

Same problem here bro…i cant watch movie…

3

Yeah it sucks man

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4

Have u tried benzo…

5

No I haven’t tried those, have you?

6

Hello LionDen

What have you been diagnosed with?
Poor focus can be a symptom of schizophrenia, but also ADD / ADHD.
If it’s schizophrenia, there can be 2 causes:

  1. Cognitive symptom - unfortunately this isn’t very treatable with current medication. But if you pdoc agrees, you could try a stimulant like Adderal or Vyvanse. Keep in mind that these medicine can worsen psychosis in some cases.
  2. Extrapyramidal symptom - caused by the antipsychotic. In this case, you should either lower the dose or switch to another antipsychotic, or try an anticholinergic medication such as Cogentin.
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I’m diagnosed with schizophrenia and my doctor has me on strattera. It seems to help me.

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Hello Andrey,

I have been diagnosed with schizophrenia.

Oh I see. Hm, I think it might be due to the medicine. I didn’t have trouble concentrating before.

I am too nervous to switch or lower the dose. What is that? The last thing you mentioned?

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Does it help with your concentration?

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Cogentin is a medicine used to treat (pseudo-) parkinsonism or extrapyramidal symptoms such as muscle stiffness or agitation. Agitation is often correlated with poor concentration.

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11

Oh okay. Have you ever tried it?

12

My dr tried Strattera on me (I have sza, not ADD/ADHD) to try to help my concentration, but it didn’t do anything for me. My biggest problem with concentration is how distracted I get by the conversations going on in my head. The APs have helped with that a bit, but I still have major issues with concentration.

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I have tried another medicine, not Cogentin, but something similar. I was having restlessness and poor concentration. And it worked.

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@Andrey
Which med have u tried for concerntration andrey can u share with us…

15

I used a substance called Trihexyphenidyl (I won’t give you the commercial name because it’s specific to my country). It was efficient against restlessness and poor concentration too.

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I am taking that already
…but it doesnt help…

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If it’s a negative symptom there’s not much you can do but learn to rest, then study again then rest, then work again. I took Geodon for a few days and my concentration got way worse on it, then came back when I tapered off. It could be part of it…

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18

Ive begged my doctor to give me some stimulants but with no success.

I cant concentrate for ■■■■. I used to take Ritalin before and it was unbelievable how it helped me before i developed sza

I thought a kickass combo would be 2 mg klonopin 3 times a day countered with Ritalin. Would be great but doc said it unfortunately fuels the bad things in my head

I really wish i could take it again.

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Yeah I feel really dumb and slow since I take meds, if I miss my meds a couple days I come back to normal thinking speed, are more imaginative and overall seem to be smarter, the paranoias though… that’s the bad part, but I want to try something else, or maybe lower the dose so I can be a smarter man like I used to be, gotta talk about it to my pdoc

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Magicfish, my cocktalk was 30mg Adderall xr and 2 20 mg ir later In the day, paired with 1mG Ativan or xanax 4x a day. I’ve been taking vyvanse the past week and it doesn’t make me psychotic like the adderall did. But that was before I wasn’t taking Invega sustenna.