Why the switch @firemonkey?
Just guessing in no particular order.
- She thinks paliperidone is more effective
- Getting people on it lightens their workload ie 12 visits to a service user instead of 26.
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A lot of fuss had been said about this medication on this site. I probably did my best when i first was put on this medication. The removal of amps and the increase in dose was my downfall. By the way i was doing good when i was on 150 mg every month, with 30-45 mg Dexedrine. It went bad when the amps were removed and the dose increased to every 3 weeks.
I would advise you to ask your doctor if you can try the pill form of this drug first, in case things go south from side effects. Particularly for this drug. But that’s just from my personal experience, I’m not a doctor just a medicine recipient.
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I’d strongly suggest trying the pills before the shot. The shot is very potent, and might be too much, plus it causes anhedonia. The pills are more tolerable.
I’ve been on the Invega Sustenna monthly injection for about a year now. So far I’m not hallucinating, I’m not delusional, voices pop up randomly, I don’t talk to myself, have insight into my illness, firmly grounded in reality, I’m very aware of what’s going on, maintain my hygiene, haven’t gained any excessive weight, and even the weight I gained I was able to lose a lot of it. I also went from taking the highest dose of 234mg a month to 156mg a month and so far I’m still stable.
In beginning I literally became impotent and had high prolactin levels. After that my psychiatrist lowered the dose to where I am right now and I started ejaculating sperm. I don’t feel sedated either but after a physical and blood work that I got done my cholesterol is a little high and my liver enzymes are high according to my doctor which is probably the side effect of the medication. I still have racing and intrusive thoughts and a little bit of paranoia but that eventually fades away.
I also take Wellbutrin 200mg for depression which is getting a lot better. So I have all that taken care of.
The only problem I having right now is with my sleep because I’ve developed terrible insomnia out of nowhere. I was taking Benadryl 50 mg which was helping a lot and I would wake up feeling good but I recently had blood in my stool and I’ve read somewhere that Benadryl can cause constipation hence the pain as well that I was feeling so I’ve been prescribed trazadone now. I took 50mg yesterday and even though I felt I was sleeping after waking up today I felt completely jet lagged. It felt as if my mind didn’t shut off all the way and I basically woke up exhausted. So today I’m going to take 2 pills and see how I do.
Other than that I’m doing pretty good. I know this got long but hopefully me sharing my experience will help someone. Good luck!!
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Invega also has the Trinza formulation which is an advantage for compliance (4x yearly). Consta delivers risperidone over 2 weeks - your body breaks risperidone into the active ingredient in Invega, so if you’re on Risperdal, you’re already getting Invega.