When do psychiatrists decrease dosage of antipsychotics?

i think they reduce it when you have an initial psychotic disorder, in case you have brief psychotic episode of schizophreniform, because these are time limited psychosis incidents.

do they reduce the meds when you’ve gone over a year without symptoms? or maybe longer?

when are the incidents when they reduce the meds?

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Did they ever stop your meds? After taking ap for that long you will likely get psychosis if you stop as your brain made more dopamine receptors. We stopped my meds after a couple of weeks of taking them so my diagnosis was changed to schizophrenia because I had another psychosis within 6 months of the first one.

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It’s usually about taking the lowest dose possible to alleviate side effects but control your symptoms.

You need to buy into the process and be involved. You need to be honest and a good shrink will have an idea how your travelling simply from conversation. It’s not easy and there’s really an art to it but if your multi episodic it’s usually meds for life.

If your still getting symptoms then that is something you need to stay on meds for.

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When I had my first episode at 17, they kept me on AP’s until I was 19.

I was fine for a couple of years, but started to deteriorate again by 22.

Been back on meds since I was 23 now, so it’s been 10 years.

I have always been on the maximum dose except for Haloperidol - that drug was just spiteful for me side effects wise and came off it thankfully.

I tried it again as PRN about a year ago, and whilst very effective it brought back a lot of my movement problems.

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Here in the UK at my facility. They say if you have psychosis, not sz, then after at least two years of not hallucinating, they can reduce your meds, or even come off…

But not b4.

Well, ppl do go off b4 even after having told the doctor so, you cannot be forced to stay on it unless you’re a danger

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Well in my case I was mostly on the same dose throughout… but as I was on such a low dose I have tried to come off meds twice before with the help of my pdoc (each time I had to go back on because I’d get anxious or mood swings)… the first time I did it I was on them for 5 years without other symptoms …

I’m currently off my meds again and its been 10 years since psychosis … wish they did not mess with my meds or at least monitored the situation… i am waiting to hear from a pdoc to put me on a anti depressant at least

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