I’m on Zyprexa 7.5mg and Lithium 1200mg for my schizoaffective disorder. My mania and psychosis has been obliterated, I actually feel like a person again. However, I have no motivation, terrible hygiene, anhedonia, and can’t concentrate very well, but my mood is actually good. The doc added 10mg Prozac two weeks ago and the only difference so far is unpleasant sexual side effects.
Has Abilify helped anyone’s depression/negative symptoms? I don’t see my pdoc for another two weeks since I just finished IOP, but I’m trying to do some research of what can help me so I can be prepared when I see her. Thing is I tried Abilify at 2.5mg a year ago and was manic on it, but apparently that’s common on lower doses where it acts as an antidepressant, so maybe at a dose for psychosis (10-15mg) it might be different? I’m just afraid since Zyprexa worked so well for the mania and psychosis. I also heard Wellbutrin can help, but my doc at IOP said it conflicts with Zyprexa so we can’t use it hence the Prozac which is not doing anything.
I’m also using NAC+Sarcosine which I’m hoping will help but so far no dice. At least the NAC has helped with my skin picking though
Thanks, unfortunately I don’t know if I can stick with Prozac if this sexual side effect persists. But you’re right, it’s only been two weeks so maybe I have to wait longer for it to help. It’s just that I don’t think Prozac can be a long-term option, unless it’s one of those side effects that goes away over time
10mg Prozac is the children’s dose, adults normally start on 20mg.
Zyprexa and Abilify are very different antipsychotics, generally people need at least 10mg to have an effective antipsychotic effect.
The pdoc at IOP started me on 10mg since I have a bad history of antidepressants causing mania for me. The side effect I’m experiencing is annoying, but perhaps I could try a higher dose once I see my outpatient pdoc to see if it will help, maybe the side effect will eventually go away
And yeah I was only on 2.5mg Abilify for the bipolar since I hadn’t developed the psychosis yet (all of my delusions used to happen only during mania). The Zyprexa 7.5mg is lower than the standard, but it works really well for my delusions and paranoia. I was on 5mg and it didn;t do anything but help my mania, but the increase to 7.5mg has done a lot for me. Although I am a smaller person (115lbs and 5’8) so maybe that’s why it works ok at this dose? Plus I only just reached that weight, I was 100lbs before starting Zyprexa
Yeah it works really well against the psychosis plus it’s the best thing I’ve tried so far for my mania. Honestly I can’t tell if the problems I’m reporting are from the disease or from zyprexa, but I’d guess the former probably.