Posted by Nurse Hot Flash on August 31, 2008, at 19:52:11
In reply to Re: Same old meds, same old results » Nurse Hot Flash, posted by Phillipa on August 31, 2008, at 19:20:05
Thanks to "med empowered" (love your screen name!) and to Phillipa for your input. I think the Zyprexa was added as a seditive, because my son was on only Abilify until he started slipping into psychosis with a lot of irritability.
Originally 10 mg of Zyprexa was added. I thought this was going to be needed only temporarily, so, at my urging, the doctor tried to get him off by taking him down to 7.5mg. He did OK there, but when we went to 5 mg, he started slipping away again, so we now just get refill after refill.
In the doctor's defense, he is working at a public health facility out of the goodness of his heart. He has a private practice also. I think his mission is just to keep as many folks as possible from falling off the edge.
The idea of adding something like Ritalin is enticing. I will bring that up. In the past we have tried Haldol and Risperdol, mainly because they were injectible (he was not very med compliant in the past, but is OK now).
We did try the psychosocial treatments, but he had to be forced to go. He will not admit he has a problem. He went to intensive outpatient therapy, and came out and told me "Mom, I don't belong there. Everyone just wants to kill themselves."
I asked about group therapy with people diagnosed with schizophrenia and was told "you can't put six or seven people who all think they are God in the same room together". Point well taken.
Someone once told me the difference between bi-polar and schizophrenia is that bi-polar patients want to build castles in the air, but schizophrenics live in them. That seems to be the case with my poor son. He is never manic, but has dellusions that he has held on to for years.
PS Phillipa - you are not nosey! I appreciate your concern and help!
poster:Nurse Hot Flash
thread:849242
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20080822/msgs/849550.html