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Dr. Bob is Robert Hsiung, MD,
bob@dr-bob.orgShown: posts 1 to 9 of 9. This is the beginning of the thread.
Posted by pretty_paints on December 3, 2004, at 13:03:13
Hello
I'm on Seroquel at the moment but it isn't really working. My pdoc has said that the next AP we will try is Abilify and then after that I will go to the hospital and be started on Clozapine.
Does anyone have any experience with either of these drugs? I know its wrong but to be honest, I've kind of made up my mind that the Abilify won't work any better than my current drug. My pdoc was originally going to put me on Clozapine next, and she really sold it to me, saying its the best AP on the market, etc etc. But now she's gotten hold of this new drug Abilify and she wants to try that.
Anyway if anyone can give me any info on either drug, I'd be very grateful.
Cheers :) xx
Posted by ed_uk on December 3, 2004, at 14:00:13
In reply to ABILIFY or CLOZAPINE? which is best?, posted by pretty_paints on December 3, 2004, at 13:03:13
Hi,
I hope you don't mind me asking.........
For what reason have you been prescribed an antipsychotic? What symptoms/problems do you have? I think people will be better able to advise you if they know more about you. BTW, your post about the psych ward was very interesting.Regards,
Ed.
Posted by abstract on December 3, 2004, at 19:31:16
In reply to ABILIFY or CLOZAPINE? which is best?, posted by pretty_paints on December 3, 2004, at 13:03:13
Ive been taking Abilify for about a week now. I started taking it several weeks ago at 5mg/day but had to stop after 3 days because it (or something) kicked up my anxiety. I stopped then only to research the drug further. Whats interesting is that after 3 days of stopping (I keep a VERY detailed med journal) I started feeling great! This continued for about 3 days then dissapated. The only thing that had been different was the abilify.
I started taking it again about 5 days ago at 1/2 the dose @ 2.5mg/day with my doctors approval. Im now starting to feel that 'warm fuzzy' feeling again.
Ryan
> Hello
>
> I'm on Seroquel at the moment but it isn't really working. My pdoc has said that the next AP we will try is Abilify and then after that I will go to the hospital and be started on Clozapine.
>
> Does anyone have any experience with either of these drugs? I know its wrong but to be honest, I've kind of made up my mind that the Abilify won't work any better than my current drug. My pdoc was originally going to put me on Clozapine next, and she really sold it to me, saying its the best AP on the market, etc etc. But now she's gotten hold of this new drug Abilify and she wants to try that.
>
> Anyway if anyone can give me any info on either drug, I'd be very grateful.
>
> Cheers :) xx
Posted by Tom G on December 3, 2004, at 20:22:28
In reply to Re: ABILIFY or CLOZAPINE? which is best?, posted by abstract on December 3, 2004, at 19:31:16
Is warm and fuzzy good or bad? I'm confused here. I'm about to switch from Geodon to Abilify and am wondering how much I should start with. I take a micro dose of Geodon 20mg. I tried Abilify over a year ago at a starting dose of 15mgs and it gave me akathisia. I'm thinking of starting at 5mgs Abilify.
Posted by Sebastian on December 5, 2004, at 18:38:47
In reply to Re: ABILIFY or CLOZAPINE? which is best? » abstract, posted by Tom G on December 3, 2004, at 20:22:28
I always like to start any drug at a small dose and work up. I take zyprexa, and I'm feeling like asking for abilify to go with a lower dose of zyprexa. I like ryans idea about taking every 3 days. I tried abilify once before with mixed results. It did nothing for anxiety. Great energy. And yes if I took it every day, it got too much, every 3 days.
Clozapine, I belive is supost to be the strongest AP on the marked, so strong they only prescribe it when you go to the hospital. It is also supposed to have a bad side-effect, which is the real reason they start it in hospital, they will worn you first. I tried it once in hospital, I think it was the one that made me swallow continuously, till I stoped it, that is probably the side-effect. So try it.
Posted by pretty_paints on December 7, 2004, at 18:47:33
In reply to Re: ABILIFY or CLOZAPINE? which is best?, posted by Sebastian on December 5, 2004, at 18:38:47
Hiya, thanks for all your replies. My email didnt notify me of them so I didnt think anyone had replied!
Ed_Uk, things arent very clear at the mo. I left Uni in January this year with depression, I really was very bad and had a breakdown of sorts. I was too ill to tell my doc about the sort of things I was thinking, so for about 6 months we jiggled around with antidepressants. Then when I was on Efexor and Mirtazapine. I got a bit better and started to talk more, and then all my thoughts started surfacing. I thought something evil had happened in my life and I believed my mum was covering it up, and that she was out to get me. I thought the docs and people were all in on it, and I got very distressed and scared. I felt out of control and didnt really know what was going on. I was convinced everyone knew about my life and that I was being punished for some small wrong-doing years ago. Blah blah blah, more of that. But while I thought all these things were true, I didnt see any point in mentioning them to the doc because as far as I was concerned, there was nothing wrong about them. Then I went into hospital and went on Risperidone, and then more and more thoughts started coming out into the open.
Anyway, as things stand now, it turns out that I might have schizophrenia, might not. Doc has explained that it could be because we actually have worked out that my thoughts started going wrong a long time before this January. When I was at Uni, I used to sleep in college and I could never relax in my room because i believed all the tutors were watching me through little video cameras. And every time I went and had a supervision, I had to try and get everything out of my head because I thought that everything which was in my head, they could read. So every time I went to see the Priest at the college, it would be awful coz he'd know (i thought) about every bad thing id done in my life.
Things had just gone downhill for a few years, basically since I finished GCSEs I think. But it was so gradual that no-one, and definately not me, really noticed.
However I dont think I hear voices. So that is why there is no clear diagnosis for me yet. Doc has said she will put down "psychotic illness" for now. So who knows. I guess we just have to see how things pan it.
Personally, although it may sound odd, for me it is a relief. To think that actually there has been something wrong with my thoughts, that its not my fault im in such a mess, that's a relief to me. I did a lot of weird things over the last few years. Lots of little things that, well they dont really seem completely weird, just a little skued (sp?). Like, I believed people wore "clothes" to display to the outside world different parts of your life, or your personality. Like underwear would represent your early life, blah blah blah. And even though its not totally weird, it still used to take me bloomin HOURS to get dressed every day, coz I'd be there sat on the floor analysing different combinations of clothes and what they all represented. And obviously I recognised this as 'not right', but I thought it was just my own fault. But now that I see that there was something not quite 100% about my thinking, it makes me think, ok, it's not my fault. Ok, there's a problem there, but there are ways to fix the problem, like APs.
Anyway look how I have jabbered on!! Its good to see you are from the UK Ed, things seem so different here than from the US don't they! What are you dealing with at the moment, if you dont mind me asking?
I've been at a bit of a loss tonight oweing to the lack of I'm a Celebrity - Get Me Out Of Here! Only Ed will know what I'm on about there, unless of course he has a life and doesnt sit around watching hours of reality tv shows like me! he he
Anyway night night all xxx
Posted by pretty_paints on December 7, 2004, at 19:02:39
In reply to Re: ABILIFY or CLOZAPINE? which is best?, posted by Sebastian on December 5, 2004, at 18:38:47
Hello again. Ok, I am bored, so here are a few other things on my mind.
Oh by the way can I just say, Ed_UK, you start a lot of very interesting posts! I keep seeing these big threads started by you! So keep it up, its good.
Right. I think I will ask about diagnoses. Like I said in my post before, the doc says she will think about diagnosing schizophrenia next year, as she doesnt like to give heavy diagnoses in the first year of illness. And plus of course, it may turn out that I dont have it. I suppose only time will tell. BUT, you guys may understand this better than me, can I be schizophrenic if I dont hallucinate?? I thought that was kind of the *hall mark* of schizophrenia. Are there many schizo's on this board? There's lots of chat about APs but people dont always say what for. I mean it could be anxiety, psychotic depression, OCD or whatever.
Since my first post my doc has increased my seroquel from 300mg to 750mg and actually I am feeling a LOT better. I think that is why I am interested in thinking and talking about this stuff right now. When I am ill I don't have a lot of insight and tend to think that my thoughts are fine, and that I am genuinely being punished. And it gets VERY scary. But since for now they are better, it would be good to try and pull apart the ins and outs of things.
So if anyone has had any experience with schizo or anything, it would be good to hear about it.
Thanks guys. I think i should be off to bed now :)
Posted by ed_uk on December 8, 2004, at 10:51:52
In reply to Re: ABILIFY or CLOZAPINE? which is best?, posted by pretty_paints on December 7, 2004, at 19:02:39
Hi! :-)
It's good to hear that you are feeling better on the higher dose of Seroquel. You seem to have a lot of insight into your problems and that's certainly a good sign.
I don't think that there are many people on this board with schizophrenia but there are a few people with other psychotic disorders. Depression, social phobia and bipolar disorder are probably the most common problems in the babble world.
I'm glad that your psychiatrist hasn't given you a diagnosis yet, it takes time to make an accurate diagnosis. Schizophrenia can be diagnosed in the absence of hallucinations under two circumstances....
1) if 'bizarre' delusions are present
2) or if a number of other symptoms of schizophrenia are present.There are other diagnoses apart from schizophrenia that your doctor may consider eg. schizoaffective disorder, schizotypal disorder etc.
Here is a list of your symptoms. Do you think that it is accurate? What other symptoms/problems do you have?
1. Paranoia eg. thinking that people are spying on you or are out to get you.
2. Thinking that people can read your mind (sometimes people think that their thoughts are being 'broadcasted' to other people). If you believed that this was definately true (at the time that you first thought it) it would be called a delusion, if you realised that it might not be true then it could be called an overvalued idea.
3. depression
4. 'delusional perception'.... delusional perception describes a true perception to which a person attributes a false meaning eg. special significance of somebody wearing certain clothes.
I must admit that I haven't been watching I'm a celebrity but some of my friends have, it's very popular!Perhaps you won't need to try Abilify (aripiprazole) or Clozaril (clozapine) now that you are on a higher dose of Seroquel (quetiapine). If you ever have to take Clozaril you'll have to have tonnes of blood tests!
Here is some a list of some of the symptoms of schizophrenia, don't expect to gert all of them! I took the list from the ICD (International Classification of Diseases).
(a) thought echo, thought insertion or withdrawal, and thought broadcasting;
(b) delusions of control, influence, or passivity, clearly referred to body or limb movements or specific thoughts, actions, or sensations; delusional perception;
(c) hallucinatory voices giving a running commentary on the patient's behaviour, or discussing the patient among themselves, or other types of hallucinatory voices coming from some part of the body;
(d) persistent delusions of other kinds that are culturally inappropriate and completely impossible, such as religious or political identity, or superhuman powers and abilities (e.g. being able to control the weather, or being in communication with aliens from another world);
(e) persistent hallucinations in any modality, when accompanied either by fleeting or half-formed delusions without clear affective content, or by persistent over-valued ideas, or when occurring every day for weeks or months on end;
(f) breaks or interpolations in the train of thought, resulting in incoherence or irrelevant speech, or neologisms;
(g) catatonic behaviour, such as excitement, posturing, or waxy flexibility, negativism, mutism, and stupor;
(h) "negative" symptoms such as marked apathy, paucity of speech, and blunting or incongruity of emotional responses, usually resulting in social withdrawal and lowering of social performance; it must be clear that these are not due to depression or to neuroleptic medication;
(i) a significant and consistent change in the overall quality of some aspects of personal behaviour, manifest as loss of interest, aimlessness, idleness, a self-absorbed attitude, and social withdrawal.
Regards,
Ed.
Posted by ed_uk on December 8, 2004, at 11:22:24
In reply to Re: ABILIFY or CLOZAPINE? which is best?, posted by pretty_paints on December 7, 2004, at 19:02:39
>Oh by the way can I just say, Ed_UK, you start a lot of very interesting posts! I keep seeing these big threads started by you! So keep it up, its good.
Thank you for your kindness :-)
Ed x
This is the end of the thread.
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