Are any of your family members [with Schizoaffective or Schizophrenia) on antidepressants? How has that or those particular SSRIs affected them? I’m considering suggesting adding an antidepressant to my fiancé’s medications, but I’m scared because I know it can be a very complex situation and reactions with people with mood disorders and schizophrenia combined… I’m worried he’ll become manic. He has Bipolar Type 1 in his Schizoaffective and that’s like the manic/psychotic/erratic episodes, but then he gets extremely depressed and suicidal. I’m really confused.
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My son was on Prozac & Zyprexa together for a number of years without a problem.
He also had good success with Lexapro for about 9 months before he was on any anti-psychotic. Then, it just kind of stopped working for him.
He’s taken Remeron on & off for years - mostly because it can help you sleep.
They’ve tried Trintillex off & on this year. I thought it helped him a little, but it wasn’t a big deal for him to stop it.
None of them have ever made him go manic, but I’ve also heard that people with Bipolar need to be very careful with anti-depressants. He could always start off on a low dose or choose one that pairs well with APs.
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Thank you. I thought of all those too. I’m going to suggest Prozac because I’ve had depression and I have autism and since he’s also autistic and has depression/bipolar, it could work well for him. I hope that it does.
My sz son had some depression in the very beginning and was on Zoloft for a few years along with the clozapine but when he needed the depakote for seizures the doctor took the zoloft away citing that not only does depakote work well with seizures but it has a “mood leveling” effect so it could take the place of the zoloft and it has worked fine now for almost 3 years.
That’s a good idea. My neurologist told me the same thing, I also take Depakote currently and have taken Zoloft in the past.
My son is taking Clozapine and a small dose of Lexapro. It didn’t seem to help much. Makes it hard to tell if the depression is getting worse from the added antidepressant or he just needs a stronger dose.
However, during a recent hospitalization, they added a patch called Scopolamine to his current medication. It was added to help with the side effect of drooling caused by the Clozapine. It has done so much more than that. He has been on it for over a week now and he has not once mentioned how bad life is. He is also cracking jokes and laughing, behaviors I’ve not seen in a very long time. He’s even watching TV. He still hears voices, but his attitude and anxiety level has improved enormously. Hopefully this medication will continue to work.
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Interesting, I’ll look into that. I’m glad to hear he’s doing better and thank you for your insight! 
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