Thanks for posting this, I was just researching this recently. My son is currently expressing his wish to GO OFF of meds, (sigh),I am hoping a reduced maintenance dose will appease him…
Good luck! The clinicians I talk to all say that the best approach with psychosis is to start higher, and the go as low as possible to minimize side effects of the medication.
This is, unfortunately, a balancing act because if you go too low the risk for relapse goes up. Its a hard balance to find for many people.
Yes, I kind of wish his pdoc had gone a little higher. He was VERY conservative, he stopped at 250 mg of clozapine. My son has stopped taking the 50 in the morning, so he is currently on 200 mg at night only. I have seen some increase of symptoms.
We see the pdoc in a couple of weeks. I will communicate with him before the appointment. I hope he can convince my son that 200mg is a good dose and that going lower is not yet advised. I would like a full year of no hospitalizations!
Thank you!
This is really useful information.