can someone help in answering these questions
is it safe to crush low doseClozapine tablets like 12mg, 25mg, 50mg or 100mg in Coffee and warm it in the coffee cup then drink it.
is it Ok to take low dose of clozapine with 30mg of Zyprexa ( Olanzapine) ?
My best advice as a mom/caretaker of a now adult son with schizophrenia that has successfully been on clozapine for the past 15 years. Don’t make up your own way to take the medications. The results can go terribly wrong and make conditions much worse.
First of all, dosages of clozapine have to be slowly increased or decreased with monitoring by a professional, it’s called titration. The effectiveness of the drug is also reliant upon the steady reliable use of it over a long period of time. It can also be affected to some degree by the amounts of nicotine of caffeine the person consumes daily.
With my son, it took about a year of regulating the dosage and getting his use of coffee and cigarettes to a more reliable amount daily to get him stabilized. All these years later, he is doing very well.
I would not crush any pill unless advised by a doctor. If the goal is for the drug to work on improving symptoms of a mental illness it is essential that the pills are taken exactly when and how the doctor prescribes and long enough for the medication to show its full effects (which can sometimes be months). I can’t stress that enough. Mixing meds should also be directed by a doctor.
Please take this important question you have asked here and ask it with a psychiatrist or a pharmacist and heed their advice for the best outcome. I wish you well.
30 mg of Olanzapine is a pretty high dose in itself and may come with metabolic issues (i.e. weight gain). As @Catherine wrote, everything must be cleared with a psychiatrist.
There is a Facebook group named Team Daniel and the Clozapine Community. Very informative. They have Saturday online group meetings also.
can you please send me information about Team Daniel meeting… how to attend?
my son is med resitant and he got better one time at a hospital setting with medium dose of Invega and 450 mg of Clozapine in 2019. when he transferred to Facility, they dropped the Invaga and he became aggressive and was back to hospital. after several months in the Hospital he was discharged with 7 different meds that was very hard to manage.
he left CALIF and came to stay with me in ARkansas in 2020, he started cutting his meds and he was hospitalized at least 4 times…
Currenlty he is taking Invega high dose + 30 mg Zyprexa but still hearing voices. doctor is thinking to increase Zyprexa by another 10 mg and I told him that I am concerned about the increase and suggested to try clozapine again and drop Zyprexa and he keeps that my son has to approve blood draw and he is refusing.
another issue that my Son keeps on counting how many pills he takes daily and does not want to take more 3 pills at night ( 20mg zyprexa + 2 pill of Lithum) and also he takes low dose of zyprexa at day time.
this is frustrating!! no improvement…
Make sure with the lithium that he gets tested for blood levels. That’s something that needs to be monitored because it can cause kidney damage – as it did with my son. IMO, the lower dose of lithium, the better. There may be alternative bipolar meds that are safer.
You will need to join the group and request a link from the admin to join the meeting on Saturdays.
I am really sorry to hear about the hardship of trying to stabilize your son on the right medications. I went through a whole lot of that at first too. The thing about the clozapine is it doesn’t work immediately; it is a slow and gradual improvement over the course of months. You didn’t mention how long he was allowed to stay on the clozapine. However, going forward, the best I could recommend, is to try to get medical guardianship for your son through the probate court, if possible, which would allow you to make the medical decisions on his behalf (even if he disagrees) including the blood tests needed for the clozapine and allowing you to interact directly with his doctors.
Honestly, my son was skeptical about the blood tests as well, but I had guardianship and pushed the issue and today (after seeing how much better he feels) he is 100% on board with the blood draws each month. It took him getting better to see the good in it. You are correct that it’s extremely frustrating especially given the state of our mental health care (or lack thereof) in the United States. I am here anytime you need to vent. I hope things improve for you and your son.