Anyone’s loved one have success with positive symptoms? Disorganized thinking? Suicidal thoughts?
2 Likes
Lots of success, took time though for the full effect to be seen. Read my threads and I go through the improvements which were significant and rewarding to say the least. My son has been on Clozaril for over a decade and is doing well with it. He hasn’t had any voices, delusions or suicidal thoughts in many years.
3 Likes
My daughter has had great success. It does take time for the full effect to be realized. She was 17 when she started, by 19 we were seeing big improvements. Now, at 22, she has earned her GED, holds down a successful sales job, and is learning to drive. She still struggles with significant anxiety and rare break-through symptoms. Otherwise, she is easy to live with, has a great sense of humor, and is obsessed with playing and selling guitars. After all the antipsychotics we tried, clozaril has been a miracle drug.
5 Likes
According to several studies, Clozaril, generic called Clozapine is rated as the #1 most effective anti-psychotic drug for SZ and related disorders today.
However, it is often not a ‘first line/choice of therapy’ for two reasons. Again, not my research but quoting from numerous sources, Clozapine is often not the first drug tried, despite the higher success rate, because (a) it’s available as a generic and the pharma companies are pushing other proprietary anti-psychotics where margins can be 10 fold, and (b) because it introduces a heightened concern on white blood cells (wbc) which necessitates routine and ongoing labs to ensure safe wbc levels.
Further, many SZ patients are on layers of anti psychotics. Our son has been on Quitiapene for 10 years, but after a recent, horrific episodic break, was also put on Prolixin (injectable) a few months ago but was still having persistent delusions. So, his Doc just added Clozapine a week ago which seems (it’s EARLY!!) to be helping.
Lord help us all understand these antipsychotics, anti-depressants, mood stabilizers, and related therapies. They all have interactions with each other. AND there are known genetic variations and other bio markers that seem to indicate some patients won’t do well with one or more (see MTHFR Gene Mutation: Understanding Symptoms, Treatments, and Diagnosis ). Truly a 3-layer jigsaw puzzle being completed during an earthquake!!!
We’ll let you know how it goes.
1 Like
Yes my grandson is working full time making friends took about a year and then more time for him to branch out on his own. Very thankful he has a life
2 Likes
Polypharmacy is more the rule than the exception. I’v been on meds for the last 3 decades. in 1997 I got on the antipsychotic Clopixol depo. before that I’d been on risperidole and olansapine that both stopped working after one year. In 1998 I got Clozapine 600 mg added to the clopixol. This stopped any kind of psychotic thoughts but but the side effects were to harsh so I quit the clozapine. In 2004 I got Geodon added to the clopixol and that improved my mental state alot. Then in 2012 I got qutiapine added and that made it possible to lower the dose of clopixol and Geodon so that I al in al had fewer side effects on the meds and zero positives.
today I’m on
500 mg Clopixol every 3 week
160 mg Geodon by mouth
and 600 mg Seroquel
and 2 pills for side effects
The reason I choosed to write is because I’v got a mother who’s also medicated for schizophrenia.
1 Like