Hi all! I haven’t been here in a few weeks because things have been great with our son and I took this as an opportunity to take a break from all things schizophrenia for a while. He received his first haldol injection in March and was on 15 mg orally to build the medication in his system. His doctor said it was ok to wean off the pills so we did and he seemed okay. He’s been completely off of them for 7 days and last night he asked to take them because he felt like “his old way of thinking” was coming back and complained of noises from cars bothering him again. How many of you have loved ones that are on an injection also need it orally? Is this common? It’s disappointing if he ends up needing to stay on the pills but so thankful he had the wherewithal to let me know something was going on!
Hey,
Currently my mother is one the max invega monthly dose and I just got her daily risperdone upped to 2mg a day. The doctor has been trying to wean her off of the daily medication but unfortunately my mother really needs a high dose of anti psychotics at this time.
If a med or a med combination is working, there is nothing to be disappointed in. The search for the right med/med combo is often hit and miss, and sometimes best efforts to find a good med don’t come out as a family might want. I feel it is a great thing that your son has good enough insight to know that he also needed the pills in addition to the injection.
Hello our son is on clozapine pill form daily and abilify injection monthly as well as Luvox(pill form) - the abilify to help with motivation and cognitive improvement I know it s very much individual and trial and error for our love ones but at this moment in time we find this works for him. Good luck🙌
Hello my name is Cheryl and I am the mother of a schizophrenic son and he was just diagnosed in December of 2020. He has been on meds, but I heard about injections and just read that your son is on it too. Please tell me more about this. I might be looking into that avenue in. the future. Thanks!
@lucche58
Our son was officially diagnosed around the same time as yours. He was originally prescribed pills but was spitting them out so after his last hospitalization we had to insist that the only way he could come back home to live with us was to get the injection. He’s on 100 mg haloperidol decanoate which he gets every four weeks. He had to take 15 mg orally to build it up in his system. We saw great improvement very quickly. Then by his third injection, his doctor weaned him off the pills but shortly after being completely off of them his symptoms have started to return so he asked to start taking them again (which is huge that he was able to recognize something was wrong). I’m thinking this means he is going to have to take the pill form continuously along with the shot. But basically the shot was the only thing that brought him out of pychosis enough to gain insight into what was happening to him and basically saved his life. If your son is compliant in taking the pills the only advantage would be the convenience of not having to take them every day. In our son’s case it was essential to ensure his compliance in taking medication.
My adult son was. It worked well for him for years. After so many years he needed an adjustment. Like after 15 years.