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Old Dec 31, 2018, 06:27 PM
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BeyondtheRainbow BeyondtheRainbow is offline
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Member Since: Apr 2015
Location: US
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(please note there is an answer in dark green in the quote box as well as an answer in the white part of the reply. i didn't do that well.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Blueberrybook View Post
Were you able to stop or lower the dosage of another med when you got on the clozapine?

I went off very high dose (1200-1500 mg) Seroquel when I went on clozapine. I also had to increase my gabapentin dose quite a bit with that change. Later it went down and now that I'm going off clonazepam it is up more. I can't remember if there were other changes but I think not.



Did you get any side effects from clozapine?
Clozapine is pretty side effect heavy. Initially I gained weight although I've managed to lose that and about 20 more pounds with metformin, diet and exercise. It tends to have somewhat evil effects like severe drooling at night, bed wetting and lots of labs (weekly for 6 months, every other week for 6 months then monthly while on the med) to monitor for abnormal immune effects. It makes me very tired and I sleep a lot; on a lower dose I didn't feel nearly as good although I maybe slept less. I honestly don't care about any of those because it is the first drug that worked for me but it isn't fair to say it's a great drug without being honest about the downsides. It is supposed to be used as a last resort after all other reasonable meds have been tried and that is exactly how it was used for me. I knew for a long time that I might eventually need it and then for about 6 months that if nothing changed that I would need it and then I reached a point where I obviously needed it. I'm glad to have it; I've been on 40 plus meds and 70 plus combinations and had practiically given up on anything ever working as well as this does. It's not perfect but for me it's the best we can get and I'm grateful to have it.
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Bipolar 1, PTSD, GAD, OCD.
Clozapine 250 mg, Emsam 12 mg/day patch, topamax 25 mg, ,Gabapentin 1600 mg & 100-2 PRN,. 2.5 mg clonazepam., 75 mg Seroquel and 12.5 mg PRNx2 daily