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bpcyclist · Jun 25, 2020 at 10:43 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by BethRags

The atypical AP's have been disastrous for me. None of them ever helped alleviate any symptoms. Seroquel, which (in a very low dose) helped my sleep also caused me to gain well over 100lbs. I started out at my natural weight of 110lbs and ended up (from Seroquel) obese with high blood pressure, pre-diabetes, and chronic pain.

Besides harming my health Seroquel (at a therapeutic dose) did not have any positive benefit for me. I'm so sorry I wasn't more assertive about stopping it. I ended up on it for 7 years.

In the distant past I had some success with Navane (thiothixene), but when I tried it again a year ago it didn't do anything one way or the other.

The most painful and stubborn symptom that has dogged me for many, many years has been the severe anxiety of dysphoric mania. Nothing, no class of medication, alleviated that anxiety. I felt entirely hopeless.

Finally, my psychiatrist came up with the idea of trying Trilafon (perphenazine). It has been the magic pill for me. It brought my anxiety down to a "normal" anxiety and has helped to quiet my mind by calming racing thoughts and images. It is probably the most overall successful med I've ever been on (I've been on at least 35 meds).

My only concern about Trilafon is that after about four months on it (a low dose of 8mg) the anxiety started to reappear. Pdoc raised the dose to 10mg, which didn't help much, so now I'm taking 12mg. I hope the 12mg will hold the anxiety in check for a long time - although I think I'm far from the maximum dose.

A mild disadvantage to Trilafon is that it doesn't induce sleep. It also causes a pretty bad hand tremor. But, no med is perfect and I'm not complaining, considering the good Trilafon is doing for me.

My pdoc is concerned about the tremor (because of TD). She wants me to add an anti-parkinsonian med...can't recall the name of it; I think it starts with "am."

Yeah, I am doing pretty well on just 8 mg so far. Glad it is working for you.