[Martina]

I'm curious how many people with Bipolar are taking an antipsychotic medication.

If you are, do you only take it during periods of crisis or mania, or do you take it continuously, 365 days a year?

Do you know if you are Bipolar I or II?

Which medication are you on?

[BlackPup]

BPII, started taking risperidal only when elevated then now taking abilify all the time. Seems to work well.

[Trippin2.0]

BPII, I take Risperdal twice daily... No m0re depressi0n voices WH00P WH00P!

[katertot]

BP1 and take Geodon daily, 80mgs. Of course, I'm also Schizoaffective.

[Amazonmom]

I take Abilify, along with lithium. lithium alone doesnt control my depression so we tried this and it works. I take it everyday and don't see myself stopping unless I want a baby, where I will be switched to Seroquel alone.

I am bipolar II.

[Miss Laura]

Serequol(Quentinpine) 50mg in the morning and 25mg in the afternoon I am BP 1

[Larfu]

BP I and I take 10mg of Abilify every day. It's like the light beer of antipsychotics.

[spunkygirl]

Originally Posted by Martina

I'm curious how many people with Bipolar are taking an antipsychotic medication.

If you are, do you only take it during periods of crisis or mania, or do you take it continuously, 365 days a year?

Do you know if you are Bipolar I or II?

Which medication are you on?

I take abilfy everyday. Along with that I take wellbutrin and ritalin. Not sure if I am Bipolar I or II.

[mgran]

Schizoaffective, bipolar type, and take seroquelXL. Not sure if you wanted to hear from a schizoaffective though.

Oh, and I'll probably be on an antipsychotic for the rest of my life.

[cybermember]

Schizoaffective; bipolar type I. Was on Geodon for 3 years, came off 1 1/2 years, now back on 4 years.

[hollowone]

i take topiramate 125 mgs twice a day, and seroquel 50 mg 3 times a day or more if i think i need it, and well butrin150 mg 3 times a day and lorazepam2 mg twice a day. frankly i feel kinda stupid, sleepy, and i think my eyes are jerky and sometimes i fall down. did i mention i cant stop crying and feel shaky? now THIS is nuts, and yes i have talked tto my DR. she told me to get a new puppy. and doubled my lorazepam....this is the first psychiatrist that has diagnosed me with bipolar...

[Moose72]

BP1 - tried abilify, riperidol, seroquel and geodon. None agreed with me. Seroquel did the last time but I got feeling like little bugs were crawling on my skin so I had to discontinue. . The others gave me bad side effects- tardiv diskinesia or just a feeling like Id eaten an atomic bomb.

[buttrfli42481]

I take abilify everyday. Not sure if BP I or II.

[SpiritRunner]

BP1, Abilify.....just started. will go from 5mg to 10 soon. And then pdoc wants to raise it further after a month....as high as 25-30 mg eventually, because of the severity of my mania.

[SunReach]

Originally Posted by Moose72

BP1 - tried abilify, riperidol, seroquel and geodon. None agreed with me. Seroquel did the last time but I got feeling like little bugs were crawling on my skin so I had to discontinue. . The others gave me bad side effects- tardiv diskinesia or just a feeling like Id eaten an atomic bomb.

I got terrible reactions to nearly every antipsychotic I tried Moose. I like the atomic bomb analogy - very accurate!

I did end up on Seroquel 100mg for quite a while but the drowsiness and a sense of confusion was getting to me...Now I'm antips-free and trying to get on with sodium valproate.

No idea BPI or II.

[Martina]

I just wish I could understand why I need them every.single.day. Even on the patient information you get with the drug, it says that it is only approved for treatment of schizophrenia and for acute treatment of manic episodes in people with bipolar disorder. It doesn't say take this drug once daily FOR THE REST OF YOUR LIFE even when you're not manic.

It's the drug that has always given me the worst side effects and my pnurse doesn't even give a d*mn. All she cares is that I'm not suicidal, but gee, if I'm sleeping 12-24 hours a day and missing work, I'm going to get fired. And last time I got fired, I BECAME SUICIDAL!

Her latest response is to switch me to yet another new antipsychotic, Saphris. She claims there's no weight gain, she claims I'll wake up in the morning, she claims there's a low instance of side effects.

Funny. On the patient information she gave me, it lists sleepiness and weight gain in the "most common side effects." It also lists high blood sugar - and she KNOWS that Zyprexa made me borderline diabetic. This one will probably do the same.

When I first came to see her, she made me take Zyprexa for about 8-9 months even though it made me gain over 75 pounds and become nearly diabetic.

I just don't know what to believe.

[greylove]

Oh.......let me weigh in here. I'm BP1 through the roof. I'm on Lamictal now ( the Lithium was absolutely intolerable). I'm on Prozac by day........Seroquel (150mgs, down from the 300mgs I was recently on) and Ambien at night. I started with Abilify but stopped as soon as I recognized the symptoms of tardive dyskenesia. Too late and not reversible. I had to educate my pdoc because it's so rare, according to what I've read........but I am in the highest risk group for it due to gender and age. I'm worsening overall not because of meds, but due to the severity of my illness. I'm very drugged at night but I welcome it.....an escape from my reality. Well, that was the long answer to your question. There is no doubt, at least for me,that I'll be on meds for the rest of my life. Bleck. Sorry. What I've been holding in so long is starting to seep out. All well wishes to you.........grey

BP II- I take Risperdal 0.25 mg 3X day

[wing]

BP1, Abilify 30 mgs daily, along with Lamictal 200 mg daily...both at night.

Originally Posted by Larfu

BP I and I take 10mg of Abilify every day. It's like the light beer of antipsychotics.

Now that was funny!

BP II
I take Seroquel XR 200 mg

[Tsunamisurfer]

BP rapid cycling & mixed. Haven't been heavily depressed in months, but spend most of my time between mildly hypomanic and very hypomanic.
Taking seroquel 25mg only when either dangerously mixed, or so wild I cant go out on the roads for safety. 25mg wastes me for 36 hours. It is the equivalent of an overnight prison cell for me. But that is no loss since I am completely dysfunctional in those situations anyway.

[Martina]

So does anyone know why the patient information with the drug says "for treatment of acute manic and mixed episodes..."

If it's only intended to treat acute crisis situations, why do we take it 365 days a year when there are serious side effects?

A lot of doctors use meds for things that are not neccessarily what the drug companies intend them for.

Sometimes the drug companies will remarket them for that purpose, sometimes not.

Example would be Topamax, which was originally an epilepsy drug, found as a fantastic migraine preventative and remarketed that way, also works very well as a mood stabilizer - I'm not sure if it's marketed that way too but a lot of Pdocs prescribe it.

Even Trazadone, which was originally an antidepressant, is prescribed a lot of times just to help with sleep.

Each Pdoc has their own reasons for prescribing what they do i guess...if you feel good then I wouldn't sweat the label so much.

[dandelioness2]

BP1. I took Abilify which gave me akathisia. I couldn't read or watch movies.

Then I took Geodon which made me sleepy all the time.

Now I am own to the joys of lithium. Which is not so bad.

[Martina]

I've just had the worst side effects from my antipsychotics. All my other (many!) medications have mild or no side effects.

Zyprexa - made me gain over 75 pounds, pushed my blood sugar so high I was technically diabetic, made me extremely drowsy all the time, even the next morning after taking it.

Abilify - I was already highly suicidal at the time, but when they switched me to Abilify I actually attempted suicide. So they took me off it.

Invega - extremely expensive if I can't get free samples (like $300-$500 a month!), made me extremely sleepy for 12-14 hours, so I had to take it with dinner (instead of bedtime like it says) if I want to wake up the next morning, and I'm a complete zombie the entire evening after dinner and can't drive anywhere.

Risperdal - I was only on it for a few weeks as the cheap alternative to Invega, but I went manic. And then switched back to my pill-happy nurse who put me back on Invega. Never tried upping the dose of the Risperdal.

Saphris - just started yesterday, it's taken under the tongue, not swallowed, and it TASTES LIKE *****!!! The taste does NOT go away for hours, even after eating and drinking and brushing your teeth. And you're not even allowed to eat or drink for 10 minutes after taking it, so that nasty taste just lingers in your mouth. Disgusting. And she promised me there's no weight gain or sleepiness - yeah, right. I read the patient insert and both of those are listed as "most common side effects"!

I just want OFF an antipsychotic, unless I'm actually in crisis or going manic.

And these are just the minor side effects - what about tardive diskenesia and neroleptic malignant syndrome and stuff like that? I've read that the longer you take an antipsychotic, the more at risk you are of the long-term, non-reversible side effects.