New meds again..

I saw my pdoc yesterday and I'll be starting new meds. Tegretol and cogentin for the restlessness. Anyone try these. I also am taking lithium and abilify. I hope this will work this time. I'm really tired of trying new meds. But would like to hear your exprience with these two.

Hi Anika:

I'm sorry I'm not familiar with the two new meds of yours. But I feel your pain, I hate trying new meds too. I've had so many bad reactions it's not even funny.

Hopefully someone here can give you some guidance.

Dear Anika & aqua man,

Oh, yes, the dreaded N e w M e d s!

And what I really hate is when something doesn't work and you stop them but have to wait for the failed drug to get out of your system befoe trying another. I always end up feeling worst than bfr I started.

WoW. Can you tell I'm in the grip of N e w M e d S y n d r o m e?

Abilify FAILED me badly, kept me At Attention for days!

THANK YOU for bringing this subject up.. Isn't there a better way? Must we be the testees now? Couldn't there be a computer model, especially for those of us with a history of drug side effects?

I wish there was a better way than an experiment. Ive tried so many already, I always seem to get a lot of side effects and the drugs so far never help much. I just get hoping that the new drug will be it. The abilify hasn't helped my psychosis much. I'm still having hallucinations. I'm really hoping the Tegretol will help stabilize my mood.

I had akathisia from Abilify and instead of cogentin we went with propranolol. It is working quite well. I also just had a med change. Dropped Cymbalta and Trazodone and two weeks later (wash out period required) started Emsam, an MAOI transdermal patch.

I hope they work for you, I've heard of tegretol but I've no personal experience with it.

Cogentin does help with restlessness, but one thing I noticed it has caused was really dry mouth, but it does help with the restlessness that goes along with antipsychotics.

I had a bad reaction to Tegretal, but that in no way means you will.

What was your bad reaction? Just curious.

Thanks guys. I'm really hoping this works this time.

I was on Tegretol for a year,it w0rked well for me, i only dropped it coz i lost my health insurance. I hope it helps you...

It made me really, really nauseous because it gave me double vision and made me very dizzy. I remember crawling into the bathroom to get sick.

That was MY reaction. It doesn't mean anyone else will get that reaction.