Tremendous Appetite - cause?

Over the past couple of weeks, my appetite has been out of the roof!

Changes over the past few weeks: switch to mania, and added: 10 mg saphris, 2.5 mg klonopin and 60 mg geodon.

I've read that saphris is weight neutral. I've also read that just being in mania can cause appetite increase. I'd already been on 40 mg geodon, and that didn't seem to affect my appetite. Which is the likely culprit, saphris or mood change?

[Don't see my pdoc until next week, and I can't get straight answer through his secretary.]

Thanks for any input!

Saphris weight gain varies widely as far as I can tell. When I was on it, I was hungry all of the time and I ate like a pig, but I never gained any weight. When my daughter-in-law was on it, she also ate like a pig, but she put on 30 lbs. in no time at all.

We're both off of Saphris now for other reasons. It is some evil *****.

OK, I bet it's the saphris then. I asked my pdoc if I could reduce saphris once I went up to 50 mg lamictal this Saturday. If I was him, I'd say no and to wait until up to at least 100 mgs (which will be 8/13). Maybe I better just deal with the appetite and accept I'll have to wait until I'm on closer to theapeutic dose of lamictal. :-(

For me I eat more when I'm depressed and less when I'm manic (that's just me.) But, when I'm depressed and eating more I am hungry constantly and can't seem to get full. It could possibly the same for you, except in reverse (since you eat more when manic.)

Right now I'm on 300 mg of lithium only and it's spotty since I forget to take my meds a lot.

Faerie moon, interesting how we're all so different chemically.

Ironically (since I posted this today), I seem to be having a more depressive day. My appetite is nowhere near what's it's been the past 2 weeks so far. Maybe saphris isn't the culprit after all.

Huge change in mood, in that I just feel like crawling into bed, and without even looking in the mirror I can just feel my mouth is downturned in "sad face." I hope it's only a temporary change in tide!

Also, when I'm in serious depression, I usually lose weight with no appetite.

Oh see, this is good to know. I'm sorry you're depressed today, though.

I would question why taking both Geodon and Saphris at the same time .. Both are atypical antipsychotics.

I'm waiting to hear back from pdoc today. Yesterday, the message was to stop the geodon (and maybe that's what he intended when I first started saphris but wasn't clear). I didn't stop it last night though because I just wanted him to be aware of the amount of saphris I was taking - - since he told me last week to take 1 or two depending . . .

I certainly may as well go off the geodon because it definitely wasn't helping prevent mania. Addition of saphris helped reduce it right away.

My pdoc has prescribed two atypical antipsychotics for me as well as Lamictal for mood stabilization and occasional psychotic features. He's an awesome psychiatrist and knows what he is doing...but all of us are different, of course. My bipolar 1 has been classified as "severe" - I need a lot of meds to stay....well, alive. I didn't have appetite increase with Geodon but have no experience with Saphris. A lot of us experience reduced appetite with mania - but some people do experience a huge appetite increase on upswings. I recall Kay Redfield Jamison writing about her insatiable appetite during mania in her book, An Unquiet Mind. PMS increases my appetite, too. I hope things level out for you soon. Take care...