Anyone have experience with Latuda?

I was wondering if anyone has used Latuda and has it helped? My pdoc wants to switch me from geodon to latuda because of my bipolar depression. Does it cause sexual dysfunction or weight gain? Because geodon caused neither.

Hi bpenniman! I was on Latuda for about 4 months on doses from 40 - 120mg a day. To be honest I did not notice any improvement in my depressed or mixed states. A month after the mixed state ended I fell into a deep depression and it did not help at al. And yes, I had much lower libido. On the plus side I actually began to lose weight, mostly because i was no longer taking Olanzapine at that point. Back on it temporarily now but will get off the olanzapine asap.

So sorry, no good news hear but everone is different and i have heard great reports. Good Luck

Latuda has felt like a lifesaver for me.

It has helped with severe depression and dissociation. My depression has been very resistant to treatment.

Having been on 40 mg per day for 4-5 months has been very helpful. I have recently bottomed out again and raised the dose to 60 mg., which gives me a sedation side-effect.

I also sweat heavily on Latuda. It's even worse with exercise, I drink lots of water during/after exercise to avoid dehydration, as the sweating is profuse.

Latuda did not affect libido and I experienced weight gain only the first month.

Read up on possible side-effects.
Also look into drug coverage. Latuda can be cost-prohibitive. I totally disagree with the cost of Latuda (and although I find it very helpful, I think a long boycott is in order for Latuda).


WC

For me I was fine for the first week of being on latuda. But then I got really bad akathasia. Had to stop it as congentin and other meds to help with akathisia didn't really work.

But others have done great on it. I hope you do. Good luck with it.

Latuda sucked for me. I was on geodon beforehand and switched to it. At the end I was taking 160 mg and I was still depressed. To beat it all I was really psychotic and paranoid asf. I went back on geodon and the psychosis and paranoia went away.

Instead of switching maybe you could ask your pdoc about a supplement you could take. My pdoc is all about supplements now. The one I've had the most success with for depression was saffron. This is what my pdoc wrote about it. Saffron Brochure

There's a lot of other supplements that can work too. Like fish oil, 5-HTP, dopa munca, SAM-e.

If the geodon is working, personally I wouldn't change it. I am so mad I switched. Lost 4 months of my life I can't get back.

It made me restless and couldn't sit still. Did the same thing to several friends, therefore not good for anxious depression.

I've been on it for nearly three years and have had no real noticeable side effects. I feel it has been what has kept me stable and able to hold down a job the past two years. It has been a godsend for me.

It's been good for me. Helped pull me out of a suicidal depression and get back to normal functioning.

No weight gain or sexual side effects. Been on it for a year now.

I ended up with a rash and they couldn't decide if Latuda or Risperdal caused it. I don't recall Latuda causing anything bad for me but if it caused that rash it was horrible. I was switched from Latuda to Geodon. Good luck with your med switch.

I've been on Latuda for 1.5 years and it was my turnaround drug. It's the only RX that has managed my irritability, and it has alleviated the depressed states although it hasn't eliminated it entirely. It has also helped me to start a period of relative stability, although I will still experience mixed states about 3x per year.

If you have medical insurance, there is a program that will lower your co-pay to $15. Be sure to get that your information from your p-doc's office, I didn't get that info for nearly a year!

When I went on it, I dropped a lot of weight because it worked as an appetite suppressant. I couldn't bring myself to eat, it took my body about six months to adjust.

You sound reluctant to switch. I don't have any experience with Geodon, but Latuda helped me manage my depressive states better. I don't think that there is a medicine out there that will completely eliminate depressive states although Latuda has helped me greatly in that regards.

Good luck with whatever you decide! It took about 4 weeks to fully kick in.

RE: Latuda Offer/Coverage:

The Latuda offer is easily found on the internet. Latuda® (lurasidone HCl) for Bipolar Depression.

The Latuda offer reads "You may be eligible to pay as little as $15.00 co-pay per month..." and is not any guarantee people can receive Latuda for that low price. I use this offer/coupon and insurance coverage and my and my co-pay remains close to $500.00 per month.

Please check your coverage for Latuda before starting it.

My co-pay with insurance, without the Latuda coupon is: $2,000.00 per month. The coupon/offer brings this co-pay to close to $500.00 per month.
$2,000.00 for #30 tabs, with insurance.

My pharmacists and I have figured out Latuda is priced by # tablets, not by milligrams/strength. Thus if you use 40 mg, it's cheaper to have this prescribed as 40 mg tabs, #30 tabs. If prescribed as 20 mg tabs, #60 tabs, the price doubles for the same daily dosage total of 40mg.

Why do I continue Latuda?
If I had a choice, I would boycott Latuda and use a different drug. It's price is unethical. My severe depression does not respond to any other drug. I may have to stop taking it because the cost is outrageous. Currently, my doctors are all trying to gather as many samples as possible in order to help to bring my monthly price lower.

If there was an organized boycott for Latuda, I would definitely stop taking it, which means I am willing to put my life on the line to help the community to win reasonable access to this med.

Please do check your coverage prior to starting down the Latuda path.


WC

I started Latuda at the beginning of the month in IP. My pdoc gave me that $15 copay coupon and it brought the cost down from $1000 to $474. The hospital pharmacy gave me a voucher for a free 28 day supply and it will run out soon. I feel like this is the only med that has helped me without side effects, although I could probably benefit from a higher dose at this point. I am still waiting to see a pdoc so I will be off meds awhile. I would like to continue to take Latuda, but I know I can't afford it.

I had to get my insurance to approve me taking Latuda, mainly after running through all the other APs they offer. I take 60mg and it caused restlessness, but my pdoc added Artane and it seems to be better. My depression is down and I'm starting to become more functional.

I do agree that the price is too much for some. With my insurance I would pay around 200 a month for it. Luckily I get several months worth of free samples from my psych nurse practitioner when I see her 4- 6 times a year. If I had to pay more than 200 I definitely would have to look into something else.

Oh wow I feel terrible for all of you that have to pay so much for this drug!! I pay $15 a month with the discount card.

I have not experienced weight gain on it. It has lessened my libido and made sex not quite as pleasurable as before. The only other thing is that it made me super irritable for a couple weeks or so in the beginning. It's really helped my depression though.

Latuda is my life saver too. At first it did cause some restlessness and agitation but I changed it to bedtime and by the time I woke up the side effect was gone. After a few months the side effects wore off. It had no other side effect. I've been on 80 mg now for close to two years and have been stable for all that time.

what makes it so much better than other antipsychotics?

Great question!

I can only report Latuda has saved my life.
It helps my severe and chronic depression.
It also helps my dissociation (c-PTSD).

My pdoc had no more meds available to prescribe. We had tried them all, over and over again. We had been trying to find someone to do ketamine treatment when we'd stumbled upon Latuda as a potential option.

Nothing has ever worked as well as Latuda.

That said, I disagree with the pricing. The cost is prohibitive. I feel Latuda should be available to more people -- to anyone benefitting from it.


WC

I don't know what makes Latuda better, but it has been an excellent medication for me. Helped decrease a severe depression.

Yikes. I feel terrible for everyone who has a much higher co-pay.

Not sure how reliable this thread is but it makes a reference to latuda going generic in 2018:
Latuda will be generic in 2018 as planned | Cafepharma Message Boards

This is terrible! I hope it does go generic!

It'll go generic, although there are things the pharma company can do to extend patent protection for six months longer. We'll see if the 2018 date holds.

Latuda is the reason I chose a different insurance plan for next year. With my current high deductible plan, Latuda is $1,000/month. That's about $33 per pill. With my new insurance plan, it should be $15-30/month, and I should be able to get a 90-day supply for the cost of two copays.

Yes the price is ridiculously high. That being said, I work in the biopharm industry, and there are reasons that brand drugs cost what they do. The main one is the company has to recoup the cost of R&D, which is fantastically high. From discovery to drug launch, there are approximately 10,000 molecules researched for every 1 drug that hits the market. None of those other 9,999 make any money for the company, yet there are costs involved in finding the right one that works with the minimum amount of side effects.

The other cost is that of commercializing a drug. At present, it takes about $1.3 Billion dollars to get a drug to market. A massive fraction of that cost is jumping through hoops to get FDA approval.

That's just the way it is, folks. If we want new and better medications and want companies to keep up the research, somebody has to pay. That burden falls on you and your insurance company.

It worked for some symptoms, but not for others, and it was causing weight gain in me. Now I'm on Geodon and so far it's the only antipsychotic that's working for me. Everyone is different though, so Latuda may work for you, I'd give it a try.

I've been on Latuda for almost 5 years now. It does cause me akathisia but 80mg of propranolol eliminates that. And I take other meds for depression (Lamictal, Wellbutrin) so I guess I would say Latuda's not great if you're afraid of polypharmacy. On the other hand I've been completely stable with no side effects to deal with. I fought hard this year when my insurance quit subsidizing it. My company backed me up and I ended up back to a $25 co-pay. I would never go off Latuda as long as I could possibly afford it.

To BioChe:
Before you defend the pharmaceutical industry prices given the cost of R&D and getting a drug to market you should be aware that Big Pharma has higher profit margins than any other industry. Turns out they're not making drugs for us out of the goodness of their heart.
And also they don't have to start from scratch developing all of these Me-too drugs. And besides their own research they also use research done at universities and by the government. All too often lately they just buy up another small company who has done the R&D and then jack up the price.