[Moose72]

.... But not bipolar. I looked on their site. I guess my symptoms cross over both which is why my Pdoc put me on it? Still no side effects at Day 5 but I'm still on Zoloft. Decreasing that on Wednesday.

[Moose72]

I'm so excited to get off Zyprexa- as long as I'm not trading one set of bad side effects for another. My Pdoc keeps singing Rexulti's praises.

[*Laurie*]

Rexulti sure doesn't have great patient reviews.

[Moose72]

So far I'm not having any bad side effects like so many other atypicals I've tried. I'll have to wait till I'm off zyprexa a while to see if my cholesterol improves.

[Moose72]

Originally Posted by LauraBeth

Rexulti sure doesn't have great patient reviews.

I hope this is just because people tend to only complain online rather than make positive reviews.

[BeyondtheRainbow]

My pdoc told me rexulti has a slightly unusual story. Instead of just changing Abilify a bit they looked at what abilify didn't do that they wanted it to and then figured out how to tweak abilify to make that happen. So it's closer to a new drug than some 2nd generation drugs are.I've not been on it and haven't asked her about it since it was newly out but she thought it had a lot of potential. (She's a pharmacist as well as a pdoc so she really understands how and why meds work and for what).

[~Christina]

Based off the professional literature it seems to have the same soup of side effects that seemingly all psych meds have.

I hope this will be a great med for you.

[Moose72]

Originally Posted by BeyondtheRainbow

My pdoc told me rexulti has a slightly unusual story. Instead of just changing Abilify a bit they looked at what abilify didn't do that they wanted it to and then figured out how to tweak abilify to make that happen. So it's closer to a new drug than some 2nd generation drugs are.I've not been on it and haven't asked her about it since it was newly out but she thought it had a lot of potential. (She's a pharmacist as well as a pdoc so she really understands how and why meds work and for what).

That's what my Pdoc was saying. It's like a better version of Abilify (which I can't take). And there doesn't seem to be as much of an issue with weight gain and blood sugar issues- both which zyprexa have done to me big time. Only time and blood tests will tell but I'm optimistic. It's only been 5 days but I'm not feeling any side effects at all. So many other atypicals gave me freakish side effects that I just couldn't deal. I don't have many more drugs to take as my dr doesn't want me on typical and we've gone through most of the atypicals.

[BeyondtheRainbow]

Understand. I've been there. I ran out of atypicals last year (have a few I can't afford but they would need to be in combination with another AP) and I've had big problems on typicals so I wound up on clozaril which works great but is side-effecty and requires a lot of labs. In fact I've got 2 more and then I finally get to go to monthly labs which is so exciting! My cholesterol came way down after I came off high-dose Seroqeul last year; that wasn't why we stopped but it was a nice benefit.

[Moose72]

Originally Posted by BeyondtheRainbow

Understand. I've been there. I ran out of atypicals last year (have a few I can't afford but they would need to be in combination with another AP) and I've had big problems on typicals so I wound up on clozaril which works great but is side-effecty and requires a lot of labs. In fact I've got 2 more and then I finally get to go to monthly labs which is so exciting! My cholesterol came way down after I came off high-dose Seroqeul last year; that wasn't why we stopped but it was a nice benefit.

Labs = ugh. I go a lot because I'm on blood thinners. Never heard of clozaril. Maybe Pdoc thinks it's a last resort med? Speaking of affording meds some are very expensive. My insurance paid $1152.xx for thirty Rexulti. I'm glad they paid. I know they see much more expensive meds but that seemed expensive to me.

[BeyondtheRainbow]

Clozaril is a last-resort med; it's not supposed to be used until everything else has been because of a rare side effect where white blood cells drop off and an infection can be fatal. It's a lot less risky than they thought initially (and a very effective drug) but you have to have 6 months of weekly labs, then every 2 weeks for 6 months, then montly as long as you're on it. And the side effects are hard.....weight gain is supposed to be worse than zyprexa (although I've only gained 10-15 lbs on it in a year so could be worse), serious sedation (constant battle for me), drooling like you wouldn't believe at night, nighttime incontinence sometimes. But it WORKS and nothing else did for me (it is my 70th cocktail, not including dose changes). So I am happy to have it.

There was a time I was getting Seroquel through patient assistance and if if the cost I found online was right they were giving me about $40,000 of meds per year. It was so weird that the most valuable thing I owned was this bottle of pills. Med costs are ridiculous. I can't get name brands because my Medicare doesn't pay for them at a rate I can afford so I'm stuck with generics. Which is fine since clozaril is generic anyway. We would have tried a few more name brands before clozaril if that had been an option but it wasn't extremely likely to be my solution at that point anyway.

[Moose72]

How high was your cholesterol? Mine is 700+

[BeyondtheRainbow]

I don't remember but not even remotely close to that. I have super high good cholesterol which has kept me off meds for it while on Seroquel and after Seroquel I didn't qualify for meds at all even from the bad numbers so now I'm actually in really good shape with cholesterol after being borderline for a long time (my dr would tell me to watch my diet (which is good in terms of cholesterol anyway) for 6 months and we'd re-check and decide on meds and I always stayed just borderline enough to be off meds. Now I'm not borderline. Unless something has changed in the last few months.

[Moose72]

I'm on a statin. Stupid zyprexa.

[BeyondtheRainbow]

Hope things come way down really fast for you!

[Moose72]

Originally Posted by BeyondtheRainbow

Hope things come way down really fast for you!

Thanks! I do too.

Originally Posted by Moose72

Labs = ugh. I go a lot because I'm on blood thinners. Never heard of clozaril. Maybe Pdoc thinks it's a last resort med? Speaking of affording meds some are very expensive. My insurance paid $1152.xx for thirty Rexulti. I'm glad they paid. I know they see much more expensive meds but that seemed expensive to me.

Is the $1152 the cost of the med, or do you have to pay some money out of pocket?

I hate how big pharma likes to screw people over with ridiculous pricing

Best of luck, tho! Hope it works out.

[Moose72]

Originally Posted by bluebicycle

Is the $1152 the cost of the med, or do you have to pay some money out of pocket?

I hate how big pharma likes to screw people over with ridiculous pricing

Best of luck, tho! Hope it works out.

That is how much "my insurance saved me". I owed nothing. Thank goodness.

Thank you- me too. Crossing all fingers and toes.

[*Laurie*]

Moose72, I hope the Rexulti works well for you. It certainly sounds like a med with good potential.

[Moose72]

When I search for bipolar and Rexulti all I find are the threads I've started here about it! Are there no articles about this?