Haldol

I met my new pdoc today. She's really nice, but I think she picked up on my "hypomania" right off the bat. She said something along the lines of "well your diagnosis seems very clear...". Anyway, after explaining how I still go manic on all these meds and how I hate Zyprexa, she suggested I try Haldol.

I know it's a bit of a hardcore AP. Does anyone have experience with this?

I was put on it in April because I lost my insurance so I couldn’t afford rexulti anymore. I’ve tried all of the AAPs except fanapt and saphris which I also couldn’t afford. So haldol it was. I don’t have any side effects from it. I had a bit of akathesia in the beginning and a slight tremor but that’s gone now. It stopped my paranoia within the first day of taking it. It doesn’t sedate me or make me feel loopy. I actually really like it. I’m trying to get off of it only because I know the risk of TD is higher if you use it long term. I’d like to have it as a prn med. I just dropped down to 5mg but I’m starting to get depressed so I might not be able to go off of it at this time.

Only used it as a PRN injection in an ambulance a couple times--pretty effective.

I just switched from 10 mg to 5 mg. I was put on it for psychosis. That's gone away hence the reduction. I like it. I had tremors with it though at 10 mg.

I actually like Haldol. does me good!

I had a shot of it in the ER. It instantly made my body rigid and gave me the worst panic attack I have ever had. They gave me benadryl to reverse the effects and a whole lot of IV ativan

That's what I'm scared of. Zyprexa gives me massive anxiety when it kicks in. I don't want this to be even worse!

Similar to a couple of other posters above, I've only had Haldol as emergency injections during severe psychotic manias. I recall it being helpful and not giving me any side effects I remember.


I have taken a couple of other 1st generation antipsychotics (Navane/aka thiothixene and Trilafon/aska perphanazine), but longer term. Both were quite helpful with the manic side of my illness, but I did eventually have side effects that led my psychiatrist to wean me off of them (dystonia with Navane and weight gain with Trilafon). I've heard some people say good things about taking Haldol and Trilafon long-term.

Similar to a couple of other posters above, I've only had Haldol as emergency injections during severe psychotic manias. I recall it being helpful and not giving me any side effects I remember.

I have taken a couple of other 1st generation antipsychotics (Navane/aka thiothixene and Trilafon/aka perphanazine), but longer term. Both were quite helpful with the manic side of my illness (especially Trilafon) with low sedation, but I did eventually have side effects that led my psychiatrist to wean me off of them (dystonia with Navane and weight gain with Trilafon). I've heard some people say good things about taking Haldol and Trilafon long-term.

I was recently in the hospital for 3 months. They tried me on multiple medications. The only thing that worked was the haldol. It's my miracle drug.

i couldn't tolerate it, even with benadryl and ativan. just...not happening. it was in a hospital, though...maybe the dose was excessive?

long term it does have an unusually high rate of tardive dyskinesia. i read somewhere that antioxidants, b-vitamins can help reduce td risk...that's why I take so many antioxidants and b-vitamins. 8-9 years into full dose treatment w/ Abilfy...no tics, no eps, no td. I would think it'd help with haloperidol treatment, too.

a big reason Haldol has a bad reputation is that it was standard practice to use 20mgs+ for a while there, even in outpatients...so, of course, that a) made Haldol look like an evil drug and b) when the 1st round of atypicals came out, it made those drugs look like miracles. when used at reasonable doses, Haldol is neither amazing nor horrible; just...another option, for some people.

another drug that has similar potency is Stelazine. its still around, not used that much, but...I thought I"d mention it, because I think it is equivalent, mg per mg to Haldol, but it doesn't have the same metabolites...some of Haloperidol's metabolites might explain its high TD risk...so there ya go. akathisia, Parksinonsim, tremor, etc. would still be potential issues, because its an older, high potency tranquilizer.

hope this helps.