Geodon 240 mg to 0 in 3 days!?!

Hi Everyone.

I'm actually posting this about my Mom (I've already been on and gotten off of Geodon). She had been taking Geodon for Bipolar II for about four months. For some reason, her psychiatrist had her on 80 mg three times daily, which I seem to understand is 50% more than the maximum recommended dose.

My mom was getting ready to have knee surgery in a few weeks and needed an EKG for clearance. It showed a long QTc, inverted T wave and a few other things that weren't there last time. Once we realized the Geodon was probably the culprit, My father called her psychiatrist (He is also my father's psychiatrist) and told him the situation. He said for her to ramp down over the course of 3 days to nothing.

Everything I've been seeing elsewhere online says weeks if not months to ramp down. Today she only took 80 mg and she's been in bed all day with chills and a fever (but no muscle rigidity)

What the hell can we do here? We pay this guy out of pocket because all of the in-network docs are just technicians who have been promoted from AT&T technical support. Hell, he only accepts $20 from us because we have no money.

Hello kobayashimaru: I'm sorry your mom is experiencing this difficulty. I'm afraid I would not really know what to tell you about this specifically. I'm not knowledgeable with regard to psychiatric medications in general. Tapering off over a period of 3 days, when your mom was 50% over the maximum recommended dosage, does seem to me to be astonishingly cavalier on her psychiatrist's part. The last psych med I was on, my pdoc had me taper off over the course of 2 weeks. I thought that seemed very quick, based on experiences I had read about here on PC. But, in my case, it worked for me.

My suggestion would be to simply go back to the psychiatrist, explain the situation, & ask him to write a prescription for smaller dosage pills that will allow your mom to taper off more gradually. If he will not for some reason (I don't know why he would object.) you mentioned this all got started as a result of your mom needing knee surgery. So I presume she has other doctors she sees besides this psychiatrist. I wonder about the possibility of your mom approaching, perhaps, her general practice doctor about writing her a prescription that will allow her to taper off more slowly.

One can taper oneself off of psych med's without any assistance from a doctor. I've done it multiple times. The problem comes in when the pills you're getting are in such a high dosage that you can't break them down enough to taper as gradually as you might wish. On the other hand, if each pill is a very small dosage, then it's much easier to just cut back by one pill per week, for example. Of course, I know you wrote that money is a problem for you as well. I'm afraid I don't have any suggestions to offer with regard to that. If your mom's knee surgery is being delayed because of her difficulty tapering off of the Geodon, that's a medical / surgical problem that is going to have to be addressed by her doctors.

I see this is your first post here on PC. So... to PsychCentral… from the Skeezyks! May the time you spend here be of benefit.

PsychCentral is a great place to get information as well as support for mental health issues. The more you post, & reply to other members’ posts, the more a part of the community you will become. Plus there are social groups you can join & chat rooms where you’ll be able to connect with other PC members in real time (once your first 5 posts have been reviewed & approved.) Lots of great stuff! So please keep posting!

Did he replace the geodon with another med? You can cross taper that fast....

When I experienced troubling symptoms as I tapered off Geodon, I found that 25 - 50 mg Benadryl helped ease my pain. I would recommend that you your mother discuss this with her surgeon or pharmacist first though.

All the best.