Pdoc put me on Vraylar!

I saw my pdoc this afternoon, and I'm pretty happy with the results (but not 100%).

She finally agreed that my weight gain from zyprexa was too much and that I really shouldn't gain any more weight, so she said there's this new drug that's not supposed to cause weight gain, why don't we try it. She then said it was Vraylar which is exactly what I was going to ask her to switch me to because I've done a fair amount of research myself on alternatives for zyprexa.

What makes me unhappy is that she's keeping me on zyprexa as well. Only 5mg, but that's 5mg more than none which is what I want to be on. She said we can re-evaluate next month when I see her. Maybe she thinks a dose that low won't cause weight gain, but why even bother with 5mg when a therapeutic dose for me has been 10-15mg?

At least she finally agreed me about the weight gain and I'm trying the Vraylar.

Those of you who have tried Vraylar, how was it for you? Also, take it in morning or night?

Good for you. It's great to get the meds you want to try with your pdoc.

I used to take Xyprexa too and had weight gain. It made me feel a little slow too. One great thing for me was that when I stopped it I lost weight and got my cognitive ability and memory returned.

My friend swears by Xyprexa and is very in tune with his dosage. He will adjust anywhere from 5-15mg depending on symptoms. At 15mg he carries a lot of weight 260lbs. when he can go down to 5mg he can get to 200lbs and he's 6'+. I notice a complete difference in him.

I don't know if it has anything to do with your pdocs strategy but my friend has tried to stop the Xyprexa cold turkey (to another med) in the hospital and he got so physically sick he had to go back on it.

I take Vraylar too now for over two months and am happy with it. I hope it works for you too. I hope this is a positive change for you. I love the hope a med change might bring for me.

Yeah, weight gain is my only problem with Zyprexa...but it is, unfortunately a problem. If I didn't gain weight on it, I would never even think about alternatives. I know what you mean about feeling slow. I get that feeling sometimes.

Things are different now (different situations), but when I tried to get Zyprexa weight off in the past it took months and months. No melting off for me.

I've stopped Zyprexa cold turkey to switch to another med at least twice and never had any problems, but my pdoc refused to do that which I can understand because of the number of people who would have problems with doing that. I'm hoping she'll take me off completely when I see her next month! I'm really going to fight for it/strongly advocate for myself, just like I've been doing. And I've been getting results. Slowly but surely.

I'm glad Vraylar has worked for you. I really hope it works for me! If not, pdoc will try me on Rexulti. I like that we have a plan. That makes me feel a lot better about things.

Oh, and is Vraylar a morning or nighttime drug?

I can take Vraylar anytime of day and not be sleepy from it at all so I just take it in the morning with my Prozac and fish oil.

I think when I first started taking Vraylar I would wait two hours to get to sleep so I played with the time I took it and discovered I feel better taking it in the morning.

I like nighttime meds better (and have a number of them). Easier to remember. Although I have 2 morning meds right now so I guess it doesn't really matter lol. And I'm pretty good at remembering them. If I forget I always remember by 11am which is good because if I take my wellbutrin after that I'll have trouble sleeping that night. I'll try it tomorrow morning and we'll see what happens. Hopefully it doesn't make me pass out because I have places to be and people t see tomorrow!

But this actually reminded me to edit my med information on my phone (I have a list in a notepad app to make it easy when I go to medical appointments/urgent care or anything like that. I have the names, the dosage, and when I take it listed).

Just took my first dose. Will update later on how it's going.

I'm really loving Vraylar. I've been on it for just over 6 weeks now. It totally pulled me out of a fairly deep depression. I'm only taking 1.5 mg, which is the smallest dose. I take it in the morning, and as I said on the previous thread about Vraylar, I've found that if I take it in the morning then it makes me super sleepy about one and a half to two hours after taking it. The sleepiness lasts about 30 minutes. However, if I take it at night, I wake up about 3 hours after taking it and can't go back to sleep. So, I just plan for the sleepiness in the morning. You may have to play with it to see how it affects you in regards to sleepiness.

I haven't had any weight gain on it, in fact, no side effects except the sleepiness that I just spoke of.

Vraylar has a really long half life and builds up in your body pretty quickly. I'm starting to get a bit more elevated in mood than I like, so my pdoc is considering having me pulse Vraylar - like 4 days on, two off or something like that. He's thinking that it's building up to too high of a level in my system and pulsing it might keep it from building up too much and still give me the benefits that I've been seeing. My pdoc had me lower another med first, to see if that helps without changing my Vraylar dose.

Thanks for your experience.

I took it about an hour ago and nothing so far other than my regular amount of tired in the morning. Maybe a little nausea, but that could also be caused by hunger.

Okay...so morning time taking is a no-go for me. I got really nauseous and the nausea has lasted all day, plus it made me super spacey...like super! I went to Target, bought some toilet paper, but forgot to take the bag! Didn't realize it until I was almost home!!

I'll see how the rest of the day goes, but it's also made me tired. Not in the regular way, in a medication induced way. I'm about to nap because I can barely keep my eyes open.

Yeah, when I said sleepiness, I meant "oh my gosh, can't keep my eyes open, and I'm going to fall asleep right here and now." Once I gave in to that, it only lasted about half an hour. So, I take it SUPER early in the morning - like 4 am, and then go back to bed and sleep through the sleepiness. When I wake up again at 6:30, I'm fine. But, I tend to have weird reactions to meds, so....

Mine lasted for quite a long time, and I just woke up from a nap both because I had a headcache, I was just straight up tired, but also because I couldn't keep my eyes open.

Okay, so I just took it with the rest of my nighttime meds and here's hoping that if I get any side effects, I sleep through them! If I feel sick in the morning though...that's trouble. Will update in the AM if I remember before work.

My plan didn't work. I'm still nauseous as hell...but maybe the spaceyness won't be around? I feel a little spacey, but I also just woke up.

Hoping the nausea fades for you! This is one of the few meds that didn't make me nauseated.

Boy am I glad that I saw this!

My pdoc also put me on Vraylar 1.5 mg. He said that a couple of patients lost weight on it and that they can think more clearly. I lost 30 lbs due to depression and IBS, and he had put me on Zyprexa. I gained 50 lbs on it. I don't really get worried about the number on the scale but I hate what it has done to my waist. Plus my clothes are too tight. I've only taken it for not even two weeks yet and I don't notice anything different. I guess it takes time. Meanwhile I need to start some sort of exercise regimen and cut out junk.

The nausea didn't last all day. Just a few hours. And the spaceyness went away too. I'm definitely going to make this a night med because it worked better for my body.

Took it last night and nothing today! No nausea, no spaceyness...just the usual need some coffee to wake up-ness I really hope that this works out for me!

Nausea has been a big issue with me. I took it with food last night and that helped, but I'm still nauseous this morning. Hopefully that side effect will go away. I've been on it for about a week and other than the nausea, so far so good. No change in my mood which is a great thing, no food cravings, nothing really.

Woohoo! Almost no nausea at all this morning! I woke up, ate a fruit snack, took my morning meds and drank some water then went back to bed (it was really early, before 7am). Now it's 9am and I'm feeling pretty good.

I go up to 3mg tonight. I'm hoping it doesn't have the horrible nausea side effect like I had starting on the 1.5mg. I'm about to go take it, so we'll see!

i've been on vraylar for a few weeks now and i'm really starting to like it. it's helping with my moods a lot. but when i first started, the nausea and lightheadedness were so bad! but luckily it went away in a few days. the only other med that's helped me as well as this one is latuda but i could not handle the horrible akathisia it gave me.