Has anyone had excessive sleeping as a side effect of long term haldol use?

For the past 6 months I've spent at least 6 hours a day napping or laying in bed. When I'm up all I do is think about going back to bed. I saw my pnp today and she thinks it might be related to the dulling effect of long term haldol use along with worsening depression. I've never heard of excessive sleeping as a side effect of haldol other than when initially starting. Just wondering if anyone else has experienced this.

I think it depends on dose, individual reaction, etc. There is "neuroleptic induced deficit syndrome," mostly reported with older drugs. Its basically what you're describing, from the neuroleptic. With depression on board, too, it could be a problem.

Ya think??

That sounds like me

I'm so sorry. :-(

Its not just Haldol, although I do this NIDS is worse with older drugs, especially at higher doses over a long period of time.

Have you had any success with other tranquilizers? Some of the newer ones ("atypicals") are generic now, if cost is/was an issue.

I take a ton (30mgs! every day!) of Abilify. The big thing with Abilify is that I can actually tolerate it, no twitches, tics, all that. If I remember correctly, that much Abilify is roughly=8ish mgs Haloperidol or 400mgs/Thorazine. The big difference, for me and for a lot of other people, is that some of the newer drugs get the job done without as much dulling and deadening of emotions.

NIDS is basically describing drug-induced "negative symptoms," plus the depression and general low mood that often comes with long-term tranquilizer treatment. Even among the older drugs, I think Haldol is one of the worst offenders. It causes a lot of EPS, TD, akathisia, and if I remember correctly, some of the Haldol is metabolized into a very toxic by-product.

Even if an "atypical" isn't on the table, there are other, older drugs that might be as good. Perphenazine compared well with the "atypicals" in some big studies. Loxapine at low(ish) doses might be kind of atypical-ish, based on brain imaging studies.

My former doctor recommended I take amoxapine for depression. I declined, because I didn't want to take an antidepressant at the time, but amoxapine is a tricyclic depression drug that is partly broken down into loxapine, which is an older antipsychotic. Some small studies have found that it can help all aspects of schizophrenia+schizoaffective (psychosis, mood, anxiety, etc.) about as well as risperidone with comparable side effects, plus it can lift mood relatively quickly, as antidepressants go.

Sorry to ramble. I hope you can find a work-able alternative to the Haldol. :-)

Thank you. I am weaning off of the haldol (8 Mgs) because of this. I already take 120 Mgs of Latuda so we are hoping that is enough. I just hope it's not too late for the effects to go away. I'm also hoping weaning off doesn't cause psychosis. Today is my first day at 4 Mgs. I'm a little nervous. Here's hoping the Latuda alone can do the job.
Thank you for all the information. At least I'll know some alternatives if this doesn't work out.

I hope this all works out for you. Having been on Haldol in the distant past, it seems to me that it could cause extreme sleepiness.

It's amazing how different drugs affect people. I have been on Haldol for about 10 years (5mg) and I did go into psychosis due to LACK of sleep. I know sometimes during the day I get drowsy, but I think that has a lot to do with not having anything to do or any real structure.

But either way, even being on the Haldol I have SO much difficulty sleeping it is ridiculous.

I'm sorry you have so much trouble sleeping. I take ambien at night because I can't sleep due to racing thoughts but during the day I have no problem.

Yes, Haldol is one of the first-gen antipsychotics/neuroleptics/major tranquilizers.

As in one of the names: ''neuro'' indicates nerves or nervous system and "leptic" comes from ''lepsis'', meaning to take hold of. This also holds very true to the other name, "major tranquilizer".

So these older of "typical" antipsychotics are clinically known to often cause sedation, or tranquilizing effects.

New-gen or atypical antipsychotics are not immune to this kind of side effect- I take Seroquel and like a cluster of other people, feel a sedative effect. It is however true that this occurs less with new-gen APs.

I feel stupid for not putting this together sooner. I just thought it was depression.
I'm down to 4 Mgs of haldol now and with my next pnp appt I'll be down to 2 and then 0. I wonder how long it will take for me to feel better. I'm still sleeping a lot. I took a 4 hour nap yesterday and only got up because my husband was home.