Invega and swallowing troubles

[netsavy006]

I thought I was doing well. Now I have swallowing problems. The only medication I can link it to myself is the Invega because it can cause dysphagia and I had that on Abilify. The only thing is the doctor already put me on Zyprexa once. If I explain my situation and say Zyprexa never did that, is there a chance I could get back on it? I don't want to start other/new (to me) antipsychotics. The only thing is 15mg HS; is my magic dosage. All I had was restlessness from Zyprexa which maybe Cogentin can handle. Any stories that may be relating what I'm going through?

[SashaSue]

Given all the problems you've had finding an effective cocktail, maybe you could try learning to live with the swallowing thing? Otherwise, no one here can really predict what your pdoc's likely to do.

[sorrel]

Exactly what kind of swallowing problem do you have? Does it involve only swallowing certain things? Does it help to drink a lot of water while eating or taking pills?

There is a reason you stopped Zyprexa. I think it's likely you'll end up with intolerable problems from Zyprexa too.

[netsavy006]

Exactly what kind of swallowing problem do you have? Does it involve only swallowing certain things? Does it help to drink a lot of water while eating or taking pills?

I'm having a problem with swallowing food. Mom mentioned about using liquids while eating but it doesn't help. At least I can eat a whole meal unlike Abilify, where I could barely finish 1/2 a meal. Sometimes I have to do the swallowing "reflex" 3 or 4 times to make it feel that the foods gone down. I can get my medicine down fine. It's only food and it's all food, not just the hard stuff. I fear that if the problem get's worse I could end up loosing more weight and that's already a problem. I'm only 128lbs (at last check up) and I'm 5' 8 1/2".

[sorrel]

So you can swallow liquids okay? If you are really concerned about weight loss, you can start drinking something like Ensure in addition to your regular meals.

Stuff like this gets worse when you focus on it. Maybe try distracting yourself (watching TV or something) while eating.

[Silver]

Andy: Yes, Invega (and risperidone, and a multitude of other drugs) can cause this side effect.

That being said, I completely agree with everything SashaSue and Sorrel wrote. Distraction will help. Increasing caloric density will help. Benadryl, Cogentin, propranolol, etc., may help. You could talk to your doctor about that. And you've had your fair share of problems with Zyprexa. We've all read through them with you. You've been adamant that akathisia was not something you wanted to live with.

Here's the thing. You have a long history here of perseverating re: adverse effects of medications and then repetitively switching them. It's a focus for you and it might be part of your pathology (I have no idea; that's between you and your psychiatrist.) For that reason, I hesitated to write the first sentence. But I'm not going to patronize you. I figure that part of your treatment and part of getting better is learning how to work with the information, and if this site and similar sites are too stimulating for you or engage your obsessive thinking too much, then you're the only one who knows when to disengage.

So you're doing well overall. You've sounded more positive about this drug than the others. Maybe this is worth working around?

Anyway, good luck.

[steves]

take some benadryl before are either at the same time as your invega. This always helped me i had some problems with geodon and benadryl fixed them until my brain adjusted.