Clozapine

[Antigone]

My doctor is suggesting this for me for my unmitigated depression.  I have bipolar I with extreme psychosis.  I'm really wary of this drug and going and getting blood tests every week is going to be very hard for me.  I have social anxiety so going out of the house is a HUGE deal for me.  I'm also concerned about the side effects.  I read the threads on this board that discussed Clozapine but am looking for more people's experience with it.

[Siggmin]

I was on it for a week. I had to be taken off of it, because my doctor couldn't prescribe it (I was started on it as an inpatient, but my outpatient doctor couldn't prescribe it... She wasn't registered with the company who makes it). It made me drool. A lot. My pillow would be soaked in the morning. Even during the day my mouth would just hang open and I would drool occasionally. I hated it. Good luck with it, though!

[dancingteapot]

I was also on it for about a week. Then my WBC dropped and had to be taken off of it. It also made me piss myself. Awkward. Every doctor I see wants me on it but I've told them I can't.

 

The good thing is that it is extremely well-regulated. So they'll catch something funky quick.

 

They say it's supposed to be the best for treatment-resistance. I wish it were the case for me.

 

Best of luck to you.

[mellifluous]

i was on it for about three months. it didn't work well enough for my symptoms at all. and i did have some side effects (mostly drooling/excessive salivation--which wasn't as bad as it sounds but it sucked for the first weeks and is a super common side effect;orthostatic hypotension--mostly it was that i would feel dizzy if i stood up too fast, but a few times i was off balance. when this developed i was ....shit, now i don't recall if they treated it or if they wanted to observe ... my memory is shit in parts around that time; and something about five days beyond constipation--this sucked balls.). 

 

there are others for whom it works very well and their lives are possible because of it, so i wouldn't consider my experience typical necessarily.

 

i didn't have blood count concerns and they monitor the hell out of that, so if it developed, they'd take quick action.

[melissaw72]

I had a terrible experience on it.  I wouldn't ever try that med again even if I was paid to take it.

 

Aside from it never working (I gave it maybe a couple months to do something), it caused an insatiable appetite and I gained a shit ton of weight, and it messed my sleep up.

 

When I went off the med (my WBC went to almost 0 so I had to go off of it), the increased appetite never went away, and the insomnia got even worse.  This was back in 2006. 

 

So I had to start taking naltrexone for the appetite, and so far nothing has been able to help the sleep issues.  I wish I never went on the med to begin with.

 

The weekly blood work was "nothing" compared to the side effects I got from the med.  But as others I'm sure will say, that they had a good experience with it.

[dilemma]

I've been on it for about 14 months. The blood tests are a PITA.  We had a bad winter here and there were a couple of times that I was cutting it close because I had to wait a few days to go to the lab.  The good new is that after 6 months you only have to go every 2 weeks, and after a year its once every 4 weeks.

 

It has really solved my psychosis problems, although at first after I took my night time does about a hour later I had wierd shadowy figures appear out the window.

 

I also sleep a lot longer on it, and it's very sedating.  It kicks in about an hour after I take it, so I try to take it one hour before I want to go to bed.  I go to bed about midnight and wake up at 10AM. I don't work, so that's not an issue.  If I've had to get up earlier than normal, I take my night dose earlier.

[madmax15]

Meant to be the "Gold standard" of antipsychotics..