latuda

[amby]

My first week on latuda I was in a decent mood and I was also a little calmer. Starting the second week I became very irritable, agitated and restless. I have a fear of taking meds, pdoc knows my fear so she gives me the option to start at lower doses. I started on only 10 of latuda and raised to almost 20. I'm trying to figure out why the first week was good but hasn't been since then. Do you all find that it's more activating at lower doses?  Thanks so much!

[HumorousCrusty]

Hi Amby,  at the moment I am at 60mg of latuda a day probably going up to 80mg soon. When I was starting out I noticed a similar irritability. Latuda definitely has a long burn in period associated with it, where you might feel disconnected from reality and have a whole bunch of side effects. For me these side effects passed in about 2 or 3 months, with other side effects such as insomnia and oromdibular dystonia passing in about 6 to 7 months. If you can tough through it, I would definitely recommend you do because latuda is an amazing med and I don't imagine I'm going to stop taking latuda for a long time. You have to remember taking this med is going to completely change how your brain works. 

Alternatively what you might be experiencing is called akithisia, which is a whole demon in its own right and it won't go away,  but there are ways to treat akithisia. Personally I take 1-2mg of clonazepam a day which is a benzodiazepine and does a good job of stopping my akithisia from coming on. There are other meds that can be used to treat just the akithisia if you don't want a benzo addiction in your life, but I needed a benzo anyway so it works out well for me. 

This is definitely something to talk to your pdoc about next time you see them since they're the one that ultimately decides what happens to your meds, and they'll be better able to recognize your symptoms and classifying them as what they actually are. That's their job.

For now what you can try to do is take some benadryl (over the counter allergy medicide) when you get the irritability and see if it goes away. Benadryl is a good way to test to see if what you're experiencing is akithisia and can be a temporary solution for you problem until you see your pdoc. If it does work, definitely bring it up to your pdoc and let them know that benadryl helped stop your irritability. 

All the best! 

[Gearhead]

Latuda was very activating for me at 10 mgs, so much so that I gave up on it, which I am not encouraging you to do. I'm just sympathizing.

[amby]

Thank you both! I have klonopin and inderal to take if I need to. I guess since I take klonopin daily it hasn't helped when I'm feeling irritated/restless. I've tried inderal and it helps some but doesn't last very long. I hate the idea of taking a pill because of side effects of another. Gearhead how long were you on latuda before stopping? 

[San]

I was on 120mg of latuda, great for my mood, but gave me horrid akathisia (I'm prone to it) about a 1/2 hour after taking it, leading into the next day, when I had class. I couldn't function after taking it at supper, the restlessness got so bad. Even with Artane. Also, I still had psychotic symptoms. Sucked. I liked it, but those killed it for me. I started at 60mg and went to 120mg over 4 months. Increased dose due to psychosis.

[crtclms]

I was on 80mg of Latuda, but not for psychosis. I loved it, and my mood was completely stable for the first time in years and years. But medicare only covered a couple of months, and then we had to pay $100s of dollars, so I had to stop.

It could be the Latuda making you irritable, so keep an eye on it. You never know what a new med will do. If it gets worse, you should call your pdoc.

[browri]

From what I understand, at lower doses, Latuda can be activating. I took it once for several months at 60mg and 80mg which were much more sedating. The second time around, I had too much trouble with the burn-in period and I was very distressed. Ended up switching to loxapine because it's much more calming. Expect 10-40mgs to be more activating with 40mgs being on the edge and 60 and up to be more sedating. They found though that for bipolar depression, Latuda usually works in the 20-60mg range. Generally going above that only resulted in more side effects.

Akathisia was a huge problem for me on Latuda and was the reason I stopped taking it last time. I also was up to 80mgs and was still fairly depressed and was only taking it with Lamictal. My cocktail has since expanded quite a bit and I've found that the older cheaper meds aren't so bad.....at least some of them..

Also, if you experienced a light switch effect in the first week, I experienced this both times starting Latuda. Almost a temporary hypomania. Then it tapered off to a more stony kind of mood. Cold. For me, it felt like I was still experiencing all of my emotions on the inside but couldn't express them. For me, an AP needs to quiet my thoughts, and nothing has done that the way that loxapine and olanzapine have....except maybe Saphris. I would definitely take 2.5mg of Saphris again, but my doctor took me off that too because of akathisia. He also refuses to prescribe anticholinergics to his patients because he doesn't want people developing tardive dyskinesia under his care. I can't say that I blame him. The downside to Saphris though was the total zone out....like all the time. Again, I was only taking that with Lamictal as  well. I believe that Aplenzin has made a huge difference in regards to combatting those cognitive issues.