mmaryland Posted January 5, 2018 Share Posted January 5, 2018 I've been down the road trying different antipsychotics for my bipolar disorder as an adjunct to lithium since February 2017. Before then I only ever had taken Seroquel for insomnia purposes. I think the first antipsychotic I was given to treat my bipolar symptoms was Rexulti (brexpiprazole) for about 5-6 months going up to 4mg eventually. Then I was switched to Latuda 40mg because Rexulti was not helping me sleep at all, so I was also taking Seroquel more often than not for insomnia. If not I would stay up all night and then become hypomanic. So then I got switched to Latuda in November, was only on it for 2-3 weeks and still had to take Seroquel to sleep. My dr. suggested we try using just Seroquel but take it every night. I asked if maybe doubling my dose of Latuda to 80mg would make me more sedated and able to fall asleep but she said that probably wouldn't be the case. After switching from Latuda to Seroquel for bipolar disorder in early December at 100mg per night my mania is definitely under control. I stopped taking my lithium 2 weeks ago and feel like I am still stable. Maybe the Seroquel is helping with my bipolar disorder and sleep. The only thing that ruins Seroquel for me is that it makes me sleep toooo much, like from midnight until 1-3pm the next day. Soo just today when I met with my dr. I expressed my concerns with the Seroquel, kinda making my emotions and interests dulled, my energy is drained, sleeping excessively. I was switched to Saphris 5mg since it's also somewhat sedating and I am hoping it doesn't leave me feeling foggy the next day or sleep as much. I also told her I stopped taking about 1-2 weeks ago after 1 week of tapering down before discontinuing it. I talked about how I am scared of the thyroid and kidney complications that can occur with long-term lithium therapy and would like to be able to do without it. She asked me if I had ever tried Lamictal and that I could take that instead of lithium but I said I would prefer to not need to take either one. Then she said well since I am taking stimulants and have bipolar I will need something like that to prevent manic episodes. I am not too happy to be starting Lamictal but I will give it a try. How is Saphris, for those who have taken in? How is the sedation and sleep? Is there daytime sedation or morning hangover, any cognitive impairment, excessive sleeping, somnolence? How fast does it kick in? Does it make you sleepy pretty fast after you take it? And last, any other side effects you had while taking Saphris. Much appreciated! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CeremonyNewOrder Posted January 5, 2018 Share Posted January 5, 2018 You don't need to worry about thyroid and kidney issues with lithium if your psychiatrist is giving you annual blood tests. I took saphris and it had no effect on me good or bad but that was just my experience. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mmaryland Posted January 5, 2018 Author Share Posted January 5, 2018 24 minutes ago, CeremonyNewOrder said: You don't need to worry about thyroid and kidney issues with lithium if your psychiatrist is giving you annual blood tests. I took saphris and it had no effect on me good or bad but that was just my experience. I was prescribed 1350mg, I felt it was pretty high. I worry about taking Lithium long-term because I read that something around 30% patients who take lithium long-term experienced toxicity during treatment. I have a ridiculous phobia of needles and injections it is extremely difficult to actually follow through with my blood tests. I'm waiting for the Saprhis to get filled and hoping it will make me sleep at night like Seroquel but not make me feel drugged or lack energy the next day. I really would prefer to be on either an antipsychotic or a mood stabilizer (lamictal, lithium), NOT BOTH. It would be amazing if I could be fine without either, I want to see if I can do it but my dr. doesn't know how she feels about doing that since I take stimulants that could worsen my bipolar disorder and make me manic Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CeremonyNewOrder Posted January 5, 2018 Share Posted January 5, 2018 (edited) With bipolar, it usually takes more than one med to work. You just need to keep trying until you find the right combination. Also I'm schizoaffective disorder bipolar type and I take Adderall and have so far not been manic so it's not a given you'll become manic. You complain about sedation, do the stimulants work at all for this? Clozapine gives me major sedation in the morning so my pdoc gave me Adderall and it has helped. Edited January 5, 2018 by CeremonyNewOrder Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wonderful.Cheese Posted January 5, 2018 Share Posted January 5, 2018 20 hours ago, mmaryland said: I've been down the road trying different antipsychotics for my bipolar disorder as an adjunct to lithium since February 2017. Before then I only ever had taken Seroquel for insomnia purposes. I think the first antipsychotic I was given to treat my bipolar symptoms was Rexulti (brexpiprazole) for about 5-6 months going up to 4mg eventually. Then I was switched to Latuda 40mg because Rexulti was not helping me sleep at all, so I was also taking Seroquel more often than not for insomnia. If not I would stay up all night and then become hypomanic. So then I got switched to Latuda in November, was only on it for 2-3 weeks and still had to take Seroquel to sleep. My dr. suggested we try using just Seroquel but take it every night. I asked if maybe doubling my dose of Latuda to 80mg would make me more sedated and able to fall asleep but she said that probably wouldn't be the case. After switching from Latuda to Seroquel for bipolar disorder in early December at 100mg per night my mania is definitely under control. I stopped taking my lithium 2 weeks ago and feel like I am still stable. Maybe the Seroquel is helping with my bipolar disorder and sleep. The only thing that ruins Seroquel for me is that it makes me sleep toooo much, like from midnight until 1-3pm the next day. Soo just today when I met with my dr. I expressed my concerns with the Seroquel, kinda making my emotions and interests dulled, my energy is drained, sleeping excessively. I was switched to Saphris 5mg since it's also somewhat sedating and I am hoping it doesn't leave me feeling foggy the next day or sleep as much. I also told her I stopped taking about 1-2 weeks ago after 1 week of tapering down before discontinuing it. I talked about how I am scared of the thyroid and kidney complications that can occur with long-term lithium therapy and would like to be able to do without it. She asked me if I had ever tried Lamictal and that I could take that instead of lithium but I said I would prefer to not need to take either one. Then she said well since I am taking stimulants and have bipolar I will need something like that to prevent manic episodes. I am not too happy to be starting Lamictal but I will give it a try. How is Saphris, for those who have taken in? How is the sedation and sleep? Is there daytime sedation or morning hangover, any cognitive impairment, excessive sleeping, somnolence? How fast does it kick in? Does it make you sleepy pretty fast after you take it? And last, any other side effects you had while taking Saphris. Much appreciated! Saphris worked really well for me. Like as well as zyprexa and better than Seroquel xr. It made me insanely sleepy a little while after taking it under my tongue (try to get the black cherry flavor if you can...even that tastes quite bad). I slept a lot on it. I took 10mg twice daily. I wonder if a lower dose like you are trying would have less side effects for me. I had a morning sedation yes for a while. Not terribly long though. With some caffeine I was able to fight it and wake up ok. But after the morning dose I napped. I wish I could have taken it all at night. No cognitive problems out of the ordinary for me anyway. It kicks in pretty darn fast and the reason I'm not taking it now the one bad side effect I got is that I would over-eat like crazy in that window before I passed out asleep in my bed. I mean I would eat anything and everything. Like sleep eating. It was awful. I gained like 20 lbs in a month. We considered putting a lock on the fridge. No lie. I tried it twice it worked so well. But this apparently is not a common side effect. I'm unlucky I guess. Good luck with it! Let us know how you like it! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wonderful.Cheese Posted January 28, 2018 Share Posted January 28, 2018 @mmaryland how is saphris going for you? I'm interested in hearing about your low dose trial and how you are doing on the saphris and if you like it or not. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mmaryland Posted February 5, 2018 Author Share Posted February 5, 2018 On 1/28/2018 at 4:40 PM, Wonderful.Cheese said: @mmaryland how is saphris going for you? I'm interested in hearing about your low dose trial and how you are doing on the saphris and if you like it or not. I don't think I was on it long enough to really answer this question. I got off of it after about 3 weeks, but while I was on it I found it pretty effective as a sleep aid. I don't like taking any anti-psychotic so I proposed to my psychiatrist for me to get off them and see if I do OK or if I clearly need an antipsychotic. I was really just using anti-psychotics like seroquel and saphris to help me sleep, not so much for bipolar problems. The most positive experience I have had with an AP was Rexulti, I don't recall having any depression the entire time I was on it and the side effects were minor when I slowly titrated up to 4mg. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wonderful.Cheese Posted February 5, 2018 Share Posted February 5, 2018 35 minutes ago, mmaryland said: I don't think I was on it long enough to really answer this question. I got off of it after about 3 weeks, but while I was on it I found it pretty effective as a sleep aid. I don't like taking any anti-psychotic so I proposed to my psychiatrist for me to get off them and see if I do OK or if I clearly need an antipsychotic. I was really just using anti-psychotics like seroquel and saphris to help me sleep, not so much for bipolar problems. The most positive experience I have had with an AP was Rexulti, I don't recall having any depression the entire time I was on it and the side effects were minor when I slowly titrated up to 4mg. Ah I see. Thanks for the update! I hope you do well without an AP. Good luck!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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