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Mental Health (Expert Forum)
How do I ween off of Geodon.
Answered by
Roger Gould, M.D. - Mental Health, Wellness
Questions posted in the Mental Health forum are being answered by Dr. Roger L. Gould, author of the Mastering Stress and Depression program and affiliated with the UCLA. Department of Psychiatry. Topics covered include anger, attention deficit disorder (ADD), bipolar disorder, dementia, electroconvulsive therapy (ECT), learning disabilities, memory, obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD), panic, personality disorders, phobias, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), schizophrenia, stress, transitions, and work problems.
How do I ween off of Geodon.
by wolverine63, Oct 23, 2006 12:00AM
A Psychiatrist put me on Geodon and Cogentin about 4 weeks ago.
Once I started looking into the possible side affects (one of them being breast development in males) I decided I had no interest in continuing this medication. I also am on Wellbutrin and Klonipin. The geodon knocks me right out to the point I cannot get out of bed in the morning. I drank an entire pot of coffee this morning, plus 2 cups of strong instant coffee and a cup of strong tea. I felt barely awake enought to drive my kids to school. This Psychiatrist seems very flexible and allows the patient to make a lot of decisions on there own regarding medications, so I am hoping he will be cool and give me a "healthy" way to ween off the Geodon. If he does not, does anyone know how to go about getting off this stuff. I was better off when I was just taking the Wellbutrin and Klonipin. I tried going cold turkey off the Geodon. BIG MISTAKE. I can honestly say that I have never felt worse in my life (43 yrs) Than when I tried to go off Geodon cold turkey. PLEASE, PLEASE, give me some good optimistic, and encouraging news. Thanks!!
Once I started looking into the possible side affects (one of them being breast development in males) I decided I had no interest in continuing this medication. I also am on Wellbutrin and Klonipin. The geodon knocks me right out to the point I cannot get out of bed in the morning. I drank an entire pot of coffee this morning, plus 2 cups of strong instant coffee and a cup of strong tea. I felt barely awake enought to drive my kids to school. This Psychiatrist seems very flexible and allows the patient to make a lot of decisions on there own regarding medications, so I am hoping he will be cool and give me a "healthy" way to ween off the Geodon. If he does not, does anyone know how to go about getting off this stuff. I was better off when I was just taking the Wellbutrin and Klonipin. I tried going cold turkey off the Geodon. BIG MISTAKE. I can honestly say that I have never felt worse in my life (43 yrs) Than when I tried to go off Geodon cold turkey. PLEASE, PLEASE, give me some good optimistic, and encouraging news. Thanks!!
Doctor's Answer
by Roger Gould, M.D., Oct 27, 2006 12:00AM
, Oct 27, 2006 12:00AM
Your psychiatrist will help you with this, it is his responsiblity having put you on it, but by a large a gradual three week tapering off by lowering the dose and increasing the intervals from daily to every other day, then every third day in the third day, then stop.
read about the side effects and went off it cold turkey. He was
16 at the time. Took him several days to a week to get through it
and it was pretty rough on him. Couldn't sleep and had body
temperature fluctuations.
We read about this drug being rather hard to get off of once
started.
He's on a low dosage of another medication now and is doing
much better with it.