HOW DO I WEAN MY SON OFF ZYPREXA

I have wanted my son off zyprexa for awhile.  Everytime he comes off an amount by the 3rd day he gets sucidal.  how do I wean him off safely?  How do you wean off this medication slowly and safely.  It has never helped his depression, he has started lithium and seems okay, he was extremely senitivie to all medications, like zoloft prozac, all very bad.  he was going to the hospital to get off zyprexa safefly but because they read into the withdrawls instead of who he was they wouldn't take him off anything unless he was on something else.  I am so tired to doctors telling me to go off zyprexa but put him something else.  It doesn't work, because you don't know which medicine is giving him the withdrawls.  For all the people taking zyprexa, my son is living proof you can get very bad side effects coming off zyprexa.  It happens every time the doctors have tried.  If there is anyone out there who can tell me how to wean his off very slowly and safely.  He is on 2.5 mg on day, not much now but he was on 15 mg day and its been very difficult and dangerous to get him down to this amount.  Does anyone know how to do this 1 a week, one every 3 days, any help from a doctor I would really appreciate this.  

[ILADVOCATE]

Its understandable to want to change medications but it may not be in his best interest to take him off medication. Why not ask them exactly why he needs medication and what its working on. Then you can discuss what the options are.

[therese83]

I had success weaning off zyprexa
My doctor had agreeed that I could give it up. Is your son a child?  Did his docotor agree to giving it up?  This is very important that the Doctor agree. You sound like a very good carer!

My Doctor just told me first week half it, second week skip days, stop, wasnt much good. Some people are very sensitive to this reduction.

I do feel that it has 'rebound' effect ie when you reduce you get the original symptoms only stronger because you miss the drug in your system, now that is just my experience, I am not a medical person, but Ive been through it.

This is what I did - and not advice for you.  I did it very very slowly.

The last pill I took was last August, so it is fair to say I have given it up now as soon it will be coming on a year.  From 2.5 , I cut it with a pill cutter into quarters, and use graphed paper to record.  I reduced one day out of 10.  Then the next 10 days I reduce (only by a quarter of a pill) two days out of 10.  Then the next 10 days I reduced 3 out of 10.  If I felt in anyway nervous/racing thoughts/anxiety I went back up to the previous 10 days dosage.

Now I am not recomending that anyone give up their medication.  But you asked and this is what worked for me.  At several stages along the way I had to go 'back up' and try again the next ten days.  It took many months, possibly a year.  But when it was finished , it was finished and I have never felt the need to take it again.  I just take an anti dpressant now, my illness is psychotic depression and I am doing great!
I lost the zyprexa weight without trying and I have to add that when i needed it I really needed it and it saved my  life.  So I cannot say anything bad about that drug.

[CARD58]

My son is 17, and he will be 18 in 3 weeks, he does not want to be on the medicine and he has never been diagnois from any of his doctors, he has had many, and they each switch the meds. and swear this one won't give him bad side effects, but they all do, he has tried 6 antidepressants and they all have landed him in the hospital.  I took him off one 2.5 mg. zyprexa on friday and was thinking in maybe a week take him off 2.5 mg on monday with enough time in between so he still has it in his system.  The only way doctors will take hiim off it is if I change to something else.  My son says they don't work.  He originally went to the doctor for ocd to get help but we decided not to do meds. we did natural vitamins and it seemed to help, it was the end of school and we decided to try the zoloft because my son couldn't read.  It was horrible and very dangerous, he ended up in the hospital for a month, and they kept thinking this is who he was and wouldn't change his meds till 3 weeks after I kept telling him you see him on medicine this is not him.  For whatever reason, in my sons case he gets all the listed side effects and feels the need to cut when he is on these medications and it gets worse when he gets off.  I',m sure there are people who these meds help, but he always seems to do worse on them or they don't do anything.  He is also on lithium but his bladder has been leaking for 8 weeks and he's on meds for that that aren't working.  

Again, I took him off 2.5 mg this last friday, but when do you think it would be good to try another time, a week or 2 weeks.  I have done this with permission from his previous doctor but always one after the other so I told them I wanted it done very slowly so they don't really do anything when there is a problem they say go to the hospital.   I do not have a good doctor that I can rely on I have been looking for over a year.

[therese83]

Keep looking for a better diagnoses.  Well you dont have any , so a clear diagnoses.
I hope that you can find a good Doctor and wish you well.

I have a son also born in 91, so I can imagine how you feel, trying to help your son through this.  Is he getting any kind of 'talk' therapy?
I believe there are specific therapies for OCD that work?

You know that a lot of these anti depression medications cause a bad reaction in younger people and maybe he should see a specialist in juvenile mental health?

[stephen444]

I want to share my Zyprexa story and how I succesfully weaned off.

I was put on 5mg Zyprexa in Octobre 2009 due to a severe depression. It was given to me in combination with an antidepressant (Serlain aka Zoloft). I was very suspicious to the drug immediately, but I needed something to help me sleep as that was a big problem at the time.
Luckily enough, this med mix helped my quite fast. Within a few (very tough) weeks I could function again. I started to decrease the Zyprexa almost immediately, planning to continue with the AD for a longer time.

I quickly noticed that I could easily reduce to 2.5mg of Zyprexa without any problems. In fact this dose suited me much better (less side symptoms as diziness/headaches/hunger attacks/zombie feeling/weight gaining). However, when I went beyond the 2,5 mg, it became tough. I had anxiety, depressive moods and sleeping problems. Reading all the stories on nightmarish withdrawel symptoms didn't help, and I became aware that I had to wean off very cautiously.

Thats when I found the titration technique on the internet. It consists of dissolving the tablet in a 10ml of hot water, and then taking a fraction of that. I dissolved my 5mg tablet in 10ml, and then consumed 5ml of that which corresponds to 2,5mg of zyprexa. I started doing that in december 2009.

Every 3-4 days, I reduced the consumed amount by 0,1ml. I noted the amounts down on a calendar. Even at this slow pace, there were days were I felt like ****. But I could still function. Maybe it was because the underlying problems were not resolved, but I'd like to think it was the tapering that caused this.

It took me until beginning of june 2010 before I reached 0. So for about 6 months I used this tapering schedule. You might think this is a long time, but I knew this upfront, and I accepted it.

I am now a week Zyprexa free!!! The only problem I have is that my sleep suffered. I still sleep every night, but less then before. The strange thing is that I rarely feel tired. It might be the consequence of the AD that I still take.  But I am very glad I am off the Zyprexa and that I had the patience to follow the tapering plan.

[khatman]

I have been on Zyprexa for about 11 years and the past 6 years was on 2.5 mg, down from the 5 mg I started with.  I was prescribed this med for insomnia and anxiety although my doctor actually labeled me as borderline manic.  In the past year I was able to cut down to half of a tablet but really had difficulty reducing any further.  I would sometimes try cutting the tablet into fourths and taking 1/4 each night with varied success but some nights I would sleep terribly.  Then early this year I retired and I decided I was going to cut way down or get off the medication because I have always been fearful of what it does to the pancreas and liver (blood sugar and cholesterol).  So I stayed ont he 1/4 tablet for awhile (this is 1/4 of a 2.5 mg tab).  But I constantly had trouble going less than that.  I thought maybe the problem was inconsistent dose, too erradic.  So I invested $57 and purchased a milligram scale.  I reduced the weight of the medication about every week.  A 2.5 mg tablet weights approximately 140 mg.  So 1/4 tablet weighs about 45 mg.  I am currently down to 24 mg by weight and my plan is to just keep cutting back about 2-3 mg by weight every week until I am down so low I don't even notice the medicaiton anymore.
I went through some withdrawl (withdrawal) symptoms but I think the very gradual cutting down helped me get through.  I had a lot of nerve twitches and some bad nights of sleep.  I would take a sleeping pill once inawhile to get me through.  But already I notice I get very sleepy on my own at night and I sleep hard and I dream more vividly than I did on the Zyprexa.  My worst problem is some days I wake up early with only 4 or 5 hours sleep.  I try not to let it bother me and usually the next night I will sleep longer.  It just takes a long, long time to get off this med successfully and I know  I will succeed.

[Rainbow_Ike]

I was on Zyprexa for a few years, and finally weaned off of it BY MY PSYCHIATRIST, because i no longer hasd symptoms.

But i want to point something out here.

Zyprexa is NOT and anti depressant or an anti-anxiety medication

It is classified as "an atypical anti-psychotic" medication. I was having psychotic hallucinations due to the severity of my depression when I was hospitalized. I was taking an anti depressant and an anti anxiety medication as well as the Zyprexa when I left the hospital

We cut back slowly on he dosage of the Zyprexa after I was hallucination free for a year, then I took it every other day for a few months when I got to the lowest dosage.Finally my doctor told me to stop it altogether.

I believe it IS used for bipolar disorder, for mania. Of course, in the US, a doctor can use any FDA approved medication for any disorder he or she wants, even if it is not the one it is approved for. Doctors often hear form colleagues of good secondary uses of a medication. i am on a medication now approved for seizures and for nerve damage from Herpes Zostrex, neither of which which I have. However, I DO have nerve damage from arthritis in my spine pinching my nerves. This will (hopefully) let me feel the bottoms of my feet again, along with my physical therapy and the contraptions I sleep in to straighten and stretch my spine. But the medication is NOT approved by the FDA for that. My doctor is a pain management specialist, and a number of pain specialist use this med for this.

If you do not have a doctor you trust for your son - FIND ONE.

I don't know where you live, but you are running out of time. soon your son will be an adult, and you will not have as much ease in finding new doctors.

Also remember that at almost 18, your son IS an adult, so make sure that any psychiatrist treats him like one. Remember how you felt at that age - did you want YOUR mom being told your secrets by a doctor? It's hard to remember that it's time to start letting go in some ways, but when it come to psychiatric and psychological care, your son has to know that you are respecting his privacy totally.

Medications are not the only thing that will help. Psychotherapy is always needed hand in hand with it, and finding a good therapist is a hunt. I showed my psychiatrist the list of therapist form my insurance. he marked off the ones he "knew", which I took to mean that he knew them to be good, since I trust him.

I selected about a half dozen based on location, since I am restricted to public transportation. I knew what issues I wanted to face in therapy (your son might want to make a PRIVATE list of the things that trouble/bother him and that he would like to talk to someone about BEFORE stating this. I then interviewed the list on the phone with my short list of question. (The one who wouldn't answer my simple questions on the phone got scratched off the list)

I found three who I liked on the phone. I made single appointments with each of them, letting them know it was a one time appointment for me to decide on a therapist (I checked with my insurance first - they allowed that.) I met with them all.

One of them was very nice "warm and fuzzy", but I know from studies I read in grad school that "warm and fuzzy" does not make a good therapist, and I did not like the "scent" she had in her office - it made me feel dizzy, and i have no allergies.

So it was between the other two. Both were equally qualified and I liked them both.

I picked the one I am still with for a practical reason. I have severe arthritis in both knees. One was in a lovely old building - up a long flight of stairs with no elevator. The other is in a modern office building with four elevators.My knees voted for "elevator therapist", who has an office in a easier to get to neighborhood, too.

Get your son the help he need. Be a mother lion and attack the system to get him the help. No matter where you are, and what your financial situation is, there are agencies to help.

Do not be in a rush to get him of a medication until you have a competent doctor you both trust to tell you a diagnosis and which meds he SHOULD be on.

Ike

PS: If your son wants an older guy who has been where he is now to talk to, he can drop me a private note. The worse part of being "different" and a teen is the feeling that you are "ALL ALONE". I'd like to offer him an "ear" to let him know he isn't.

I wish my mom had realized I needed help when I was his age.He's a lucky man

[Scout1967]

I only recently finished tapering off Zyprexa after being on it for about a year. I had been prescribed it after a brief hospital stay - I suffer from major depression and was hospitalized after I became suicidal. Admittedly, Zyprexa was the first med to stabilize me, but I just couldn't handle the side-effects; the zombification, the hunger-attacks, the weight gain. I'm now taking Lamictal and that seems to have me stabilized. With my psychiatrist's blessing, I started my Zyprexa taper, although he just suggested I 'stop taking it' - what a joke. I went from 5 mgs to 2.5 mgs then took the 2.5 every third day for a week then stopped - definitely too short of a taper period - as evidenced by my insomnia, depression, and suicidality. These symptoms, thank God, have passed. I'm still recovering, but feeling better every day.

[ruthq64]

Is there anyone who got off Zyprexa and with Natural medication getting this Zyprexa and left on Natural medication and then off Natural medication.And felt alot better no symptoms of bipolar or Pschysoaffective?

[worried1965]

my story is similar to yours. My 12 year old is currently hopitalized. No diagnisis! He has been on every med you can think of since age 6. No diagnosis! Been in hospital for 3 months now. having psychotic symptoms, anxiety. He is on Zyprexa since April of 2010 and on trilafon for 2.5 weeks. Started tapering his 20mg  Zyprexa 1 week ago now he is on 7.5 mg and he is currently 10 times worse than when he went in 3 months ago. Total personality change. Almost like he's not my little boy anymore.  I am wondering if this sudden drop in the drug is causing his very aggressive behavior.Dr. is disagreeing with me. saying that we should go back higher on zyprexa and that he is not suffering from withdrawl (withdrawal) symptoms.This has been the most trying time in my family's life. We are all at our wits end. I am also looking for the same answer...How do you taper off Zyprexa? I am truly appreciating all the responses so far...thank you everyone. Please keep them coming. I do hope the very best for your son. GOD BLESS

[moondoddler]

Has anyone ever had a scan of the brain veins and such to find out if it is a circulation problem? I searched....SPECT SCANS
Everything starts and ends in your Brain-Soul connection.

How your brain and soul work together determines how happy you feel, how successful you become, and how well you connect with others. The brain-soul connection is vastly more powerful than your conscious will. Will power falters when the physical functioning of the brain and the health of your soul fail to support your desires, as seen by illogical behaviors like overeating, smoking, drug and alcohol abuse, and compulsive spending.
SPECT . . . . basically tells us three things: areas of the brain that work well, areas of the brain that work too hard and areas of the brain that do not work hard enough. Once we know how the brain works, the goal of treatment is to balance brain function, such as calm the overactive areas and enhance the underactive ones.

SPECT creates a colored picture representing blood flow or chemical reactions in different areas of the brain. It requires the injection of a radioactive material. Areas of low blood flow show up as apparent “holes” on colored pictures of the brain, giving a moth-eaten appearance. Amen says that when patients improve clinically, the appearance of their follow-up scan typically improves. For example, patients using marijuana had areas of low activity in the temporal lobes compared to patients not using the drug. Dr. Amen says he can literally show his patients “this is what your brain looks like on drugs.” In one case he reported, a patient with attention deficit disorder, obsessive thinking, anger outbursts, and depression had demonstrable defects on the initial scan which were visibly improved after three years of clomipramine therapy. Dr. Amen says that this kind of graphic demonstration can help persuade patients that their problem is physical or physiological and might be helped with medication or other treatments.

[bugedout]

I was put on zyprexa after the Dr. had put me on lorazepam for sleeplessness. Turns out this was highly addictive and I didn't know this. She gave me a 10 day script and when I was done with it I began having one endless panick attack. I became suicidal and my daughter took me to the emergency room about 2 to 3 weeks after finishing those 10 days of lorazepam. They put me on clonazepam and zyprexa. I finaly got the internet and checked into these meds and found that I was suffering from withdrawls and that I needed to get off. I checked myself into a recovery house where they got me off of the clonazepam but they refused to help me get off of the zyprexa. I understand why now as it takes a really long time to get off of it and could be potentially dangerous but I was determined because of all  of those horrible side effects everyone has mentioned and I didn't want to grow old all sick like this. I tried a number of times without success until I read that zyprexa damages our neurotransmitters and it takes tha brain anywhere from 2 months to several years to completely rebuild new neurotransmitters. With this information I began reducing by taking my regular 10 mg every other day for 2 months then I cut it in half to 5 mg EVERYdayfor 2 mo's. then 5 mg every other day for 2 mo's. then 2.5 mg everyday for 2 mo's. n 2.5 mg. every other day for 2 mo.s. When I got to 2.5 mgs every other day it started to become a bit more difficult and I started to supplement with GABA, SAMe and folic acid. I had to keep increasingly take more of the supplements then I realized that a brisk walk on a treadmill for 35 to 40 minutes stopped the racing heart and the trembling for nearly half the day. I began walking up the hill for a half mile then back down every morning and I did the treadmill in the afternoon. This was a Godsend. Armed with this I was able to reduce from 2.5 every other day to 2.5 every third day etc. until I was finally able to stay off for exactly 2 mo's when I found the withdrawls too much for me to bear so I took 5 mg for a couple of days and decided to give myself permission to take a zyprexa when I absolutely couldn't find another solution but that ea time I would try to go a little longer without it. Well about a week later the withdrawls were pretty bad but I was determined not to take the medication. I was praying like crazy and gradually within a matter of minutes the sensation went away and I haven't taken any in a few months. One more thing that I need to add for honesty's sake. During my first 2 months of not taking the zyprexa I couldn't stop trembling and my daughter got online and found that it was called essential trembling and that a glass of alcohol would relieve the symptoms so after having been clean and sober for 20+ years I relented and had a glass of wine every night and low and behold it worked. Use your own discretion with this information. I hope this helps and God bless. Someone posted something about feeding these meds to those Drs. that tell you this stuff is't addicting etc. I agree whole heartedly. A big amen to that.

[dwt7let]

Hi Is this an anti-psychotic drug ? With anti-depressants it's important to do slowly slowly and trick the brain as it doesn't like sudden change our brains have a chemical addiction to the drug after 8 weeks.
Ok so there's no race to get off it and as you know now it's not easy, so cut a couple of tablets into quarters then reduce one quarter one night in the week the other days have the normal 2.5 dose do this for 2 weeks. Then the following week reduce 2 nights by a quarter spread out eg a Monday and a Sunday the other nights have the normal dose do this for two weeks then reduce on three nights in the week spread out. Remember the previous week if you last reduced on the Sunday leave it a couple of days before starting the new week of withdrawal.
I do hope this helps you, coming off these tablets alters the brain chemistry and by doing it ever so gently it allows our brain and body to get used to the very gradual reduction. You can still get withdrawal symptoms if you find it too painful at one stage stay there for an extra week or two till you stabilise.
Good Luck and tell me how your getting on !!
Love
Lorraine xx

[themusicalman]

Ok so the question about your son on zyprexa.....I wanted to relate my exact and irrefutable knowledge on this subject.......main premise is this.......disregard about 80% of what the doctor has to say.....question about 80-90%.......listen to a possible explanation of the other 20% of reasoning he might provide that sounds decent......now here is what is called critical thinking.....or protecting your *** i might say.....or having strength and a backbone in terms of your courage and your peace of mind....and sanity with your sons condition.......if the doctor wants to add medication because you wean your son to a lighter and more natural med like zoloft or something that has safer results for his physical and mental health.....if the doctor says, wow you seem elevated or a little rapid today to your son this is the perfect response to call your doctor out on his ignorance, because believe me psychiatrists are the most extreme mistakes we have made in terms of complete and accurate medical knowledge....I dont know why we employed the freaks we did in the US......the doctor wants to control symptoms of possible anxiety, psychosis, scattered and racing thoughts, and of course his general methods of tackling these problems consist of these pretty aggressive messed up and horrible medications, Lithium, Seroquel (Satans domain), Zyprexa (Oh boy demon possession and risk of homelessness and no social life and total health damage from weight gain and diabetes) any idiot doctor can recommend this to boost up the profits for drug companies and give praise to himself for trusting the miracle BIPOLAR DRUG......what a filthy unethical moron.....so why do i recommend zoloft, proper diet, vitamins, EXPOSURE RESPONSE THERAPY when zoloft can be discontinued at the easy interval when the ocd disorder is controlled and cured at a certain point......because OCD is actually a condition that is worsened by the sedation, side effects, mental clouding, and emotionless hole that fills people when they accept these mental health drugs and throw them down like a man who is attached to alcohol 24/7......the ONLY EFFECTIVE THERAPY for OCD is called Exposure response therapy.....encourage your son to receive help from a psychologist on how to eliminate compulsions.....and how to approach his fears and obsessions in a graceful manner.....proven and created to treat ocd patients by a denver doctor psychiatrist actually and it has a high success rate of curing ocd in the best possible time.....so cutting down the zyprexa and doing the titrating......here is the method my doctor used to release me from the most terrifying mental health antipsychotic which ruined my brain function because it accelerated the problems of OCD.......go from 20 mg to 15 one week, next week 7 days again 15 to 10, no need to evaluate your son very carefully here this is definitely a safe move....zyprexa has a small and moderate effect on the body and brain here and it is a smooth process to wean him down to 10.....down to 5....just watch that he doesnt get extremely hyper or impulsive where he will do things that are inappropriate or harmful.......then go to zero and just start zoloft during this weaning process.....he will drop about 31 pounds guaranteed.....trust me the doctors are always wrong except for the brilliant few in this country still left

[Anneinside]

Never go off a psychotrophic drug without a doctor's supervision. You are asking for trouble doing it on your own.

[Radiohead69]

I have been on zyprexa 15mg for the last 4 months and although it has proved a more effective treatment of my type 2 bipolar than the many anti depresants i tried before it i found that my mania cycles would still accure just not as frequently but the major problem was the crash after that in which i would sleep 20 hours a day for up to 4 days. My phsc has put me on sericule. Tappering of zyprexa over a week 15 15 7.7 7.5 then 5  with 15 seri then stop zyprexa and 25 seri. First night of that and now 2 am so sure imnot going to sleep and after reeding the above think i was taken of the zyprexa to fast. It did not rip me apart lile anti depresents but was quickly depwndant on it to get to sleep so thought coming of would be a *****, so yay i sense a manic episode coming on thanks doc to late to take one now and be functional at work so will need to roll with manic but able to do my job still all these drugs have been way harder to stop than smoking dont know why med school tells docs thwy arent