Zyprexa withdrawal Horror stories

I don't know if anybody is following this thread any more, since there are no new postings, but being the Virgo I am, I want to follow up on my posting from April 26 with the latest developments.

My son has now for two weeks been on a further reduced 0.625 mg dose of Zyprexa (1/4 of the original 2.5 mg dose) plus 3mg Melatonin for sleeping, at bedtime every night. When we cut down from 1.25 to 0.625mg he again experienced a bout of insomnia. He could still be awake and talking to himself 3 or even 4 hours beyond bed time. However, within two weeks this has regularized, and he now typically sleeps between 1 and 2 hours after lights out.

His daytime behavior is more or less unchanged. Talkative and possibly a little more active than before, but his teachers in his special school say that he is staying well within limits of expected behavior.

Since we originally (5 years ago) put him on Zyprexa mainly for behavior control, I have now concluded, that anti-psychotic medication may not at all be the right thing for him. After another month we will take him to his psychiatrist and get him totally off Zyprexa and try to find another category of medication for controlling his excessive talking to himself.

Unless something dramatic happens, I will not bother you any more with this story, which may be a bit off topic, since it relates to a mentally retarded person and not a case of "regular" schizophrenia. Anyway, it represents one variation on the theme "Zyprexa withdrawal horror stories".

# 16.

DS Parent wrote:My son has now for two weeks been on a further reduced 0.625 mg dose of Zyprexa (1/4 of the original 2.5 mg dose) plus 3mg Melatonin for sleeping, at bedtime every night. When we cut down from 1.25 to 0.625mg he again experienced a bout of insomnia.Since we originally (5 years ago) put him on Zyprexa mainly for behavior control, I have now concluded, that anti-psychotic medication may not at all be the right thing for him.

# 17. "I have tried to come off Zyprexa but after a few days I start getting servere stomach cramps, being sick and diararaha. My Doc has said to take 1/2 a pill each night instead of one and do that for a week and then come off them. I have tried 3 times to come of them due to the weight gain.

Has anyone ese had these withdrawals and how did they deal with it ? "

http://www.healthboards.com/boards/bipo ... -them.html

# 18 When I went to the E.R complianing of the nausia , vomitting , panic attacks , relentless insomnia that lead me all the way to an anxiety psychosis from hell ( I was never "psychotic" before this ) and asking for help they were totaly clueless and the fact that I was taking zyprexa was taken as proof I was "just being mental" and needed zyprexa. I realy thought they would say "The nausia and vomitting is caused by ( medical terminology goes here ) and the remedy is ________ .
Thats what I though but the remedy was an Rx for more of the offending zyprexa and a dose of "blame the victim".

I started this thread so other people who were searching the net trying to figure out why they are getting sick can print this out and SHOVE IT IN A DOCTORS FACE and say HELP ME and actualy get helped.

Free sample of zyprexa anyone ?

Never been on zyprexa, but I doubt I could tolerate it for long. Nearly all psychiatric drugs I've taken cause side effects worse than the symptoms they're meant to treat, so I get taken off of them before my dependency builds up.

I've been on Zyprexa from 1999 to 2006. The withdrawal was like a marathon without knowing if there is an end. The most difficult part is insomnia wich makes you nervous as hell. Coldturkey is the only solution to definetly quit with it. I've been cutting those damn pills to quarteres, to eintens, to molecules to taper down. I could taper down for 300 years and I would still need them to sleep. Now I'm off with Zyprexa for 9 years. The sleep is OK but I can't manage stress as I used to. My ears get hot and red and my mounth gets dry. I can still distinct colors and different temperature degrees so I doubt I'm hallucinating.

I'm sorry the withdrawal has been so difficult for you. I can appreciate your thoughts about the difficulties in having to taper so slowly, however no one here is in the capacity to say how to best come off a medication, and people should follow the advice of their doctor.

Cheze2 wrote:I'm sorry the withdrawal has been so difficult for you. I can appreciate your thoughts about the difficulties in having to taper so slowly, however no one here is in the capacity to say how to best come off a medication, and people should follow the advice of their doctor.

Unless its the same doctor that perscribed you this stuff and told you "don't worry its safe" then find a new doctor.

Zyprexa (Olanzapine) caused me more pain then written language could possibly describe.

I'm truly saddened that you guys had to go through such a withdrawal, but i'd like to discuss a little bit the pharmacology of Zyprexa and try to give you a little hope, even if it's a bit off topic (move this post anywhere you want, if this is not the right place)
Neurobiology is mysterious and even psychiatrist are not completely sure about it. So, to write something that actually makes sense, we'll have to keep as simple as possible.

I've asked several psychiatrist in Rome, where i live, which is a place where they usually want to give you the lowest dose possible and use psycotherapy to help you.

A fully antipsychotic dose of Zyprexa is 10mg - 30mg.
5mg - 7.5mg is still antipsychotic, but it's a dose for a psychotic episode and not a psychotic disorder.
2.5mg is almost not even antipsychotic from what i could hear. it's, anyway, a powerful hypnotic and still useful for that purpose.
ask them about doses below 2.5mg.
when i tried to ask them if lowering from 0.625 to 0.0 was safe, the answers were

"hahahahaha! HAHAHAHAHA! "
"0.625 is not even a dose. totally pointless"
"are you kidding me? of course"
"sub-fetal dose"

i kept asking them for more explanation. take a look at this:

http://postimg.org/image/u766ty8xn/

zyprexa in the center. look at the slope of the zyprexa's D2 blockade curve. project it to near-zero doses and you'll get an idea of how much antipsychotic zyprexa is at such doses. i mean, look at the line of the antipsychotic threshold. look at that.
the point is, i find it unlikely that you can't stop using zyprexa because you're psychotic if you successfully lowered down to 2.5mg.
we should investigate how the M3 muscarinic receptor and the H1 histamine receptor play their role in this withdrawal.
i also assume most of you guys smoke like i used to do. probably you already know that

"Olanzapine is metabolized by the cytochrome P450 system isoenzymes 1A2 and 2D6 (minor pathway). Drug metabolism may be increased or decreased by agents that induce (e.g. cigarette smoke) [...] CYP1A2 activity..."

i remember how terrible were those days and even if now i have an excellent baseline and the sun keeps shining i want to help as much as i can the people stuck in that black hole.

zyprexa can be quitted and just like me you'll lose all the weight... i can even see my abs now.

HOPE!!! someday this will be just a bad memory.

Hello to everyone. I have been on Zyprexa for 5 years at 5 mg daily. I had it indicated due to severe anxiety. I also take alprazolam 3 mg a day divided in three doses. My main concern is that I want to quit the Zyprexa due to its multiple possible side effects. The problem is that I once tried to cut it and experienced nausea and anxiety attacks. I would like to know if anybody can reccomend a withdrawal schedule in order to experience the less amount of side effects. Thank you very much. P.S. It has been a week since I lowered the dose to 2.5 mg a day.

Today I started with nausea and dry heaves!!! Ihad to retake the 5 mg dose in order to reduce the nausea and heaves. Please anyone has any advise?

trapax2002 wrote:Today I started with nausea and dry heaves!!! Ihad to retake the 5 mg dose in order to reduce the nausea and heaves. Please anyone has any advise?

Since the mental health system got you started on medications, it also has a responsibility to help you terminate that treatment as safely as possible if that is your choice.

Remind them of that fact !

See a medical doctor. Talk medical not psych, why nausea and heaves ... ?

Medical talk and demand medical tests and answers. Post those answers here if you can to help others.

I had to start taking Benzodiazepines to get over the Zyprexa withdrawals. I wrote about it here. Essential advice needed for Zyprexa withdrawals anti-psych/topic113092.html

Not sure that was the best way to do it.