Latuda and mood stabilizers

My pdoc is slowly taking me off Risperdone and onto Latuda. He also mentioned switching out my Depakote for Tegretol...all of which is fine with me as the Risperdone and Depakote are both weight gainers where as the Latuda and Tegretol are not. My question is this: I've read that when taking Latuda and Tegretol together the Tegretol lowers the amount of Latuda in the blood stream making it less effective. So, for those of you on Latuda, what mood stabilizer are you taking with it...and how is it working?

You are correct, taking lurasidone (Latuda) + carbamazepine (Tegretol) together is contraindicated because the combo may decrease lurasidone levels and efficacy. It also may increase the risk of CNS depression and psychomotor impairment. So you'd want your Pdoc to monitor you closely until you get the dosages right.

I've been on Latuda for 10 months and I don't take a mood stabilizer. For me, Latuda controls my mania, psychosis and paranoia, but it didn't help with depression/mood. So, I take Fetzima, an SNRI indicated for MDD, which seems to regulate my mood and lift depression. I usually stay away from meds that impact serotonin, but Fetzima inhibits reuptake of norepinephrine and serotonin at a 3:1 ratio, highly favoring norepinephrine. I also take Quetiapine (another AAP) for sleep, and it's probably helping me to stabilize my mood, too.

My favorite combo was Latuda and Strattera, but I cannot afford Strattera. Strattera is an NSRI and doesn't impact serotonin. So as you can see, for my brain, increasing norepinephrine is what helps me with mood stabilization and depression. I had genetic testing to help figure out what to take. Hopefully you can figure out a combo that will work for you.

Good luck!

I am on latuda and tegretol. My doctor knows it's contraindicated due to making the latuda less effective. She said we could just raise the dose of the latuda if needed.

Though for preparing for pregnancy reasons I am going to eventually be coming off the tegretol all together.

Caribee4me wrote:I had genetic testing to help figure out what to take.

Could you PM me a link for this? I am quite interested. Thanks!

That's funny you say that Caribee. I asked my doc about Strattera for my ADHD (one of the very few non-stimulatory ADHD meds) and outbursts and he didn't feel comfortable since he said there's a chance for bipolar symptoms to flare up. He put me on tenex which is what is prescribed for children with severe ADHD and I think it made me slightly manic. Bipolar sucks when just about every med I take has some sort of obnoxious effect on my mood.

MikeHooty wrote:That's funny you say that Caribee. I asked my doc about Strattera for my ADHD (one of the very few non-stimulatory ADHD meds) and outbursts and he didn't feel comfortable since he said there's a chance for bipolar symptoms to flare up. He put me on tenex which is what is prescribed for children with severe ADHD and I think it made me slightly manic. Bipolar sucks when just about every med I take has some sort of obnoxious effect on my mood.

Hi Mike,

I have BP1 and ADD. My doctor prescribed me Adderall because we didn't yet know that I had bipolar. Until the Adderall catapulted me into the longest and most intense mania I've ever known. So after that, he prescribed me Strattera, since like you said, it's a non-stim. It's worked fine for me. Why does your doc think it will stir up bipolar symptoms? I'm just wondering, in case I have some side effects that I don't realize are the result of my Strattera.

He said he's had cases that have made people depressed or manic. I looked up people that have taken Strattera with BP and a couple did say they swung one way or another. If you've been on it for a little while and you haven't had any effect yet you're probably be fine. Not to frighten you just letting you know what the doc said.

Oh, that's cool. Thanks!

-- Thu Jun 26, 2014 7:35 pm --

I take the list on my signature. This combo seems to work for me right now.

[quote="Caribee4me"] I had genetic testing to help figure out what to take. Hopefully you can figure out a combo that will work for you.

I am new here, I saw that someone said to PM him about this -- "Private message??" How would that person do that? I figured it out once, in 16 years I've been on over 35 different meds (antidepressants, sleep, atypicals ...). The idea of genetic testing sounds like an amazing development -- any info would be greatly appreciated.

I mixed the Latuda with Remeron. I took those 2 together before I went to lay down & I was so wore out & it knocked me out every time. It worked good for me at first. It made me a complete motor mouth but it made everything happen too fast & made me feel like I was on some speed but it helped me better than the other meds... They gave it to me with Neurontin too. I'm supposed to take those 3 times a day.