Saphris Withdrawal Information

About a week ago, I (irrationally) decided to quit Saphris cold turkey after 1 year and 3 months on it for schizoaffective disorder. I have looked up withdrawal symptoms, and never found anything helpful at all, I'm assuming because it's a relatively new drug. I've decided to go back on it, but I did experience some withdrawal symptoms that I would like to share in case anyone out there ever needs to know, because there is literally nothing anywhere about it that I could find.
What I personally experienced:

- Insomnia
- Low-grade fevers
- Cold and hot flashes
- Cold sweats
- Diarrhea
- Mild heart palpitations
- Light-headedness
- Feeling "out of body"
- Tremors
- Confusion
- Nausea
- Fatigue
- Anxiety

That's what I dealt with in the 1 week I was off it. Insomnia was the worst, I have barely slept. The one good thing about being off Saphris was that my appetite decreased quite noticeably. I guess now I know for sure that hunger pangs are definitely caused by the Saphris.

So I just wanted to put this information about Saphris withdrawals out there on the internet in the case that anyone should be curious about it in the future. Hope this helps someone eventually!

Thank you for doing this, crestfallen. I definitely think it'll be helpful for other people. Everyone's different, but it's good to know someone's personal experience for perspective.

How long did these symptoms last? Especially the nausea?

I have been on Saphris for about 3 months. I am not bipolar but suffer from anxiety and have a "crazy brain" that is independent of my regular mind. My doctor gave me a month's trial of 5mg tabs, and the first two times I took them at night and got psychedelic dreams/nightmares and extreme sweats. I took a break but noticed for several days that I felt calmer than usual. The next time, I took a quarter of a tablet and didn't notice any side effects but I felt better on the pills.

I am incredibly sensitive to medication and normally need the smallest dose. I also find that after a month, the pills normally stop working like they should. I found after a while that I was feeling like I had weights on my limbs and that it was hard work to physically do anything, including waking up in the morning. I decided to come off the pills.

It's very frustrating that there's barely any information about withdrawal - this felt very much like an opiate withdrawal, with hot/cold feverish feelings, (but without the ability to get warm with the shivers), insomnia and anxiety episodes. I have been off Saphris now for about 3 weeks and the hot/cold has stopped, the insomnia is intermittent - but its the anxiety that's really troublesome. Before, I had anxiety about specific things and could work around it. The anxiety I am getting now is about everything - which is very out of character. It comes and goes without warning or predictability which makes it even harder to cope with. I think it's improving but it is very debilitating. I am lucky enough to work from home - this withdrawal would be impossible with a regular job.

I found withdrawal effects from citalopram (antidepressant) before also - another drug with under-reported withdrawal effects. I wish doctors would stop experimenting!

I didn't know I would experience withdrawal symptoms from Saphris. I decided to stop taking it for a week (have taken it for 2+ years) and within a week I experienced these symptoms:

Flu like feelings
Hot flashes
Extreme exhaustion

Normally I take one tablet at night and it helps with sleep. When I realized I was having some kind of withdrawal, I took one tablet about 4 in the afternoon and all the symptoms went away, but it didn't make me sleepy. I just began to feel normal again.

My doctor tells me that Saphris is a major tranquilizer. Is it possibly dangerous to discontinue totally? Based on my experience I have to wonder. I was miserable. I took hydrocodone for a number of years and quit suddenly and had nearly the same experience. That was awful too.

Saphris is not a tranquilizer. It is an important atypical antipsychotic. These medications should not be stopped abruptly, but discontinued with doctor supervision. Discontinuation symptoms can be dangerous, and avoided by proper down titration of the dose prior to stopping the dose. Be careful!

I stopped Saphris abruptly (this week) and after 3 days, withdrawal has kicked in with a vengeance. I am experiencing multiple physical symptoms listed--along with chronic anxiety and moment to moment "ups" and "downs". The first post of this thread was really helpful. It gave me more insight into the discontinuation of Saphris and its associated withdrawal symptoms. The side effects of this drug (for me) outweighed the benefits. Muscle tightness, clenching of the jaw, biting of the tongue and involuntary movements--that kept me awake--lasting as long as 2 hours before I could sleep. My "ups and downs" were mild but hindered. Saphris also helped with motivation; however the drawback was a simultaneous mixture of positive and negative emotions. i.e. my new-found motivation was accompanied with extreme rage, frustration along with mild mood swings. I hope it doesn't take weeks to get relief. I did start taking it in May--so hopefully that will lessen its duration.

My wife has been trying to get off Saphris after 3 years on it.
-over 2 months she tapered from 15mg/day to 1.25 mg/day with no withdrawal symptons.. in fact she felt great! side effects gone, etc.

But a couple days after going from 2.5 to 1.25mg she dedcided to just stop altogether. This resulted in immediate and debilitating insomnia-- her only withdrawal symptom but it was terrible.

After a week of hoping it was temporary and it not going away, her Dr suggested Benadryl which helped a bit for like 1 night but then didnt keep working...(and was never great). THen he put her on ambian which helped a little for 1 night in terms of sleep but she didnt feel rested at all the next day. He wanted to double her ambian dosage.. but we were nervous abotu this a a longer term solution. We read articles and that led us to teh idea that maybe, even though she had been off the Saprhis for 2 weeks and we really didnt want her to go back on, maybe we should go back to the 1.25 mg dosage experimentally. We tried that and it immediately cured the insomnia. She has now had 2 nights of great sleep. Our plan now is to just treat this last 1.25mg with much more seriousness in terms of tapering and maybe, if needed, take another few months to go from 1.25mg to zero in tiny increments.

Anyway that's our story. Your mileage and situation may vary but thought we'd post in the hopes taht it helps someone.