Halodol and its side affects

I was recently hospitalized and the dr put me on Halodol, 10mg 3x a day. I continued this dose after I got out of the hospital and it was helping with my voices but the side affects were horrible. I had slurred speech, trouble swallowing anything, and severe panic attacks. The panic attacks were the worst side affect. I felt like everyone was watching me and severely afraid. I had to leave work several times because I got a panic attack and my anti-anxiety pills didn't stop my panic attacks at all. I even took way more than my prescribed dose a couple times hoping it would stop the panic attack. I could barely even drive myself home because it felt like all the cars were watching me. So I stopped taking my medication about a month ago. Now my voices are back. One of them comments about my family like telling my they're going to kill me or that they poisoned my drink or that they're going to break into my home while I'm sleeping and stab me. I've been trying to ignore it but it's really wearing on me. I've tried a lot of different medications and nothing seems to take my voices away. Geodon helped a little bit but not really. I'm just getting really stressed out and confused lately. My insurance doesn't cover abilify or latuda so I've tried just about everything but those two. Any advice?

Hi, welcome to the forum!

Finding the right medication can be a difficult thing. I took me a couple years. What I would suggest doing is going to see a psychiatrist and maybe a therapist/clinical psychologist. I don't know if your insurance covers either of those things, but they are very good to have. Another thing to remember is that medication effects everyone differently. What is good for you might not be good for me. An example of that is that Geodon does wonders for me, while it didn't really help you that much. Just try to keep an open mind with these two things, but remember, therapy isn't for everyone.

you should talk to your doctor about what medications you've taken, and maybe find a different doctor with more knowledge. why because haldol only blocks D2 thats the only receptor really that it effects, so i dont know why he would go to an older medication like that. especially if you have panic. i suggest finding more information about the antipsychotics for example risperdal is like the opposite of haldol. just D2 antagonism cant really calm you down the dopamine goes to the sides of your brain and other places. you need to do more research even though you are in a frazzled state just look at the wikipedia for risperdal.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Risperidone

it has antagonism effects on 16 receptors. i think there is less andrenergic activity that might be able to calm you down. have you tried this medication? you should talk to your doctor about your clear mental state and one that is knowledgeable about how the receptors would effect you, and it looks like your anxiety medication isnt working so to calm down up to to like ativan?

ive taken haldol as my first medication and i know for sure to stay away from it it degenerates the hippocampus the fastest because the binding is so tight while newer medications are looser. ive also tried abilify latuda and risperdal and geodon. from the small description you gave me it seems like you really need to calm down before you do anything.

randomschiz wrote:you should talk to your doctor about what medications you've taken, and maybe find a different doctor with more knowledge. why because haldol only blocks D2 thats the only receptor really that it effects, so i dont know why he would go to an older medication like that. especially if you have panic. i suggest finding more information about the antipsychotics for example risperdal is like the opposite of haldol. just D2 antagonism cant really calm you down the dopamine goes to the sides of your brain and other places. you need to do more research even though you are in a frazzled state just look at the wikipedia for risperdal.

The so-called atypicals are not necessarily better than the conventionals. In some cases, doctors prefer a conventional like Haldol over an atypical because in general nothing seems to work better for the voices as Haldol. It's very personal.

randomschiz wrote:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Risperidone

it has antagonism effects on 16 receptors. i think there is less andrenergic activity that might be able to calm you down. have you tried this medication? you should talk to your doctor about your clear mental state and one that is knowledgeable about how the receptors would effect you, and it looks like your anxiety medication isnt working so to calm down up to to like ativan?

Affinity for more receptors doesn't necessarily mean the drug is better. Most atypicals are actually dirty drugs because they also bind to receptors they ideally should not bind to.

randomschiz wrote:ive taken haldol as my first medication and i know for sure to stay away from it it degenerates the hippocampus the fastest because the binding is so tight while newer medications are looser. ive also tried abilify latuda and risperdal and geodon. from the small description you gave me it seems like you really need to calm down before you do anything.

With Abilify there is even more D2 blockade than Haldol. Nobody knows that, only because aripiprazole is a D2 partial agonist instead of an antagonist.

Out of all the medications Haldol is the WORST, I switched to zyprexa (Olanzapine), i found it didn't give me the bad side effects Haldol gave me, but it did make me gain 30lbs, which I needed to do badly. I don't know why doctors still use Haldol this day and age, that drug is old and the side effects are awful.