I've written about this issue many times on this board but here it goes again.
When I take an antipsychotic med like zyprexa I get the following symptoms which are quite distressing:
- my eyes lose focus and roll upwards
- blurred vision
- fear
- paranoia
- confusion
- negative intrusive thoughts
- numbness around extremities
- deafened sound
- idea of reference
- hearing voices
- 'interference' of thinking
The most worrying symptom for me is fear. I get scared and paranoid and this happens two or three times a week and each often lasts for five hours.
Anyone else got this fear from an antipsychotic med? I'm taking 7.5mg resperidone consta depot injection plus 15mg zyprexa zydis.
Last edited by koolguy; 07-27-2011 at 01:03 AM.
Reason: Wanted to specify which med I'm taking
I am sorry to hear of you issues with you medications. I am happy to hear that the xanax is providing you some relief. What dosage of the xanax are you using to get that relief?
Has it completely taken the symptoms and the fears away? i have taken xanax as well to help with my Blood Pressure when I am anxious. At this point I have not needed it for quite some time, which I like too.
I hope you continue to improve and your life gets better each day!
I used to take Zyprexa but switched to Ambilify. I used to feel very numb and gained weight on Zyprexa. Really sorry to hear you're feeling terrible side effects :-(
Ask your doctor about Ambilify as an alternative. I take 15mg daily.
I also take a cocktail of vitamins which appear to be helping. I've recently lowered my dosage:
Ginkgo biloba
Vitamin C
Vitamin A
Vitamin E
Vitamin D
Vitamin B3
Vitamin B6
Vitamin B12
Folic acid
Zinc
Also, try Omega-3 and 6 with EPA and DHA. Obviously talk to your doctor first about this. They're cheap on the internet.
I am sorry to hear of you issues with you medications. I am happy to hear that the xanax is providing you some relief. What dosage of the xanax are you using to get that relief?
Has it completely taken the symptoms and the fears away? i have taken xanax as well to help with my Blood Pressure when I am anxious. At this point I have not needed it for quite some time, which I like too.
I hope you continue to improve and your life gets better each day!
Hi writeleft and guys.
I am taking 0.025mg of Xanax(Valium) and it works well to counter the extreme agitation i feel.
I'm gonna ask for cogentin for rolling up of eyes and tongue, possibly tomorrow. I hope this drug will be the cure for the fear induced by antipsychotic meds and other symptoms.
Best of luck to you! The dosage of xanax is the lowest one, and the one I take as well. As long as it works, keep on using it. We are right behind you all the way..stay strong and keep moving forward.
I think what I'm having is less of an akathisia and none of anxiety but more of dystonic reactions, in that my eyes roll up, my face becomes numb, and my eyes become blurry. I have obtained diazepam and cogentin from doc and tried both this afternoon, and it seemed to work in that I don't get agitated as much and my eyes don't roll up. So in conclusion, I think I'm having acute dystonia and not akathisia.
So basically the workings of how my side effect works:
1. Vision gets blurry and/or out of focus. Also after a while I get lookups(my eyes roll upwards).
2. Vision effects induces fear and agitation that gradually increases until it's unbearable if cogentin is not taken.
3. Anxiety as mentioned in step 2 quickly causes me to hear voices. Taking Valium or Xanax helps but they are habit-forming so my doc discourages me to take them.
4. Cogentin gets rid of visual effects so the cause for anxiety is eliminated which in turn means all the distressing factors are eliminated(agitation, hearing voices and lookups).
PS. I kind of think, opposed to doc's advise if I take Valium in addition to cogentin I would be relieved of distress more quickly, but let's try in the next few weeks with only cogentin first, then if that doesn't work quickly enough valium too.
The plan for the treating team is gradually over the next six or eight weeks my dosage of zyprexa will be reduced until nil then I would only continue to get resperidone consta injects every two weeks. I'm feeling well and I decided to take valium immediately upon experiencing those 'visual effects', especially 'out of focus' phenomenon.
I'm under CTO(Community Treatment Order) for six months in my country. I still got six months remaining, I think. I need to get injections every two weeks for the remaining period. So far I'm handling it well. I feel well enough and except for sleep problems I don't have much problems. The only worry some side effect I have the one associated with lookups, as I have mentioned at length above it can be effectively treated with cogentin, so I'm relieved.
The conclusion is that congentin takes away the fear, agitation and lookups. I hope the info here will be helpful to someone experiencing the same symptoms.
Last edited by koolguy; 08-18-2011 at 05:25 AM.
Reason: Also wanted to mention about prospects about CTO
All times in PM:
5:00 felt a little scary feeling in the background so decided to head home
5:10 took cogentin
5:30 took diazepam
6:30 lookups as I walk home. rang acute care and asked if i could take another cogentin. they said yes.
7:00 took another cogentin
7:10 returned to normal
The question is if I took the second cogentin earlier wouldn't it help me to recover sooner? Like if I took it at 5:40 after diazepam, could I have recovered by 6:00?
7:30 all other signs are gone but i still hear voices
7:40 still hear voices
When will I stop hearing voices? Don't seem to be hearing any now. So it took another 1hr for me to stop hearing voices. So altogether 3hrs. If I took the second cogentin earlier it would be 2hrs.
So plan of action is that next time if I take cogentin first then doesn't recover within 30 minutes then take another.
Conclusion: take max two tablets of cogentin per day if necessary.
Felt a little scared at around mid day so took cogentin once early. So far I'm OK(5:30PM). I want to test if at all times I will be OK if I take cogentin twice(2mgx2). I will wait for next two weeks.
I need to ask the doc if they can lower the dosage of zyprexa to 10mg from 15mg.
I have found the solution to how to cope with uneasy feeling that I get that is associated with dystonic reaction I get with antipsychotic meds I'm taking. Simply, I just need to sit down on my chair, close my eyes, then relax until I feel well. So getting rid of stress due to being anxious about getting scared helps alot.
I'm reluctant to go outside because I'm afraid I might have to take cogentin and it might not work.
BUT I consoled myself( and it seemed to work) that I can always take two instead of one cogentin when the dystonic reaction happens.
Last edited by Mod-S4; 09-30-2012 at 01:36 AM.
Reason: Posts merged.
I came to uni to study instead of home. Will take two congentin not one if i get scared. Boiled water for noodles. Anxiety problems decreased because I focus on my studies better.
I came home safely without dystonia. No worries. Even if I did Ive got two tablets of cogentin and heaps more and that would address the problem.
Last edited by Mod-S4; 09-30-2012 at 01:37 AM.
Reason: Posts merged.
Let me start by saying it is a relief in some way to find someone that
suffers like I do.
In brief, I have had schizophrenia for the past 20 years when i was taking depixol injection. I have in that time been on several antipsychotics including abilify, zyprexa, seroquel etc and also several antidepressants in combination.
I have had these so called fear attacks or what I term anxiety all that time.
I also had the eye rolling which was called ocular gyrocrisis when in hospital which went away when i was put on the new antipsychotics.
I can't say with certainty whether it is medication induced or not as you may well know if I stop my current meds (resperidol, amisulpiriide, paroxetine and amitryptyline) then you risk getting ill and being sectioned.
Regards
a Friend
The Following User Says Thank You to synpase321 For This Useful Post: koolguy (08-26-2011)
At uni now. Don't have uneasy feeling at the moment. Will start studying now.
Had lecture. Nothing more today but I will try to stay at uni and not go home. Trying to resist being anxious being scared about a dystonic reaction. My strategy is to take my time in doing things. For example, instead of going straight home after lecture, I'm having lunch and taking my time about it. Two tablets of cogentin will work just in case.
My rule is to go home after 5pm. So that will roughly leave me 1 hour to eat lunch and maximum of three hours of study at uni. Dystonic reaction might occur towards the 5 o'clock mark but I'm ready.
Say I get it at 5o'clock while waiting for the train home. Just take two tablets of cogentin right away with water. Then wait for 20 minutes for the drug to work. Then I should be fine by 5:30 or 6 o'clock, which by the time I would be walking home after leaving the train.
Last edited by Mod-S4; 09-30-2012 at 01:37 AM.
Reason: Posts merged.
Try taking up to 6mg of cogentin.
---
Came out to have a walk and I started hearing voices. So I took that as an early sign that the dystonic reactions might happen(like lookups and etc) so took two tablets of cogentin(2mg each). Under way home my vision became blurry. It's 5:30PM now.
Still hearing voices and my vision might induce further fear. Will lie down and wait it out for 30 minutes, so that's until 6PM.
---
It's 6PM. Voices have died down and while I was resting I felt agitation associated with blurred vision and 'lookups' were subsiding also, but I still feel agitated. So it takes more than half an hour for me to find relief, even though I've taken 4mg of cogentin at the beginning.
I will wait further 30 mins until 6:30PM.
---
It's 8:10PM and I started getting agitated at 5:30 so that 2.5 hours. Agitation is nearly gone. I think cogentin is definitely the right kind of medicine for what I"m suffering. Anticholigenics work to resture balance between acetylcholine and dopamine in the brain and the fact that I get lookups without the medicine proves to me that it is. This time I didn't get lookups like last time when I only had one cogentin at the beginning. But it still took more than two hours for me to get well. So what I can expect from this medication is not immediate relief but that over several hours. Before there were times where my face would get contorted in pain because of agitation and my eyes roll forcibly upwards, but this time it wasn't the case. So I guess cogentin works.
But if I get this dystonic reaction when I'm at uni, then I can't expect to wait it out at uni but I have to come home. So that means if I have labs to attend at 4 or 5pm I can't stay to complete the assessment. So I guess I need to tell the lecturer about my problem and hand in the work later in the week.
I think I feel OK now. Thank God. Like last time it took 2.5 hours but without the lookups.
---
This is based on an article I found on the web. These are different kinds of dystonic drug reaction from an antipsychotic.
I get from all the antispsychotic meds:
- buccolingual: protruding or pulling sensation of tongue
- torticollic: twisted nect, or facial muscle spasm
- oculogyric: roving or deviated gaze.
Note on oculogyric. My eyes become blurry or out of focus. Things appear closer than they actually are. Field of vision gets restricted and I feel agitated. Then my eyes roll forcibly upwards.
When I see doc on 2nd September I will report my experience with cogentin and enquire about an alternative antipsychotic.
Last edited by Mod-S4; 09-30-2012 at 01:39 AM.
Reason: Posts merged.
From what I have read on the net there are two versions lets say of akathesia - and the one that I feel i have more of is the subjective akasthesia whereby you experience anxiety etc.
Good luck with your appointment on the 2 Sept. I don't want to distract you because I find with this particular illness the person has to learn from personal experience but I tried a whole host of different antipsychotics - zuclopenthixol, sulpiride, amisulpiride, chlorpromazine, risperidone, abilify, seroquel, zyprexa and I still got this "fear". It could be that the other drugs had not got out of my system in time. The eye rolling - ocular gyric crisis - only happened once to me in a hospital setting but now in the community i still for many years had so called pseudo-ocular gyric crises whereby the mere thought of having another one drove me to a mini eye rolling event. I say HAD as I don't fear them anymore and I believe with some self belief I hope you will stop having them as well.
I agree with your statement that anticholinergic drugs help and they did for me too including procyclidine but my doctor believed that I was using them for their mood altering properties rather than treating the residual anxiety I had as a result of being diagnosed schizophrenic. I also tried another artane which I bought over the internet and foolishly took as it did help initially but I needed higher doses which in turn has their own side effects so I gave up.
This where I had a mini breakthrough, I hope, whereby quite recently my doctor quite accidently prescribed me amitriptyline which is a tricyclic antidepressant for sleeping but I have been using it to get ride os this "fear". I believe it works by it mere anticholingeric effect - do some research on if you can. The only downside to taking such drugs is like you mention Koolguy your system gets too used to them and you have to rely on either increased doses or something else.
Next time I will try 6mg of cogentin at the beginning. The action of cogentin is accumulative relative to the dosage, so 6mg should mean several fold increase in anticholinergic effect.
Also I will ask to change medication to Seroquel. One doctor is intending to stop the injections and that leaves just the oral medication, so that will probably mean less amount of antipsychotic medication in the blood, so I would require less amount of cogentin to take effect.
---
Say waiting time t is equal to
t=5-rn
where r is rate and n is number of 2mg cogentin taken.
To estimate r we know that when n=2 it takes 2.5 hours for dystonic reaction to subside.
So
n=2:
5-2r=2.5
2.5=2r
r=2.5/2=1.25.
We've found r so let's estimate how long it takes when n=1 and n=3. Three 2mg
cogentin is the maximum dose per day.
n=3:
t=5-1.25(3)=5-3.75=1.25 hours or 1hr 15minutes.
n=1:
t=5-1.25(1)=5-1.25=3.75hours or 3hours 45minutes.
So next step would be to check whether this makes any sense or not. Next time dystonic reaction happens I will take 6mg cogentin and wait to see if it indeed takes 1 hour 15 minutes. If it does then it's acceptable(since it takes 30 minutes to 1 hour to take effect) and it is great news.
---
Just for fun let's say equation of waiting time t is quadratic.
t=5-an^2-bn-c
Then
c=0
and a and b can be determined with two actual values t for n.
We have one: when n=2, t=2.5. So we have to wait for t when n=3 to solve this equation.
So my alternate model is:
t=5-an^2-bn.
Let's wait until what happens when n=3.
Last edited by Mod-S4; 09-30-2012 at 01:40 AM.
Reason: Posts merged.
Re: Fear induced by antipsychotic medication 
