LATUDA???

My doctor suggested trying an extra 50 mg of seroquel some time ago for anxiety, instead of diazepam.  That did not seem to do much, so I took the new drug I am trying called "Latuda". I just did 40 mg of that about 1 hour ago. It is 1:35 in the afternoon here and I am feeling quite relaxed, but not sleepy. I was really agitated.

Has anyone else had a doctor recommend trying an anti-psychotic like Latuda or seroquel for anxiety?

Latuda and Seroquel are both dopamine agonist neuroleptics, used as antipsychotics and used off label for all kinds of things.

They are on my personal do not touch list, as this class of drugs is known to occasionally cause permanent neurological problems which can be disabling and cannot be treated. My psychiatrist thinks they are vastly more dangerous than benzos (which he also thinks are extremely hazardous).

Scary about what your doctor said Spengler.

My husband just said that they probably don't have a mental illness like you do.

I would not doubt that these drugs change your brain for good. Unfortunately, my brain is already sick, before drugs of any kind. I hallucinated horribly as a child. I really want to get off all drugs. I have (had) a friend that was schizophrenic and thought he could fly and jumped out a window. Luckily he landed on a huge bush. He stopped his meds and thought he was from another planet, had some mysterious mission, became dangerous, just like my brother. It is so sad. My brother is so ill and missing now for years. When he stayed on his meds he was in our life's. When he was off he thought he was Jesus Christ or some ultra person and that we should bow down to him. He also threatened to lock me in the closet like an Edgar Allen Poe kind of horror story, leaving me slowly to die. There is still such a stigma on mental illness. It sucks. I wish there were a cure. I would like to have my brother back. Thanks for all the input.

Latuda and Seroquel are both dopamine agonist neuroleptics, used as antipsychotics and used off label for all kinds of things.

 

They are on my personal do not touch list, as this class of drugs is known to occasionally cause permanent neurological problems which can be disabling and cannot be treated. My psychiatrist thinks they are vastly more dangerous than benzos (which he also thinks are extremely hazardous).

Spengler,

It looks like you just finished your taper as of 4/15/13? 0mg? Congrats! Also, you said you see a psychiatrist? Does he or she have you on anything? Just curious because I really wish to find a different way to deal with the mental health illness.

My doctor suggested trying an extra 50 mg of seroquel some time ago for anxiety, instead of diazepam.  That did not seem to do much, so I took the new drug I am trying called "Latuda". I just did 40 mg of that about 1 hour ago. It is 1:35 in the afternoon here and I am feeling quite relaxed, but not sleepy. I was really agitated.

 

Has anyone else had a doctor recommend trying an anti-psychotic like Latuda or seroquel for anxiety?

Sorry, but I'll never understand how taking a dangerous anti psychotic drug as a substitute for another dangerous psychoactive drug can be a good idea.

This list is full of people who are trying to substitute one dangerous drug for another in an attempt to find a non-existant silver bullet.

Because I have been around the danger of having a friend and a brother with schizophrenia, I know first hand how dangerous it is when they are not on their anti-psychotics. I am also terrified of my own brain. I said the below on an earlier post...

I have (had) a friend that is schizophrenic and he thought he could fly and jumped out a window. Luckily he landed on a huge bush. He stopped his meds and thought he was from another planet, had some mysterious mission, became dangerous, just like my brother. It is so sad. My brother is so ill and missing now for years. When he stayed on his meds he was in our lives. When he was off he thought he was Jesus Christ or some ultra person and that we should bow down to him. He also threatened to lock me in the closet like an Edgar Allen Poe kind of horror story, leaving me slowly to die. There is still so much stigma on mental illness. It sucks. I wish there were a cure. I would like to have my brother back.

As far as taking something else (Latuda) in substitute of a benzo... I DO NOT want to take it regularly. I feel trapped in my body with the other drugs I am on. My doctor does not want me off of the others because she does not want me to become suicidal again. Unless one has a mental illness, they will not understand that it is not a choice, it is a brain. The brain is an organ like any other and it can get sick. My brother Bob may be dead now, my friend Shawn may get locked up and then sent to a mental facility. This is why there are anti-psychotics... for those that are dangerous to others and themselves or suffer greatly. But I do not endorse them, but I have seen them help people that are truly ill, and I think doctors are so busy and the pharmaceutical companies are pushing drugs on doctors... its easier for a doctor to write a prescription than spend time. I am afraid our whole world is turning into synthetic, non organic people. Now we are all so rushed, and TALK therapy is not as prevalent, plus patients are asking for these dangerous drugs and doctors are writing them.

Because I have been around the danger of having a friend and a brother with schizophrenia, I know first hand how dangerous it is when they are not on their anti-psychotics. I am also terrified of my own brain. I said the below on an earlier post...

Actually, multiple recent controlled & peer reviewed studies have demonstrated that neuroleptics (antipsychotic drugs) are extremely damaging in the long term, and that schizophrenics who get off of medication have better longer outcomes than those who stay medicated. If antipsychotic medications worked, then we'd expect to have seen a sharp decline in the amount of mentally ill people living in institutions or on the streets in the past 40 years, and this hasn't happened.

https://www.madinamerica.com/2013/03/do-antipsychotics-worsen-long-term-schizophrenia-outcomes-martin-harrow-explores-the-question/

Now, Harrow’s study produced findings that belied common wisdom.  He and Jobe followed schizophrenia patients for 20 years, and those who got off antipsychotics, as a group, had much better outcomes. Over the long term, they were much more likely to be recovered, much more likely to work; they were much less likely to be experiencing psychotic symptoms; and they had better cognitive function and they were much less anxious. So how can you square that finding with research showing that when patients are withdrawn from antipsychotic medications, they relapse at a much higher rate? That is the evidence for long-term use of antipsychotics, and here is what Harrow and Jobe write:  “We view the results from these discontinuation studies as involving a paradox.”

...

This is key. Harrow and Jobe are stating that the high relapse rate that occurs in the drug-withdrawal studies may be an artifact of the patients having been on the drugs in the first place.

There's at least one other study that replicated Harrow's results, and these are large sample size long-term studies published in major medical journals.

There is a change in tide occurring in how the medical community views these drugs, but it's going to take a long time for it to propagate because of the large number of people already in practice who have been trained that neuroleptics are a safe one-stop solution for handling psychotics.

Harrow's biggest point here is that seeing severe rebound psychosis in people who have been on antipsychotics is not surprising because it's a withdrawal effect. People who have taken these drugs for off-label reasons (meaning that they were not psychotic to begin with) are known to have episodes of psychosis coming of the drug. This is very similar to people with no history of anxiety problems who go on a benzo for sleep or muscle tension treatment, who then develop severe anxiety when the drug is withdrawn. The best argument for keeping people on antipsychotic drugs is "they'll go psychotic if we take the drug away!" Well, sure, just like heroin addicts develop severe pain when you take the heroin away: it's a withdrawal effect.

I wouldn't say I'm entirely against these drugs for true psychosis -- if you've got someone who is a completely nonfunctional being living in a state of severe hallucination, and all non-drug treatment options have been exhausted, then maybe it's worth making their underlaying condition worse over the long term, in the interests of making them happier and more functional in the short term. That's a pretty extreme case, though, and it applies to some minuscule minority of the millions of people presently on these drugs. Anyone taking antipsychotics off-label to deal with benzo withdrawal or anxiety or any other transient problem is walking down the path to hell.

Very informative information. My brother had all his symptoms before any drug was introduced into his system. He is in true psychosis. I really appreciate your information here. Thank you.

I hope that I can get off of both the seroquel and wellbutrin but my husband and psychiatrist get scared whenever I say that.  One of my worries is that if some kind of disaster happened and my meds got swept away like they nearly did in a tornado we had, what would I do? Withdrawing from all these meds at once? Withdrawing from benzos is bad enough. Lord have Mercy.

I hope that I can get off of both the seroquel and wellbutrin but my husband and psychiatrist get scared whenever I say that.  One of my worries is that if some kind of disaster happened and my meds got swept away like they nearly did in a tornado we had, what would I do? Withdrawing from all these meds at once? Withdrawing from benzos is bad enough. Lord have Mercy.

This very fear was what made me want to get off benzos, so I totally hear where you're coming from. I had a bottle of Klonopin go through the wash once, had to get an emergency refill called in, and then got treated like even more of a drug addict than usual by Walgreen's when I went to fill it.

FWIW, during a state of pretty severe crisis pre-benzo, I took a neuroleptic antipsychotic for several months without really knowing what it was I'd been prescribed (Zyprexa, 10mg I think). I gained weight and it made me sleepy, but I don't remember having any problems coming off of it.

Very informative information. My brother had all his symptoms before any drug was introduced into his system. He is in true psychosis. I really appreciate your information here. Thank you.

 

I hope that I can get off of both the seroquel and wellbutrin but my husband and psychiatrist get scared whenever I say that.  One of my worries is that if some kind of disaster happened and my meds got swept away like they nearly did in a tornado we had, what would I do? Withdrawing from all these meds at once? Withdrawing from benzos is bad enough. Lord have Mercy.

I didn't have any problems coming off of Seroquel.