Medicine Reduction

[IStillHaveHope]

Hello - I have a question regarding medicine reduction and if anyone had any advice or thoughts about it.

I have been doing pretty well over the past 10-12 months and as a result my current psychiatrist wanted to try a reduction in the medicine since I was having some side effects from it. I was a little apprehensive at first but reduced my medicine the last week of February. It's been about 5 weeks and I have still been doing well, but over the past few days, I've noticed that my thoughts are getting "stickier" on some of my old OCD triggers. Because of this I'm noticing an increase in anxiety too. My current thought is to monitor this for about a week or so, and if it remains the same or gets worse, contact my psychiatrist about it.

I'm just wondering if anyone has any experience with medicine reduction and if this is typical. It seems like if it takes 6-8 weeks for the medicine to work in the first place, it would probably take about the same time to roll off. However, I'm not a doctor so don't really know. I have been under increased stress the past couple of weeks with work so that might be part of it as well. It just sucks because I've seen a significant reduction in side effects and would like to keep it this way if possible.

If anyone has any guidance on this topic I would appreciate it.

Thanks!

[Sallyskins]

I've cut my 5 mg a day dose of aripiprazole in half over the past couple of days, but I'm making an appointment with the GP surgery's pharmacist.

So far I haven't noticed any difference, but that's par for the course in such a short space.

I haven't noticed any side effects from aripiprazole previously, apart from weight gain - I had been putting it down to greed, but it occurred to me that it had coincided with starting with aripiprazole.

I had been on sulpiride for a short while - only a low dose, but it made me gain weight rapidly. I had maintained a steady weight of around 10 stone/140 pounds but the sulpiride made me put on about 35 pounds.

I lost about half of that, before being offered a four month stay on an OCD ward, where I was prescribed the aripiprazole.

I quickly put the weight I'd lost on again, and more, which I put down to hospital food - stodge, stodge and more stodge, with very little in the way of fruit and vegetables! But I've continued to put on more weight, and I'm concerned that it might be down to the apiprazole.

I'm also concerned that aripiprazole has long term consequences for the brain, and if it's harmful, don't want to be on it for a moment longer than I have to.

I'm thinking of giving inositol a go. I shall put this to the pharmacist, but most practitioners are wary (rightly, in many cases) of medications and treatments that haven't been rigorously tested and approved by NICE (the body that clears medication for use on this side of the pond).

It's a real problem, balancing benefits and side effects. None of us wants to go back to the crippling symptoms of OCD, but side effects can be almost as bad.

[Mom2DnJ]

Isn’t what you are experiencing a clear indication that the dose you were on is the right fit for you? If the side effects are more severe than the OCD symptoms at your old dose I’d personally consider a change in medication all together.