Posted by DanielJ on May 11, 2005, at 11:23:48
In reply to Re: Voices in the Head/ maybe not so bad?, posted by xbunny on May 11, 2005, at 8:48:31
From the Dad of a Lad whose dx = schiz.
As parents we were shocked and frightened to find our son might have it. Luckily he started meds less than a week after his first episode at 15 yrs. old. The learning process contiued with us resolving to do home stabilization.
He was given Abilify first, it = no sleep, true paranoia (which he hadn't yet experience and yes he had delusions of grandeur, the same one from day to day).
Within a month he left home one night at 2:00 am and wound up at a friends house. They let him stay till he got on their nerves. Back to the Pdoc in a week and on Zyprexa. It helped right away, he slept and so did we. His routine continued but a little better each day till one violent outburst brought the police and they brought him to a crisis center. The Pdoc there dumped the Klonopin he was taking and added Zoloft and doubled his Zyprexa. 10 days later he forgave us for sending him there and he was home at last.
After that another 5 months adjusting the Zoloft dose and healing the episode. Then back to High School. A year later and he's an Honor student in HS looking forward to his senior year and graduation.
Summary and my opinion Zyprexa is the best AP but doseage is the key to all medications. He was on 20mg for 1 year, now is taking 15 mg. Zoloft (or a suitable AD)is necessary for anxiety that is part of the syndrome. Take it every day. If after several weeks you feel dopey you probably have an overmedication problem. I Believe from experience that a substantial AP mg and a moderate AD will do the trick for most people with this illness. My son says now he can just ignore visual hallucinations he had occasionally (he used to see words in block letters). He claims that he hasn't heard voices in over a year. He is happily anticipating summer vacation.
poster:DanielJ
thread:496295
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20050510/msgs/496394.html