Posted by Tomatheus on April 11, 2014, at 14:52:30
In reply to PDOC appointment Friday first time in years, posted by kadykat on April 10, 2014, at 1:07:56
Kadykat,
Hello, and welcome to Psycho-Babble. I apologize for my rather delayed response. I don't think that I have the kind of expertise on medications that some of the other members here do, but as far as medications are concerned, I will say that trying Nuvigil or Provigil seems like it might make sense, given your fatigue and long sleep times. Generally speaking, I think that antipsychotics will only increase your fatigue and make you sleep more than you already are, although Abilify (especially at lower doses) seems like it could be an exception, along with Latuda and maybe one or two others. Remember that the term "major tranquilizers" is sometimes used to refer to the class of drugs that most of us call antipsychotics or neuroleptics.
Interestingly enough, your psychiatric symptoms sound a little similar to mine before the onset of my psychosis some seven years ago. I had the strong fatigue with long sleep times that you describe, and the only medication that seemed to help me for more than a few days at a time was Nardil -- and I think that taking it with the antihistamine sleep aid doxylamine succinate (Unisom) may have kept my Nardil response going for longer than it would have otherwise gone on for. Unfortunately, my responses to various versions of Nardil didn't last for more than a few months total, and I eventually stopped trying to get the medication to work for me after I received what may have been a bad batch of the medication from my pharmacy in June 2006. I don't know if Nardil will interact with your pain medications (although I suspect that it might), but I thought I'd mention that for me, Nardil was the best psychiatric medication for my symptoms prior to my psychosis.
What I'm doing for my fatigue and excessive sleep now is taking vitamin D3. A blood test that I had done a little more than a year ago came back with me having an insufficiency of vitamin D, and I've gone through a few vitamin D3 trials now, with my current one lasting a little more than two months. I'd say that it's still too early for me to say how well I'm responding to vitamin D3, although the way I feel at present energy wise is leaving me somewhat optimistic about my chances of responding in the long run.
Have you ever had your vitamin D level tested? If you haven't, asking your doctor about a test might not be such a bad idea. There is some evidence that vitamin D levels tend to be somewhat lower in individuals with depression than they are in the general population, although studies that have looked at the effectiveness of vitamin D supplementation for depression have yielded mixed results. There is also some thinking that some individuals diagnosed with fibromyalgia might actually have osteomalacia, a softening of the bones that could be caused by low vitamin D levels. I know that this suggestion might seem like it's a little out of place here on the Psycho-Babble medication board, but I think that asking about getting a vitamin D blood test done most definitely would not hurt. Maybe -- just maybe -- getting your vitamin D level up into the optimal range (if it's low) might even help you with more than one of your current health problems.
Well, I realize that you've probably already gone to the appointment that you have scheduled for today with your pdoc, so instead of wishing you luck, I'm going to say that I hope that your appointment went well. I hope that the medications that your pdoc will prescribe (or has prescribed) will bring you some relief from your symptoms, along with any other treatment approaches that you may be using. It's probably too late to ask your pdoc about a vitamin D blood test today (unless your appointment is still yet to come), but I'd recommend keeping it in mind for the future.
Take care,
TomatheusHas schizophrenia with strong negative and cognitive symptoms
Taking Abilify & vitamins B3 & D3
poster:Tomatheus
thread:1063942
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20140328/msgs/1064060.html