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Mental Health Coming off Invega Sustenna (paliperidone)

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If you Google 'psychiatry success stories' you'll get just as many results as 'psychiatry dangerous'. The internet isn't a great place for information on these topics, it's just a place to select your agenda and get all the websites related to your belief or agenda, so that you can reinforce it, which is all we want to do.

Invega shouldn't have such a dramatic effect at low to moderate doses. Tell your psych to halve the dosage. At really high doses both Invega and Risperdal create/exacerbate negative symptoms of schizophrenia, the docs aren't unaware of this.

If you want to treat the negative symptoms my doc said to try low doses of Solian.

Docs and nurses in this field just want to keep you on as little medication you need for as little time you need to be on it. There are things called regulatory boards and there is a lot of scrutiny of what docs do in Australia at least. In Australia once you have been put on an involuntary treatment you instantly are summoned by a review board that reviews your docs decision to do this with you present and asks what you think about it. It is then reviewed every 6 months and if there is an extension made by the doc at any time the 6 month review plus the extension will warrant two hearings.

This isn't 1984 you know. Well maybe America is but yeah. :D

These drugs are really most effective for severe positive symptoms like hallucinations. They aren't effective for negative symptoms except a few like the one I mentioned. Clozapine is also good for negative symptoms.

I don't know I guess it's just not worth slamming this stuff as it works in many cases.
 
I have only read the first page briefly, I was diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia at 17 (I'm 27 now) and it defiantly wasn't a misdiagnosis, I know myself, my symptoms and I understand the illness through research. I started paliperdone via IM injection about 18 months ago and while I'm on a regular 100mg dose I've actually noticed a massive improvement in my symptoms, and my life has actually got better. When they lowered the dose to 75mg about 9 months ago there was a slow decline and I eventually went into hospital to get back on a 100mg dose which has already helped control my symptoms.

I don't feel tired or feel like I have adhedonia, in fact I'm loving life right now, the only side effect I have, which I admit is causing me a lot of worry because I want children, is the ejaculation issues, which is why they lowered the dose. I will come back and check this page if anyone out there could give me some information about the erectile dysfunction that would be helpful. Is it affecting my sperm? Will my sperm still be good to have children, or should I come off the medication given I want my own children?

Should I get my sperm checked at a clinic?
 
what i sometimes read is that people stop taking their medication, what i dont get is how they are able to function without an anti psychotic if they truly have mental health issues. maybe its just me, but i cannot and will not ever stop taking my meds for any reason. i have tried to reduce the amount i take and i always feel psychosis coming back around the 2nd or 3rd day. how do people function in this state or is it that they just endure the hell that it is?
 
Hi Narshe81 ... I really felt your post and am sorry that I found it so late... I too was put on Paliperidone quite as an afterthought and had taken it for 4 months 100mg (injection) before experiencing pain in my right nipple (beginnings of gynaecomastia) which was reason enough for the psychiatrist to accept me wanting to stop it. Sad how every other one of the numerous side effects didn't warrant such a decision. That was basically in December last year (2013). Before then I had been on Risperidone (Risperdal consta depot injection) for around 14-15 years living the lifeless state you mentioned. I recovered fully after being off that for around 1- 1.5 years ... my weight returned to normal. My old self was back... I could sleep. I functioned correctly and was surprised how much of me was masked be Risperidone over the years. I had desire to exercise, draw , make music, dress fashionably... My vocabulary, wit, charisma was unrecognisable compared to before so much so that people asked what I had been doing. I looked a lot more handsome being 4-5 stone lighter. I say this to give you hope that you will someday be yourself again. ... which brings me to where I am now.

... I am currently withdrawing from Paliperidone injection 100mg. As I said I received my last injection in December and have been off for about 3 months. As yet, no improvement but now knowing about the elimination half-life of the drug I am just hopeful that when this toxin is out of my body I will be myself again and I hope you are too. Exercise is NOT too much of a great idea at all. I trained hard last week and it made me feel much worse. I attributed this to the fact that my acquired fat is on my body for a reason. That reason being, to keep all of that harsh chemical from damaging my organs. Me trying to get in shape even though I wasn't naturally out of shape caused me to feel even worse. I am completely flat now which caused me to seek out help on the net eventually finding your post. Bless you and I hope to all that have been unfortunate enough to be put on Paliperidone, that you recover fully and can receive that joy that is our right to posses in life.
 
I've recently started Invega Sustenna and its a pretty good medication for my schizoaffective disorder. I feel the anhedonia right now, but then again, I've had anhedonia for a while now. I notice that I get fatigued after doing something like playing computer games, which is something I use to enjoy a lot. Its as if the brain is working too hard to produce enjoyment and it makes me feel like I don't want to play games anymore because of this.

Try some energy drinks. Ones I enjoy are Monster energy and NOS. They make me feel better and you get this like buzz from them. Its about the only thing that does anything fun for me nowadays. If you can call it fun. Other than masturbating, that's all the fun I get in my life.

And for those wondering, I am able to ejaculate pretty easily on invega sustenna even though the psychiatrist said I would not be able to. I can do it now too easily.
 
You sound a lot like me when I was in the more severe stages of my illness snakeclone. A LOT like me...

The bad thing about Invega is at high doses you will probably develop titties. It's about 60% likelihood.

Energy drinks really were my staple happiness for a while there. It's the same for my brother who is still affected severely. Though he says it make his voices worse and gives him anxiety.

I suggest trying Clozapine if you're getting nowhere. People say the other antipsychotics do nothing, only Clozapine works for them. Some return to normal. Don't just rot in the emptiness of schizophrenia, try this one out.
 
Haha. I was on clozapine for 7-8 years. No way in hell am I going back to that thing again. The moment you no longer have family support, things just go out the window and you end up like a foster kid that just hit 18. My dad kicked me out of my house because he didn't want me to go back to school(he's what you call a weiner eater and listened to other people about mental illness and soocial stigma). Then, my psychiatrists wouldn't even believe me when I told them what my dad did. Like I said before, no chance in hell I will go on that crap again. Maybe other people have proper families and support, but not me. You hit problems like this on clozapine and it will take an eternity to figure out what went wrong. However, clozapine never took away my voices so your experience may differ. Garbage meds I wish I never went on in the first place.
 
have u come out of the side effects of paliperidone now

hi am also a victim of invega sustenna have the side effects of sex and andehonia gone away now
 
Clozapine is effective in most of the 30% of treatment-resistant schizophrenia cases; I'm sorry it didn't work for you. Luckily I never had to go that route. They caught it early for me, so the illness didn't progress into full-blown insanity. That said, I do hear things every now and then, am paranoid, and oftentimes isolate. After my final hospitalization though things became better. I used to have to be absolutely forced to go anywhere out in the open (even near the wilderness - if I was passing people at all I would feel the most intense fear and pressure).

Talking about invega sustenna though: if you have to get the shot then that probably means you have a pretty severe illness (what is it, 234mg?). If you're dead set on not taking it I'd urge you to consider doing a lengthy taper. Symptoms can be much worse in the few months after coming off it, leading to a much more deteriorated condition than before you were on it. Such is the case with all drugs - they produce rebound symptoms. You could call it withdrawal, but that's a notation generally reserved for typical drugs of abuse.
 
Hey Narshe,

Just checking in. I hope you're doing better man. Let us know

+1. Please let us know. I hope you are better now. It is our society that is mentally sick that everyone here has to post under pseudonyms anonymously.
 
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An update on me since it might be helpful to others:

It's been a little over two years since my two injections in early 2012. I do not believe that I recovered /completely/, but mostly.

My tolerance for ADHD meds is still extremely high, although I haven't tried dexedrine in a while so I don't know whether I'm still completely immune to its effects. Ritalin works but requires very high dose. As far as anhedonia, that is gone (thankfully).

If I'm at 90% recovered now, then a year ago I was at around 80-85% recovered. I should note also that since Invega made me come close to killing myself I requested anti-depressants out of desperation (mostly for the placebo effect, as studies have shown they're about as effective as that). I started Effexor ~9 or 10 months after the first injection, and after that did absolutely nothing and I had another close call I added Wellbutrin to the mix (about a month afterward starting Effexor). I stayed on them for about a year and then gradually came off Effexor by tapering the dose over a few months, and when that was done I went off Wellbutrin.

The depression is gone. I don't know whether the drugs helped with that or simply time. Like I said, I think the anti-depressants mostly worked as a placebo. The only real effect I noticed from them was brain zaps when increasing the dose (I was careful to *NOT* follow a psychiatrist's recommendation when coming off of it and that worked out well, no brain zaps. Don't listen to those bozos, most of them are complete idiots. Patients who realize this don't tell it to their face, they just walk away and never speak to them again, so they're left with delusional thinking like "they cured them" or that they were right all along. Their staff and most of society, meanwhile, continues to support their delusion of having any sort of intelligence or competence).

For the folks who insist that there exist competent or intelligent psychiatrists: you either got lucky and found a good one, or you don't know any better yourself and therefore aren't able to see them for the frauds that they are.
 
It might be American health standards? Australia is extremely high in health standards. All my psychiatrists have been intelligent and friendly/trustworthy.
 
An update on me since it might be helpful to others:

It's been a little over two years since my two injections in early 2012. I do not believe that I recovered /completely/, but mostly.

Have any one got erection dysfunction and pleasureless ejaculation and have these side effects went away after a year (as all the doctors say that the effect of the drug is 7 months to 12 months)

hi,
Am sharvan , i was taking invega susttenna (paliperidone) for two months (3 shots ,245 mg on first day ,156 mg on a week later , and 100 mg a month latter )and i gone severe side effects of erection dysfunction and loss of emotion and i could not even feel orgasm and i can not feel smoke and drinking ... i have stop the injection before three months bit i still feel the same.. i have consulted many doctors and read lots about dopamine and serotonin , doctors say that these drug unbind from the receptors with in 24 hrs of dissociation rate , so once these drug unbinds the dopamine will be back to normal and the side effects will be gone . iS IT TRUE HAVE ANY ONE EXPERIENCED IT , I HAVE READ In INTERNET THAT ANTIPSYCHOTIC DRUG MIGHT CAUSE PERMANENT ERECTION DYSFUNCTION [/B]
WILL IT BE TRUE ? DOES IT MEAN THAT THE DRUG WILL AFFECT THE NEURONS IN THE BRAIN OR IT WILL NEVER UNBIND FROM THE NEURONS
 
It might be American health standards? Australia is extremely high in health standards. All my psychiatrists have been intelligent and friendly/trustworthy.

Maybe. Yes, my statements should only be taken in the context of American psychiatry.
 
I have found a solution for all the problems

Ropinirole will increase the dopamine so it must fix all the problems ...............
have u people already tried it, have you found any result out of it ?
 
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^That's far too reductive. L-Dopa is for parkinsons disease. More dopamine doesn't translate to more euphoria. It's just so much more complicated.
 
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