Tapering off antipsychotics

Hi @Sar12345 ,

Welcome to the forums! I'm sure many members will be able to speak to the very important question you have raised.

I've certainly felt the terrible side effects of tapering off antipsychotics @Sar12345 too quickly. Hence I'm taking years with my tapering.

I'll let others share their experiences before I go into depth with mine 🙂

Cheers, tyme

Hello @Sar12345

Apparently not a great idea to go cold turkey.

I helped my ex husband taper off them in 1988-9.

Now I am tapering off in 2022.

It has involved cutting them up on my kitchen table or bench.

Its been a long journey for me.

Interesting , I was told I could come off cold turkey but that was the wrong advice , and I relapsed, I feel set up by the system .

Interesting , I was told I could stop suddenly from a depo and relapsed .

@Sar12345 ,

I'm sorry to hear you have relapsed.

I guess it is important you speak to your prescribing professional, and then, if you feel you can, seek a second opinion.

Unfortunately, our forums are mostly peer-run which means most do not have the clinical expertise/authority to go into the specifics of medications, nor to name medications.

Members are permitted to share their experiences (as you have), however, each person's experiences can be different.

So if you have concerns about your relapse and medication/s, I hope you will be able to speak to a professional about it.

All the best, tyme

Hi @Sar12345 @Appleblossom @tyme @Gwynn I've tapered or substituted antipsychotics several times over the years usually without incident but there was one particular antipsychotic that gave me enormous trouble with sweats, shakes, panic, streaming eyes and nose, gut and urinary problems whenever I tapered and my psychiatrist at the time always relented and increased it again. I had half a dozen or more attempts and also relapsed several times Very unpleasant. It was an older and unusual med I had to purchase privately so it's unlikely to still be used.

@Appleblossom you can get a hinged tablet cutter from a pharmacy that cuts cleanly, no crumbling.

By the way, I've never had any problems tapering off antidepressants, but I've been super cautious.

Hi @Sar12345

I started tapering off an atypical antipsychotic and reduced the dose over 6 months to the minimum therapeutic dose then stopped. I had a range of discontinuation effects but some were possibly from other causes eg I got jaw clenching and itchy skin all over, the jaw clenching could've been stress related and the itchiness could've been perimenopause. I reported the adverse effects to the TGA.

Overall I think the taper went well as it was so gradual and I was monitored by my pdoc. Unfortunately for me I had a psychotic episode 5 moths after ceasing the meds but I was super stressed by major life changes at the time.

As others have said, everyone is different and individual.