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Should my sister try the new medicine that doctors recommended for her schizophrenia or should we wait 1-2 weeks to see if the old medicine works?

RivuletSenior Contributor23 Oct 2020, 4:42 pm AEDT

Should my sister try the new medicine that doctors recommended for her schizophrenia or should we wait 1-2 weeks to see if the old medicine works?

Hi everyone, it has been 3 weeks since my sister has been hospitalised as she was experiencing a relapse from her schizophrenia. I'm not asking for medical advice and I won't provide specifics to the medication as that's againt the guidelines but rather I wanted to see if I can get any suggestions on what I should do.

I understand medication varies depending on the person, but I'm in a slight dilemma as the doctors are strongly advocating to change to a well known medicine that has been proven to work quite well, but my parents are hesistant with doing so as it will require the frequent blood tests and has other side-effects that are a lot more serious than the current medicine my sister is taking.

Since she entered the hospital, the doctors had increased her original dosage of current medication but they say that it does not seem to have reduced my sister’s current psychosis i.e. her delusions that her family is trying to hurt her and that they are not her real family. Her false beliefs this time round are unlike her previous hospitalisation. In her previous last two hospitalisation her belief was that her friends were trying to harm her but it seemed to have changed this time round.

According to the doctors they have also included another anti-psychotic to try to help reduce her delusions about her family but apparently the side-effect of the second medicine causes my sister to involuntarily frequently look up and hasn't seemed to show visible improvements to my sister's family delusions. We haven't been able to visit her ourselves to see how she is acting as she has been rejecting our visits so we can't make a judgement either.

The doctors seem to be strongly suggesting the change in medicine as they said it’s the best option to help work on her family delusions. But I want to ask in the forum, should I suggest to the doctors to give more time to see if the current medication will work i.e. just another 1-2 weeks to gauge if the medicine is just making slow progress or if her body really has become resistant to it? Or should we just go straight to the new medicine option?

The doctors did say that they were afraid if we waited another 1-2 weeks, if her body is really resistant to her current medicine, her delusions about her family might get stronger and that might become harder to ‘fix’?

I understand both the doctors and my parent's concerns and perspective so I'm trying to figure out what would be the best solution as we all want what's best for my sister.

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In response to: Should my sister try the new medicine that doctors recommended for her schizophrenia or should we wait 1-2 weeks to see if the old medicine works?

RivuletSenior Contributor24 Oct 2020, 7:26 pm AEDT

Re: Should my sister try the new medicine that doctors recommended for her schizophrenia or should we wait 1-2 weeks to see if the old medicine works?

Hi @Bunniekins , thank you so much!! It is a bit hard since my sister's false beliefs about her family have caused her to not put us as a designated carer, so due to confidentiality reasons, we only hear about changes when the doctors make the decision to make the change ^^" A bit of a tricky situation for us.

I can understand your reason behind declining the option when it was offered to your son, it is definitely a last resort option. And that is a good plan and promise @Bunniekins! I believe the optimal goal is to achieve the minimum dosage of medication to help control the symptoms and being able to do what you love, be with those you love and love you. You are an amazing and strong person ❤️

@Former-Member Thank you! I do understand the importance of the advice from a specialist but I wanted to see what other people thought especially since my family and I was quite concerned with how the pressure on hospitals due to COVID will probably impact on the doctors and the decisions they make. They obviously want to help and provide the best solution, but they are also pressured from the hospital to have a quick turnaround in results for release too. Thank you for sharing your thoughts though! I find all this super useful and it allows my family and I to make the best decision for my sister 🙂

Hi @BPDSurvivor, thank you for your post >_< Well I did some research and it says it should take 4-6 weeks to have the current medication take full effect. So I was personally wondering why the doctors have already suggested and planned to use a new medication even though only 3 weeks have passed haha. And yes, your guess is correct! My family and I are fearful of the side effects (it does have more drastic side effects compared to the other medicine available) but it is proven as the 'best solution'. The doctor did mention that if the new medication works, then anything 'less' won't suffice which is definitely another concern that we had. Plus the requirement for the blood tests is not ideal as my sister hates blood tests (even a yearly blood test takes a lot of convincing and persuasion so if I imagine her having to take frequent blood tests... I can't imagine the stress and anxiety she'll get from it). Also, my sister is at a public hospital!

Like the doctors have said they are concerned if they let my sister continue with the current medication for a few more weeks, they are afraid that her paranoia around her family will get worse, and harder to 'fix'. So that's one of the reason's they've suggested the new medicine, which does make sense if I look at it from their perspective.

In response to: Should my sister try the new medicine that doctors recommended for her schizophrenia or should we wait 1-2 weeks to see if the old medicine works?

KarlyNew Contributor28 Oct 2020, 10:18 pm AEDT

Re: Should my sister try the new medicine that doctors recommended for her schizophrenia or should we wait 1-2 weeks to see if the old medicine works?

My understanding is that if someone stops taking medication, just resuming it again doesn't guarantee it will work as it did before.

In my experience, they will increase fairly quickly in the hospital and then slowly decrease the dosage when the psychosis is gone. So what they use to get rid of the immediate problems she may not stay on forever.

In any case, I would follow the doctors recommendations. It's super scary, and so stressful, but the quicker you let them treat her the sooner you can see her and work out some longer term strategies to keeping her well.

I really hope everything works out well.

In response to: Re: Should my sister try the new medicine that doctors recommended for her schizophrenia or should we wait 1-2 weeks to see if the old medicine works?

RivuletSenior Contributor02 Nov 2020, 9:51 am AEDT

Re: Should my sister try the new medicine that doctors recommended for her schizophrenia or should we wait 1-2 weeks to see if the old medicine works?

Hi @Karly , thank you so much for responding to my post and for sharing your experience with me. We have decided to follow the doctor's recommendation (I believe they've started the cross-titration process already)!

Thank you again for your help everyone 🙂 I'll keep you all posted with how it goes for my sister!

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