Clozapine Puns

This fact sheet includes this news. I know a lot of us take these specific meds, and although I do not personally, it’s good info to have.

I work LTC, the physicians are straight up refusing to re-enroll all of their patients. This is fun. 🙃

*Edit: FDA update

https://www.fda.gov/drugs/drug-safety-and-availability/fda-temporarily-suspending-certain-clozapine-rems-program-requirements-ensure-continuity-care

How’s your life going since starting clozaril/clozapine? I’m on 150mg and everything is the best it’s been since I was officially diagnosed 8+ years ago. 27M (posted on schizophrenic page first)

Not in a mean way, but what led up to it? How many medications had you tried, how long had you been diagnosed, what state were you in before, what made your doctor decide to try such a risky med, etc?

My old doctor brought it up to me once, but I said on because I was scared. Now my new doctor is very hesitant to prescribe it. I've tried at least 20 different medications since being diagnosed about 8 year ago (probably more, but I can't remember all of them). I currently take 2 antipsychotics and 2 mood stabilizers (plus other stuff for anxiety, ADHD, sleep), and I still struggle sometimes.

I feel like it might be time to try clozapine, but my doctor doesn't want to do it. What did it take for your doctor to want to try it with you?

I have had a few pharmacists ask about how to sign in. To some the training was useful, for me I had to play around with it a little to get it to work. A lot of us get thrown a clozapine script with the patient demanding it immediately and don't have the time with shots, lack of F4 phlex, pcp calls and everything else to figure it out asap.

Here is what I found, hope it helps and of course comment with any more useful info.

1. You don't have to look up or log in with your old rems sign in. Go thru storenet> drug info > cloazaril/clozapine > clozapine rems program

2. Some parts of the training say to go to the clozapine rems website.

https://www.newclozapinerems.com/Public/home/Pharmacy

If you do, it probably is not linked with storenet.. don't certify the pharmacy. Don't complete the knowledge assessment. It is good information if you want to take the test but not required and you already did it in the pharmacy training requirement . Go back and try the link again. I had to try 2 or 3 times before the next part.

3. You should be able to get directed to the clozapine rems website and go to 'optain a patients rems rda' in the blue link . By entering patient dob and name you can get status.

Right now my patient is over 37 days, so they are not approved. I am trying to be an advocate between a new psych doc who wants the blood draw clinic to send the values, a week old blood draw at an old clinic that requires the provider to contact them for values , and no one is communicating. I will continue to make calls... it might be sad but for me the win is when the patient gets their much needed med. Best of luck to you!

I’ve been in Lexapro for 15 days. 10mg.

Overall I feel less anxious but I’m quite fatigued and that doesn’t help my depression.

I went to the psychiatrist and he said that I’m feeling tired all day because I’m not sleeping well (I sleep like 12 hours/day) because I can’t fall sleep until 3/4 a.m

He recommended to take a 25mg dose of clozapine so I can sleep from 10pm to 8am in order to get a good sleep.

I told him it was weird that he’s giving me a pill to sleep when I’m already tired the whole day but he said it was necessary. I told him that a lot of people found useful to take Wellbutrin to battle the sleepiness but he said it was not recommended.

I wonder if somebody tried this, if it helped to be less tired or what do you think.

Edit: clozapine ≠ quetiapine

My doctor changed my Clozapine brand medicine, brand new Zaponex, these tablets disintegrate quickly in my mouth and taste like candy mint gum. I'm wondering, is anyone using this drug? I suspect my doctor is giving me fake medicine. because this drug is more like sugar. Thanks in advance for the answers.

I'm prescribed 50mg of clozapine at night, and I'm told that's a low dose, but also plan on taking some alprazolam during the day while visiting a friend, max 2mg. Would this be safe? I've taken clozapine and clonazepam up to 2mg together before, no problem, but I'm just not sure with xanax because I've never really taken shorter acting benzos before. Much appreciated

So far, I've only done Ashwagandha several times for months at a time and it didn't stop my psychosis. That, or this is not psychosis, but in fact DID.

Studies also show that Clozapine still outperforms Ash, but I'm never trying Clozapine or any antipsychotic ever again.

Is there anything else that I can try? It doesn't have to be an herb or a drug. Maybe a technique like breathwork or grounding.

Recently I switched from Abilify to Invega. I was on Abilify for a few years, but my psychologist mentioned multiple times it is not the right medication for me because apparently I was psychotic again and again on Abilify. I didn't think that this was true though, but I trusted my psychologist and made the switch to Invega. Invega has a few more side effects for me than Abilify and again my psychologist had the opinion that I was psychotic on it. I told them I want to try something else and they suggested Clozapine.

I find this weird for a number of reasons.

• The only medications I tried are Zyprexa, Abilify and Invega.
• All of them completely eliminated my symptoms, and Abilify had minimal side effects.
• Because all antipsychotics work for me so far I can't have treatment resistant schizophrenia.
• Most professionals think it's not schizophrenia but something else.

I have an assumption why they want me to try Clozapine.

• They don't really know the definition of psychosis and they think I have it.
• For some reason they're worried I might kill someone and they want to show public prosecutors they did everything they could do.

What would you do in this situation? I really like my psychologist and usually trust them but their suggestion worried me.

I’m not sure if this post is allowed (please remove if not). Small plea from your pharmacy friends to re-enroll all clozapine patients in the new REMS program. We cannot legally dispense clozapine unless a patient is enrolled. It has been a beyond frustrating week with the new system. That’s all, thanks everyone.

Hello, i been prescribed clozapine for my schizophrenia. However since starting i noticed i have been having anxiety attacks every 3 or 4 days.

Im taking 250 mg a night before bed

Thank you all for your input and help

Anyone know a good way to treat moderate/severe physical withdrawal symptoms from tapering down Clozapine doses? Please help I feel like crap.

Hey, I have a patient trying to get their clozapine refilled and we’re getting an issue with the new system saying that they don’t have a patient on file to obtain the RDA. Is there any way to bypass the RDA using the CVS system? Seems like there’s new guidance from the FDA saying that you do not need the RDA at the moment (updated November 19th) but I’m not seeing how I can do that.

Im going to be on clozapine soon. Whats it like how good is it?

Hi guys hope you are all doing well..so this is a bit of a rant and a bit of me asking for some advice!

TLDR - Psych wants me on clozapine even though I'm not currently experiencing symptoms.

I have a diagnosis of schizoaffective disorder and have been on around 5 or 6 different antipsychotics over the last 3 years. The last medication I was on was zuclopenthixol (clopixol) injected into my buttock every two weeks. At first it brought me out of psychosis and really helped to stablise me and give me the rest my body needed but after 3 4 months on it I began to experience really really bad side effects. Due to the nature of my illness I only really get severly psycotic around March/April time and my thought process was that why am I taking antipsychotics all year round if I only get really sick for a few months of the year?! Made a long and hard decision to come off antipsychotics and try and live my life as fulfillingly as I can without them.

Fast forward 2 months and I am not really experiencing any psycotic symptoms except from the odd voices here and there when i get really stressed.

Had an appointment with my consultant Psyciatrist yesterday and he insisted that my symptoms won't come back for 3-6 months as the injection binds to your fat and stays in your system for that long. OK this I understand but he then went on to say that he really thinks I should be on an antipsychotic and that i will relapse hard when symptoms come back. He then said that my schizophrenia side of the SZA is treatment resistant because I've been on a few antipsychotics and still ended up hospitalised on them despite being on the highest dose.I don't agree with this as I have found antipsychotics bring me out of psychosis pretty fast in the past.

We discussed medication for a while and seroquel is the only medication that I found bearable to be on despite the huge weight gain but I ended up severley ill and hospitalised on 950mg so he said it wasn't working for me.

He said he thinks I should be on an injection because it seemed to stabilise me the most and is easy as I only have to come in every few weeks to have it done. He told me that they have a medication that is very effective and has little side effects. I actually felt a glimmer of hope until he said the medication was called clozapine (clozaril).

I have seen patients that are on clozapine and they are for the most part extremely unhealthy and overweight and they talk very slowly and incoherently from what I'v

Hello everyone, I have a question. I’m in a clinic and I used to use clozapine last 4 months and it went well. But last two days they give me a new brand clozapine which is taste different like mint gum, taste nice whereas the previous one was taste bad. I’m afraid if these new medication are fake. Can anyone tell me please if what I can do and if do you have the same taste ? Thanks in advance

I started clozapine last week and I'll be doubling my dosage on Monday.

I halved my Seroquel dosage at night as I currently take both together before bed. I also stopped fluphenazine when I started clozapine.

For the last few days, I've been extremely irritable, but I don't know why. Has anybody experienced this when starting clozapine or tapering off of Seroquel?

Now is a really bad time to be this way. Any input is appreciated. TIA.

I’ve only tried Abilify and Risperdal and I have very mild paranoia…

These are anti psychotic drugs that probably won't mess with my prolactin levels. Got anything to say about any of these drugs? :

olanzapine, quetiapine, aripiprazole, ziprasidone and clozapine,

So long story short, I missed my clozapine dose for 48 hours this weekend and, thanks to reading something in this sub, realized I had to start from scratch and work my way back up to my old dose. I talked with my psychiatrist yesterday, and I’m now slowly increasing the dose. I’ve been getting withdrawal from not having the med in my system. But I’m more worried I’m going to have rebound psychosis. My clozapine is barely taking care of my psychosis right now, and I can’t take other antipsychotics. Please can you send good thoughts my way so I can hopefully see through this difficult time with minimal disruption.

I’m on 200mg at the moment

Before I start I wanna say I was a fucking moron and nobody should ever take any drugs without knowing their effects or the proper dosage.

When I was a sophomore in high school, I had a friend whose mom had schizophrenia and this idiot took a couple of her clozapine pills and brought them to school.

Now I'm usually never the type of person to ever take a drug without researching the shit out of it beforehand, but I guess I really wanted to get fucked up on something other than just weed that day and I guess I was broke and my inner fiend demons took control and I straight up said bet let's fucking go, we'll see what happens (it honestly might have been cause my stupid little stoned mind at the time thought hey - it's called clozapine and that kinda sounds like clonazepam (lol) and google says it's an antipsychotic so I assume it might have a somewhat similar effect as benzos.)

By the second to last period we're sitting in class and we each pop 1 pill, and I unfortunately can't remember what the dosage the pill was but I think it might have been 100mg, although I can't remember for sure. So fast forward to the last 20 minutes of the last period and we don't feel shit so our idiot asses ended up taking one more each.

Now this was probably the weirdest thing I've ever experienced because after school we smoked a joint and I got on the bus to go home, still only feeling slightly high from the weed. I sit on the bus and I suddenly feel the most sleepiness I've ever felt in my life (and I'm not talking like drowsiness like too fucked up but straight up like I'm gonna fall asleep on this bus and I'm basically nodding off but not because I'm high but because I'm so tired.

And the whole way home I almost kinda felt like I was in some kind of dream but it wasn't enjoyable, I just felt like I didn't sleep for like 8 days. And I kinda started feeling shitty because I was trying to fight off the sleepiness in a crowded bus and I probably looked like an idiot.

So I finally snap out of it and realize there's a stop incoming so I get up and I somehow manage to exit the bus, I realize this wasn't my stop and I just start walking like nothing ever happened, I didn't even question why I left the bus so early, and I swear to god, I think I might have passed out cause I somehow managed to fucking fall asleep while walking cause the next scene I remember I'm literally laying on the floor and I just got up without realizing wtf just happened but I wasn't hurt like I had j

FDA approved a modification to the Clozapine REMS that will go into effect on Nov 15, 2021. Pharmacies must re-certify in the Clozapine REMS by then to continue to dispense the medication.

To re-certify, see the Important Program Update at www.clozapinerems.com.

I have taken it for over a year but it hasen‘t worked well. Is there any better medication or is this the best?

How often do you have to go in to get it?

Long story short - once a month I drive a disabled friend 10km to a hospital to pick up her Clozapine prescription. She can't catch public transport, and can't drive.

Our location, and the location of the hospital are hotspots. We're in a lockdowned down LGA, so we're not supposed to travel thay far - although I realise it's allowed for rhis purpose.

My friend is very concerned about having to go into a hospital and wait around for her prescription. She's said this to them and got a "too bad" sort of response.

Is there any way she can get it dispensed at a local pharmacy, just during lockdown?

Anyone else take Clozapine and gain an absurd amount of weight? I am a woman of average height, and I am suddenly pushing 200 lb. I have been overweight in the past, but most of my life I have been a healthy weight. I honestly don't know how this happened!

And did it have any positive effects? 😁 thankyou

I have a weird feeling thst I have to look in the ceiling

It happens occasionally

FDA is temporarily suspending certain Clozapine REMS program requirements to ensure continuity of care for patients taking clozapine.

For more information, visit https://www.fda.gov/drugs/drug-safety-and-availability/fda-temporarily-suspending-certain-clozapine-rems-program-requirements-ensure-continuity-care

How’s your life since starting clozapine or clozaril? I’m on 150 mg…besides the weight gain everything else is the best it’s been since I was officially diagnosed schizoaffective disorder bipolar type 8+ years ago. 27M

I’m starting clozapine tonight and I’m really nervous about it what are some of your experiences with clozapine and what are the side effects like?