Medication ?!

[Fedup]

Please may i ask ............. what medication are you on and what it's for and how you find it ?

I ask this as i'm having a meeting with my OH shrink in a couple of weeks ........... she seem's to throw therapy at him than meds , he is on meds but i and he think they are rubbish!!
I'm asking your opinions as " word of mouth " so to speak instead of just reading article's on the net.

I just want some feedback " so to speak " so i can throw it into the meeting and ask her things.

Many thanks in advance

 

[Dollit]

Hi Fedup. What I would want to ask is specifically what each medication is for and what it is supposed to do. If they're failing to do what they're intended to do then it's quite pointless being on them. Ask why therapy is favoured but medication is also prescribed. What sort of therapy is offered, what it's expectations are and how it would balance against the medication. Would it support the medication or would it be with an intention to stop medication if the therapy worked. Ask her what her expectations of your OH and what her expectations of you are. Often we don't know what's expected of us until we fail miserably. Take charge of the session and if the answers aren't clear enough ask her to be clearer. And then come back and tell me all about it so I can say well done.

 

[Fedup]

Thanks for your reply Dollit , some valid points there

I have a list of what i'm going to ask , this has been going on long enough , they know i'm not well too ......... (my shrink works under her).
It seems to me that they rely on me too much as the carer ........... so when do i get better or stable ??!!

 

[Dollit]

This is the wonderful "care in the community". It doesn't take into consideration the ability or the coping mechanisms of those who are expected to do the caring. I get fed up of the "you seem to be doing alright" when I have an armful of scars, frequent crying sessions down the phone, barely contained anger (at times) but I have to manage myself. I have no partner, family nearly 300 miles away - no CPN, so Social Worker - if my physch & CP weren't so fantastic or that one of my closest friends wasn't a GP experienced in psychiatry where would I be? I'm with you 100% on this.

 

[Fedup]

This is the wonderful "care in the community". It doesn't take into consideration the ability or the coping mechanisms of those who are expected to do the caring. I get fed up of the "you seem to be doing alright" when I have an armful of scars, frequent crying sessions down the phone, barely contained anger (at times) but I have to manage myself. I have no partner, family nearly 300 miles away - no CPN, so Social Worker - if my physch & CP weren't so fantastic or that one of my closest friends wasn't a GP experienced in psychiatry where would I be? I'm with you 100% on this.

Pleased you have fantastic out side care
Shame your family are too far away tho.

Thanks for your support , glad to know i'm not being silly with what i think/want etc.

 

[Dollit]

No you're not being silly - you have a right to the quality of care that the powers that be expect you to provide to your OH. Right now we're actually in the best position we've ever been in to effect changes and we have to speak up loudly and clearly and we have the right to say no! Can you imagine the furore if people with cancer were treated the same way that people with mental health problems are treated? As my GP friend tells me, my illness is potentially terminal too.

 

[Fedup]

Mirtazapine

Mirtazapine ........... my OH has been on this just over a week , they are brill at helping him sleep and up to now ...........NO nightmares .

One thing we have noticed is he is craving carbs ........... has anyone else experianced this ??

On the leaflet it does say may increase appetite , but he's munching away like there is no tomorrow

 

[Fedup]

Mirtazapine ........... my OH has been on this just over a week , they are brill at helping him sleep and up to now ...........NO nightmares .

One thing we have noticed is he is craving carbs ........... has anyone else experianced this ??

On the leaflet it does say may increase appetite , but he's munching away like there is no tomorrow

BUMP

 

[Dollit]

http://emc.medicines.org.uk/emc/assets/c/html/DisplayDoc.asp?DocumentID=18115 This is the patient information leaflet and it does say that increased appetite is a common side effect. If you google the name of a medication with pil beside it you can usually find this sort of information.

 

[daffy]

Evening Fedup,Some meds can really increase your appetite. I found that with olanzapine. I just couldnt stop eating. In the end id put on so much weight i refused to take it any more cos my weight was making me miserable.

Look it up like Dollit says. Quite often the eating is only a temprary thing till your system gets used to them

 

[lucid scream]

seroquel always worked good for me for the voices and paranoia and delusions, but my mood swings were'nt solved until I started on lamictal. Not everyone responds well to it, but for some of us it works very well.

seroquel makes you crave carbs as well. I'm thinking it has something to do with the cytochrome P450 enzymes, digestive enzymes responsible for breaking down most of the drugs used for mental health (and why you should avoid grapefriut jiuce, which inhibits cyt p450 metabolism resulting in elevated blood concentrations) but I don't know.

 

[Fedup]

Thank you all for your replies

I have read the leaflets etc i just hope like you say Daffy it settles down once the meds are well and trly in his system , it hasn't even been a month yet.