Zyprexa, Trileptal, Trilafon?

Question

My fiancee is bi polar and just had his meds changed b/c the other ones were just making him sleep all the time. Does anyone know about these meds? I'm not sure if the spelling is right on them. I just need to know if anyone is on a combo of these or if a loved one is. I'm 1 week off from delivering our first baby and he was just finally diagnosed with being bi polar 4 weeks ago. This is all very hard and strange to me..but of course I just want us to be a family and for him to get the help he needs!

Answer 1

Ive been on Zyprexa myself. I agree with the other answerer, it does cause weight gain. And it does make you very sleepy , but it is a very effective drug. I finally weened off of it after my depression ended and i felt like being medless, but sometimes i would get psychotic at night and id take one and it would all go away and id fall right asleep with no problems. It is also a VERY expensive drug. The prescription label said it costed $500 for 30 pills.

Trileptal is supposed to be like Tegretol with fewer side effects. Zyprexa in combination with an mood stabilizer will probably cause more weight gain.

Trilafon ive never heard of and it scares me because of this on the wikipedia article:

It has a high incidence of early and late extrapyramidal side-effects (tardive dyskinesia).

Tardive dyskinesia is a serious neurological disorder caused by the long-term and/or high-dose use of dopamine antagonists, usually antipsychotics and among them especially the typical antipsychotics. These neuroleptic drugs are generally prescribed for serious psychiatric disorders.

My mother has been seriously mentally ill for many years and has taken pretty much every drug known to man, but never a combination of two antipsychotics. It seems like overkill. Tardive Dyskinesia is almost always non-reversable.

I wonder if he has been prescribed cogentin? It can help with the side effects with drugs like this. It helps with the erratic twitches and stuff caused by antipsychotics.

Good luck, i know that its a hard thing to deal with but the best thing to do is become as educated as you can and never tell him it is his fault, because its not. Check out books on bipolar disorder, they can be very informative.

Answer 2

the only one i know is zyprexa which also has a side effect of sleepiness and weight gain. some people function quite well on it. but it is hard to know whether it will be better than what he is on since i dont know the first one. it will take a while for hime to notice the difference. it is used for other things besides bipolar so sometimes can be too impactful.

that is an awful lot of med change at once if they changed all 3. and an awful lot of stress for you with new baby and a husband with a new diagnosis. however, knowing the diagnosis should make things easier. people with bipolar disorder can really have normal lives once the right meds are found.