Posted by King Vultan on January 2, 2005, at 12:44:05
In reply to Re: Dysthymia versus Bipolar type 2 » King Vultan, posted by barbaracat on January 1, 2005, at 16:23:21
> Have you noticed any weight gain? Do you have early morning grogginess? I tried Seroquel (which I understand is a powerful histimine antagonist) and it was tough to wake up. I imagine all ATs are different from each other and I certainly don't understand their action. Have you tried others?
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I've only been on Risperdal for a couple of weeks, and with such a tiny dosage (0.25 mg/day), I personally haven't noticed any adverse effects at all. This is the first AP I've, tried, but the atypical with the lowest side effects appears to be Geodon; in "Psychotropic Drugs", it is listed as having both low weight gain and low sedation, while Risperdal is listed as having moderate weight gain and high sedation. They show Seroquel, by comparison, as having moderate weight gain and moderate sedation, while Zyprexa is listed as having moderate weight gain and high sedation.I guess I have to question how much faith you can have in those descriptions, as which side effects are most prominent and to what degree they are going to affect a person are heavily dependent on dosage. From the data I have, Zyprexa looks like it should be much more sedating than Risperdal at low dosages because Zyprexa has an extremely powerful histamine blockade. Risperdal also blockades histamine H1 receptors, but the effect is comparatively weak at the very low dosages of 0.5 to 1.0 mg/day that I am interested in. It does appear that Geodon has a rather favorable side effect profile compared to most of these other agents, however. It also happens to be a $50 copay on my insurance, while Risperdal is only $25 and can also be easily cut into halves for intermediate dosages and to save money.
Todd
poster:King Vultan
thread:435630
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20041228/msgs/436797.html