Posted by med_empowered on March 9, 2005, at 18:04:58
In reply to More Hallucinations: When will this end!, posted by D minor on March 9, 2005, at 16:24:23
Schizoaffective is a slippery diagnosis. Some docs think of it as more in the schizophrenia spectrum, some think of it as between bipolar and schizophrenia, some think of it as psychosis-heavy bipolar disorder...personally, when I see it used it seems the doc really doesn't have a grasp on what's going on. Treatment of schizoaffective isn't that different from schizophrenia or Bi-polar, but depends on your doc. Some docs treat schizoaffective like schizophrenia, complete with the long-term use of anti-psychotics, sometimes with mood-stablizers and/or anti-depressants. Others use anti-psychotics as needed,then withdraw them, and rely more on mood stabilizer and anti-depressants. With the growing popularity of atypical antipsychotics, it seems more and more docs are using antipsychotics long-term in schizophrenia, schizoaffective, and bi-polar disorders.
In terms of your treatment...when was your Seroquel increased? Keep in mind that antipsychotics take about 6 weeks to kick in (this is true of dosage increases as well), so give it a little time. What kind of hallucinations are you having? Mood-stabilizer, ESPECIALLY LITHIUM AND DEPAKOTE, seem to help hallucinations in both schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. Some studies have found mood-stabilizers alone to be effective in refractory schizophrenia and bipolar with psychotic features. Obviously, benzos, such as Klonopin and Ativan, calm people down during mania/psychosis; in addition, some studies seem to indicate that benzos alone have some antipsychotic properties, which makes sense given their dopamine-dampening effects. Good luck!
poster:med_empowered
thread:468853
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20050308/msgs/468896.html