Bipolar Type II Support Group

I just saw my pdoc and she prescribed me Geodon and Seroquel for sleep if needed, adding to my current cocktail of Depakote, Lexapro and gabapentin.

Have any of you had any experience with either of these drugs? I've heard really awful and really bad things, especially about Geodon, but I'm hopeful, especially since it's supposed to be weight neutral which is important to me.

Also, when do you find it's best to take Geodon? My pdoc said twice a day but didn't specify except one should be at bedtime.

I take 120 mg of Geodon and it works well with me. It might make you a little hypomanic in the beginning but it subsides once you get to a therapeutic dose. It makes you sleepy at first when you take it, but after several months, even that wears off. Just like most antipsychotics, it will make you feel drowsy in the morning, too. I take Provigil to help me wake up in the mornings. I take it at dinner with a meal, which is what they suggest to get the best effect. Also, it makes me less drowsy in the morning when I wake up if I take it that early. In the beginning you may pass out about an hour after dinner, but that improves greatly over time. I take 80mg at night and 40 mg in the morning. Hope this helps.

Thanks. I've figured out dinnertime is a pretty good time to take it, but the other dose is the hard one to figure out. If I take it in the morning I'm sure to pass out within a couple hours later which isn't really a problem right now but when I go back to school it will be.

Ask about Provigil or Nuvigil. These are not stimulants but are used for people with narcolepsy and sleep apnea. The Provigil works pretty well for me. I take it first the in the morning before shower and everything because it takes an hour to work. That way I can drive and get to work safely. Of course there are stimulants that several people take to do the same thing if the Provigil or Nuvigil don't work.

I'll bring it up with my pdoc that taking the Geodon in the morning makes me super sleepy and see what she's got to say. I really don't want to add another med unless necessary since I feel like I've got tons already...

I was on other stimulants that I wasn't telling my doc about to stay awake while on risperdal and found out about provigil (modafinil) and so I took a pill and felt the difference and now I could stay awake, was taking a 200mg pill and told my doctor about it so she indeed prescribed the provigil along with risperdal and so I began to gain weight and asked my doctor if there was a way to put off the weight and she immmediately switched me to geodon, drug that made me gain more weight than while on risperdal but now that am on geodon, I noticed my upper body was reduced significantly as opposed to while on risperdal, but as to the weight, I gained a solid 10 to 15 lbs more and I don't know how much more would I have gained if it wasn't that I just recently had to change doctors because my doctor wanted me on 160 mg geodon instead of 120mg, which I constantly told her I felt no difference with either dose. I think she was going more by the book instead of considering what I told her. The sleepyness and the grogginess wear off after two years on geodon, my doctor stopped prescribing me provigil and actually, now, I don't think I could handle a provigil pill, with geodon I don't get sleepy at all. I take it all at night at bedtime with food.