Do psych meds wear off?
 

I am diagnosed bipolar (with bpd traits and OCD). I am currently on flouoxatine and quietapine. I have been on this combo and dosage for almost 3 months now and it had done wonders for me. I feel really stable. I get the odd short light hypomania but it usually only last like a week and its easy to control.
I would love it if I could stay this stable for a long time. Well forever really but at least the next year would be awesome.

I have never really stuck to meds for a very long time. In the past I have been on a similar combo but only stayed on it like 4-5 months then came off it so I never really knew if its affects would last.


Does the evectivness of psych meds wear off over time for thoes with bipolar?

I have been on the same meds for a good while now..Sometimes they need tweaking with the doses but I don't think they wear off.

I was on one med for about 3 years and it worked consistently in that period,then i slowly started with old symptoms.
After about 6 months of my mh getting worse i went to see my gp/psych who said i must've built up a tolerance to the med?
Long story short i weaned off it,went a while without,then restarted,so i think its possible...I've been on a few where before the 1 year mark at top dose they've slowly stopped working,though i guess it could just be me.x

Im dx'd bpd/bipolar 2 - two different psychs so they are still deciding...

But with medication and me is that it works for me for a month or two and then stops working gradually... Even when we up the dosage and stuff my body has grown an intolerance to the medication thus making no difference to my body. I grow such an intolerance to the medication that i can stop it in a high dosage and not get any withdrawal symptoms. x

This really sucks. I'm sorry that happens to you.

I hope my meds don't wear off coz I'm currently on a low dose so I'm really lucky such a low dose stabilises me.

I'm diagnosed schizoaffective, so I guess it's a bit different, but an unwellness all the same.

I've been on 3 different antipsychotics. They've only ever stopped working because I stopped taking them. I've never gone back on the same one once I've come off it though, so I don't know if they'd work again. I'm currently on a combination of olanzapine, valproate and venlafaxine and it works really well for me - I've never felt so good and have been this way for over 10 months now with no alteration of dosage needed. :)

This is really encourging thank you for your reply.
Do you have bipolar or depressive type schizoeffective? (I'm just being nosy you don't have to anwser this. :-p )

That's OK. :)

I have the depressive type, so can't claim to fully understand the mania part of bipolar. It's OK to be nosy. :P

i think it varies from person to person. It makes sense that a tolerance can be built to a drug, i mean thats how people become addicted to street drugs right?

I don't know, but mine worked wonders for a while then things crept back in so they upped it and it's working out for me again...so maybe.

I'm not sure though, and I'm not sure if my creeping in of poorly thoughts was the drug wearing off, just me or circumstance influenced... it's hard to tell if there aren't other things going on that could be affecting you without realising.

xx

I think it depends on the person.

The reason I say that is because some people are stable on medication for years and years whilst others aren't stable for long.

For me personally I wouldn't say my meds do much for me but I don't think the effects have worn off and I've been on quetiapine for 2 and a half years now.

Thanks again for your answers.
I guess it is just gonna be one of those things that I will just have to be careful with.
I keep a journal elsewhere and I have good friends and family so hopefully if I start to go starge they will say some thing. If I don't notice it myself.

Hopefully hopefully, though, I will be ok for a while x