Amisulpride withdrawal symptoms

[DPolwarth]

Hi folks,

I have been diagnosed originally with schizophrenia, and my current consultant now believes I probably have OCD instead. For this reason he has started to cut my dosage of Amisulpride (which I believe is known in America as Sulipride, and is an antipsychotic.) I have recently been experiencing quite severe headaches, and I think this is an effect of the withdrawal symptoms. Can anyone tell me if headaches are part of the withdrawal process? I am currently taking 25mg a day. I used to take 150mg a day, but this has been slowly reduced over a course of months.

Thanks for your help,

Daniel

[pixie*lyssie]

It should be fine I think I'm on Sertraline and Amisulpride and I think it's more likely that anti depressants will give you withdrawal rather than antipsychotics. and it sounds like you've been weened off them properly and slowly. maybe call your doc?

Ah the joys of confusing schizophrenia with OCD! (I have OCD but have been misdiagnosed with 'psychosis/possible schizophrenia').

Well I was put on amisulpride for my OCD, because of the intrusive imagery and the anxiety. I also came off Amisulpride very suddenly, once when in hospital and they got mixed up with Sulphiride (which is something different) nad gave me that instead for two nights, and then recently when I cut down over a few days and went on Abilify. I don't remember anything that bad, more anxiety, might have had more headaches but I get them from my anxiety anyway.

Erm, well, did the amisulpride help in any way? It might be an idea to stay on it if it did, not because you have or don't have schizophrenia but because it help your OCD.

[pixie*lyssie]

I was first diagnosed with majour OCD then paranoid schizophrenia. I think Amilsulpride is very good in that I have heard that's a quite modern antipsychotic and doesn't have many side affects. I much prefer it to being on Olanzapine. Oh and it helps me with the schizophrenia size ofr things nicely too.
I have tried to come off amisulpride cold turkey.... noooooot a good idea. lol, I do not recomend.

[Izzy72]

I'm new to this so not sure if my reply will work...

I have been on Amisulpride for 3 years. It was the only med that got me out of my psychosis and I've remained psychosis-free since then. I get an oculogyric crisis 1-2 times a week where my eyes roll upwards and I can't see properly - real nuisance!! I also get restless legs at night. Because of this my doctor suggested reducing my amisulpride. I've gone from 400mg to 375mg, slowly, reducing by 25mg each time. This was fine and the restless legs have gone (still getting oculogyric crisis), however, 5 days after the last reduction I started getting REALLY BAD headaches, all day every day. Does anyone know if this is a withdrawal effect when reducing amisulpride? If yes, will it peter out eventually?

[Izzy72]

Sorry, I mean I've gone from 400mg to 325mg

[Duck]

I got a week or two of bad headaches going from 400mg to nothing (not a good idea, relapsed soon after). Painkillers helped a bit.

[mnlopq]

If the doctor told you to lower the antipsychotic dose then they should have told you there are medicines to fight restless legs and uncontrollable eye movements. It depends now what kind of side effect it is. It can be a side effect that appears after a long time of treatment and the only way to stop it is, indeed, to lower the dose as little as possible. So you have to take as much Amisulpride as your body can handle. I stopped a few years ago my treatment, slowly and I had no headaches. Just some trouble sleeping for the first 1-2 days. But by slowly I mean once every 2, 3 or 4 weeks, keeping the same dose all that time. The amount of medicine I reduced was at first 50 mg and then 25 mg in the last 3 months. Now I'm back on treatment, due to relapse. So always talk to your doctor and listen to them. I was also taking a mood stabilizer and, because I couldn't lie to my doctor, I chose to stop getting my prescription and I had no more mood stabilizer to take, so I stopped it too, much faster.

On the other hand, maybe it's that kind of side effect that goes away with certain medicines.