Can i take benzehexol drug together with halipeliridol antipsychotic drug to help with insomnia?Since my psychiatrist has been giving me a drug called aripatas/aripipazole(an antipsychotic drug) together with benzehexol & lamitor as treatment for depression & i slept fine. Plus does helipiridol have any bad reactions towards drugs like benzehexol,lamitor & aripatas/aripiprazole?
Hi...your Dr. would not prescribe anything that had a dangerous interaction. So, you should be good. That is if it is the same Dr. prescribing all these medications.
If not you should check with either the Dr or the Pharmacy.
I'm not quite sure whether the doctor made a mistake since i read online, that benzehexol is used to control skeletal side effects or kinda effects related e.g parkinson's disease from psychotic drugs.So i'm not sure why he put it together with these other drugs,mainly aripripazole as its not for controlling anxiety & insomnia side effects,or does anyone else see it different?maybe from your own sources?I asked him about this but he still thinks what he gave me is right & most pharmacies in my area don't seem to know much about what i'm talking about as i come from a sort of rural area..
You're right, Nikud. Benzhexol isn't a sleeping medication. It's to keep the side-effects of the haloperidol and aripiprazole at bay. Both of these - especially haloperidol - can cause movement disorders like Parkinson's disease if taken long-term, and the Benzhexol is to protect you against this. The Lamitor is a mood stabiliser and probably contributes to your sleeping well now.
Don't worry about taking Benzhexol with the anti-psychotics - it's there to protect you from their side-effects.
Hi Misssy2,
Glad you decided not to leave this site after all! Hope you're getting on OK.
halolperidol is addictive so is only used sparingly.
And Benzhexol has a reputation as a lesser-known recreational drug too - so same precaution! However, anyone on a combination of haloperidol and aripiprazole is at high risk of developing extrapyramidal side-effects so I guess it's the lesser of two evils.
In any case I'd say to Nikud: be very careful not to exceed the prescribed dose of any of your meds.
Do you happen to know of the right amount of dosage for sedation or to help in sleeping e.g if you are taking oral tablets?since i read online that you need a kinda relative larger dosage than the usual amount for sedation to work,though they didn't specify any quantity.
Nikud, you really need to ask your doctor about this, or your mental health team if you have one. You're on a very complex combination of potent drugs - for good reason, I'm sure - and you shouldn't be messing about with doses without medical supervision.
My doctor gave me years ago mirtazapine 30mgs x 4 at nigh to help me fall asleep. (oh, my cat on the bed is also great) It is an antidepressant. Also works great with Melatonin. I used to use Melatonin when I fly out of the state every other week. It also changes one's sleepy cycle. Since I have been retired, I take 60 or so mgs at night.
Also I take it during the day, when I go outside. Somehow I become nervious when I am outside, althouth I bowl 40 games a wwek at age 71.
Also, I do take during the day, Adderall which is a stimulant which actually lowered my BP down to 100/60 which is contrary to the side effects reprort. I was on two BP medictions. I now only need one since 100/60 in recent studies may cause Dimentia or Alzheimers disease.
More to come..
I also use Melatonin during the day, esppcialy when I go out, it elimininates me being anxious.
I sent you additional information about Abilify and a clas action law suit and the website where I found it but it went to the moderator.
Hopefully I will resend the info without the website and will be accepted by the moderator.
Aripiprazole … Abilify
uncontrolled chewing movements
uncontrolled movements of the arms and legs
shuffling walk
I was given this medication and within three weeks I started to have the above problems. It is called Tardive Dyskinesia. The symptoms will not go AWAY if you do not stop taking the med. My left ankle moves when I cross my legs after 12 years! I had been given Zyprexa for bipolar disorder, many years ago. The diagnosis was not correct. I started getting the above symptoms. I looked it up on the internet. It described the above symptoms. I went to the doctor, and told him that I would not take it any more. Previously, he asked me to write an article for the local news paper about how wonderful he was and curing me. He then started yelling at me and my wife and with one hand he threw everything off his desk! He then open up a draw and threw all the papers up in the air! (I had been on it for 5 years!)Abilify® (aripiprazole), a prescription drug used to treat patients suffering from depression, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, and Tourette syndrome.
There is a class action law suit.
Theabove info is really important, since My wife had worked with parents in meetings with the various schools as an advocate. (one was 14 hours and ended up at 2 AM!) This where my interest started.
I could not find anything on benzehexol. Is there a trade name?
What is Lamitor?
Category: Prescription Drugs
Generic name: Lamotrigine
Lamotrigine is an anti-epileptic medication, also called an anticonvulsant. Lamotrigine is used alone or in combination with other medications to treat seizures in adults and children who are at least 2 years old. Lamotrigine is also used to delay mood episodes in adults with bipolar disorder.
The is a well known website that even has FDA alerts and New drug aprovals from the FDA. I use it because, I have dear friend whos wife has Parkinsin. disease.
It also has a drug interaction database. Now if the Moderator allows me to give it to you, I will post it.
Joe, this site doesn't permit links to external sites. You should use the private message function, which doesn't expose the ID or email address of either party. Just click on the little envelope icon under the person's icon.
Benzhexol was formerly called trihexphenydil - in the UK anyway. It's my understanding it's rarely used now. It's not a sleeping medication, it's used to treat extrapyramidal conditions such as Parkinson's disease, which is often mimicked by the side-effects of both haloperidol and Abilify (aripiprazole), which Nikud is taking. The side-effects you describe above are extrapyramidal symptoms.
thnkx for the info lily
..And do you happen to know the just right dosage for helping with insomnia for haliperidol?coz you mentioned about mirtzapene,are they simillar or something?
I'm presuming you haven't been out of hospital for long? The drug that is concerning you benzehexol is a drug that is used to prevent the side effects of one or both of the anti psychotics you have been prescribed.
If you have recently been in hospital, give yourself a few months to settle down on them and then if all is well I'd ask if you could see if just one of the anti psychotics would be enough for you to get by with and for the reason of side effects. All anti psychotics have side effects, different people get on with different ones but when you are taking several medications you cannot really be sure which one is the cause.
For example haloperidol gave me such blurred vision I could not see to read although it suited me in other ways.
They tried me on a few before I found one that had the least and most manageable side effects.
Some have made me awfully slow and sit all day staring into space.
Another suited in every way except for chronic uncorectable dihorea.
Another made me so miserable I was suicidal even with the largest dose of antidepressants I could take.
It took some time and trial and error but I now have one that is not so bad and I can use it if things get bad as it works quite fast on me and even a very low dose can get me back on track within a week. I can go without using it at all for long periods and if a crisis occurs I can stay taking an average dose for a few days then drop down to a low dose until things improve again.
If you are experiencing insomnia ask your psychiatrist which of the Meds is the most sedating and ask if it's ok to take that one at night time. Changing from morning to evening helped me a lot with sleep on one of the Meds I was on at one point.
Can 10-20mg of haliperidol be viewed as a reasonably large dose to help with insomnia?
20mg is actually the maximum dose for haloperidol and surely you have not been prescribed this (I consider dangerous) antipsychotic medication purely for insomnia?
If so I think it's fairly well known to have the opposite effect in some people and can actually cause insomnia.
I would say unless you have to take it for a serious mental health problem be very cautious as some side effects of this drug can be permanent.
I am better now but for about 10 years after using it for only a few months I had uncontrollable shuffling feet whilst sitting (I couldn't relax properly). It was only asher some serious liver detoxification that this problem finally improved and if I'm under stress it can still show itself.