Zyprexa Withdrawl - help needed. (w/response)

[Guest guest]

My wife has been on Zyprexa for 3 months, she just stopped the 5mg

July, 29th, 2007. Two days after stopping she started getting anxiety

attacks and severe nausea. Her doctor does not believe it is due to

the widthrawl of the zyprexa. Is this problem posted in any medical

journal ? Could you provide a doctor that would vouch to this problem

? I am desperate to try to convince them.

thanks,

** , do you ever wonder how much else the doctor doesn't know? This

information is available in the drug monograph from the drug company. You don't

find much about these things in journals because no one studies drugs to gather

information on withdrawal.

In order to study any drug under patent you have to get the permission of

the drug company. If they grant permission it is now common for them to have

researchers sign a paper that they will not talk about or publish anything they

found with the drug without the permission of the drug company. These companies

do not give permission to publish something that will hurt them. Then, they

tell people like your doctor, to trust only double-blind, placebo-controllled

crossover studies. Convenient, isn't it?

Does your wife want help staying off these drugs?

1) J Clin Psychopharmacol. 2000 Aug;20(4):489-90.

Case report of withdrawal syndrome after olanzapine

discontinuation.

Nayudu SK, Scheftner WA.

2) From the official Olanzapine drug monograph(marked by ***):

Nervous System — Frequent: abnormal dreams, amnesia, delusions, emotional

lability, euphoria, manic reaction, paresthesia, and schizophrenic reaction;

Infrequent: akinesia, alcohol misuse, antisocial reaction, ataxia, CNS

stimulation, cogwheel rigidity, delirium, dementia, depersonalization,

dysarthria, facial paralysis, hypesthesia, hypokinesia, hypotonia,

incoordination, libido decreased, libido increased, obsessive compulsive

symptoms, phobias, somatization, stimulant misuse, stupor, stuttering, tardive

dyskinesia, vertigo, ***and withdrawal syndrome***; Rare: circumoral

paresthesia, coma, encephalopathy, neuralgia, neuropathy, nystagmus, paralysis,

subarachnoid hemorrhage, and tobacco misuse.

3) Psychopharmacology: Principles for Starting, Stopping, or Switching

Medications

SJ Kingsbury, GM Simpson - Psychiatr Serv, 2002 - Am Psychiatric Assoc

Excerpt:

Stopping a medication too quickly

can cause a rebound or a return of

symptoms that had been treated successfully,

as is the case with antipsychotics,

lithium, and benzodiazepines.

For some medications, such as

benzodiazepines, withdrawal symptoms

similar to symptoms of the condition

being treated may appear,

making it difficult to discriminate between

a return of symptoms—which

would require further treatment—

and a withdrawal phenomenon that

will pass. Stopping a medication too

quickly may also cause new symptoms,

as in the serotonin discontinuation

syndrome, or worse symptoms

than occurred before treatment, as

can happen with clozapine. Too rapid

a switch in medications may lead to

the same problems associated with

too rapid a start or too rapid a stop,

with the additional problems associated

with drug interactions.

It is good policy not to abruptly discontinue

any medication that affects

the central nervous system, because

the biochemical milieu of the brain

must readapt to the medication-free

condition. Thus we sometimes teach

patients the simple—and, we hope,

graphic—maxim “You don’t jerk the

brain around” as a way of helping avoid

the problems that can arise from

abruptly stopping antipsychotics or

mood stabilizers. However, conditions

may arise in which abruptly

stopping a medication is necessary,

such as when agranulocytosis results

from clozapine treatment. In such

cases, the clinician must take steps to

ensure the patient’s stabilization.

4)Pharmacodynamics of Olanzapine

Olanzapine is a selective monoaminergic antagonist with high affinity binding to

the following receptors: serotonin 5HT2A/2C, 5HT6, (Ki=4, 11, and 5 nM,

respectively), dopamine D1-4 (Ki=11-31 nM), histamine H1 (Ki=7 nM), and

adrenergic á1 receptors (Ki=19 nM). Olanzapine is an antagonist with moderate

affinity binding for serotonin 5HT3 (Ki=57 nM) and muscarinic M1-5 (Ki=73, 96,

132, 32, and 48 nM, respectively). Olanzapine binds weakly to GABAA, BZD, and â

adrenergic receptors (Ki> 10 µM). All other drugs that bind with 5HT2A/2C and

dopamine D1-4 are associated with discontinuation syndromes.

Regards,