are there any medications that work

I am not a psychiatrist and do not know your son's medical history or age, however, I take 15mg of Abilify and it gets rid of hallucinations and other schizophrenia symptoms. I have been on this medication for about a year. The only side effect I experience is a little stiffness.

Take care,

Ashley

Hi lisa_b,

I understand your frustration and your son's distress with the residual symptoms.

It depends how long your son has been on the Invega before he decides whether to consider switching to another medication.  This isn't medical advice I'm giving, just a suggestion.  There are various drugs on the market and if he's been on one drug long-term that doesn't rule out the other drugs.  Also, new drugs are being researched every year and shortly new ones will be on the market.  Sometimes it's a trial-and-error process that involves trying more than one drug.

Not all drugs relieve all symptoms for all people.  One drug may work for me and not work for your son, so I can't give you that kind of medical advice, because it could miselead or give you false hope.

The key is to never give up the hope that your son can find relief, and not to settle for doing the same thing for five or ten years and expecting a different result.  It is your son's decision alone whether he wants to try a new drug.  The best thing is to stay on his medication, take it every day as prescribed.

The bottom line is, the medication could prevent further brain deterioration and loss of functionality, so until he finds the best drug or combination of drugs that relieves his symptoms, he shouldn't be tempted to discontinue the current meds on his own.

As you may be aware, drinking or taking street drugs will only worsen the SZ symptoms over time.

If your son trusts his psychiatrist and wants to continue with him, your son should bring up the fact that he still hears voices.  If he sees a new doctor down the road, your son should also always be honest with the new doctor and upfront about any symptoms.

Coming up shortly on SZ Connection, we're going to devote a series of SharePosts to how people cope with hearing voices when the voices won't go away.

I suggest you read David Robbins SharePosts here.  David has heard voices for 28 years and has had a successful recovery because he refrained from alcohol and developed coping skills.  Go up to the search bar on the upper right of this page, and type in "David Robbins voices" and click the green "go" button to bring up his thoughts on living with the voices.

As a blogger here, I can tell you that I'm researching coping techniques for dealing with voices so that I can better address this concern of yours and other community members facing the same problem.  Look for a SharePost in February talking about coping skills.

Lastly, I also firmly believe your son could benefit from weekly therapy sessions as one kind of coping skill.  Cognitive therapy has been shown to be helpful for people diagnosed with SZ, as one form of possible therapy.

Best regards,

Christina

Hi lisa_b,

Further to your question:

The names of SZ drugs include Geodon (Ziprasidone), Abilify (Aripiprazole) Clozaril (Clozapine) Seroquel (Quetiapine) Zyprexa (Olanzapine).  They are the atypicals.  Other drugs, called traditional neuroleptics include Stelazine (Trifluoperazine) and others.

Your son's psychiatrist should be familiar with them.

Best,

Christina

It is very common that a person with sz has to try several different antipsychotics before finding one that works well.  I tried Risperdal, Trilafon, Haldol, Seroquel, Abilify, and Geodon and none of them worked very long.  But I found that Zyprexa gets rid of all the voices if I take it as prescribed.  But none of the antipsychotics should be taken with alcohol -- see if you can convince him that the meds work much better without it.  Also note: Invega is a metabolite of Risperdal, so if Invega does not work the chances are that Risperdal will not work for him either.  Be prepared also for side effects -- but some people have them and some don't.  Zyprexa made me gain weight and I am kind of drowsy much of the time, but I can manage to put up with that most of the time.  At least it has given my life back to me.  And not all at once -- it may take quite a while for any of the meds to have their full effect.  Courage is needed on his part and yours for this to work.

Best wishes,

Carolyn