Wow that's kind of shocking they would do that.
I am really glad you are still doing OK and that you are coping.
You seem like a really nice person.
I hope everything goes OK or gets better.

Thanks hon!

Yeah, I thought it was weird too. It's like, if someone has a Schizoid Disorder you would think they're health insurance would want them to be getting the full therapeutic dose of it but this isn't the first time my Medicare has cut my Schizophrenia meds.

I used to be on Latuda as an antipsychotic. That actually worked much better then Saphris but didn't put me to sleep. Then my Medicare wouldn't cover it anymore so I had to switch to Saphris.

I guess Medicare just doesn't give a shit about Schizophrenics. At least my therapy is still cheap and there's low copays on all my other meds though. At this point I'm just thankful to have health insurance even if it is kind of shitty.

For me, I feel like the medications are usually administered way too much and at too high of dosages or at least sometimes in the wrong form of cycles/periods (too frequent, or too regular, too simple of a pattern).

So it's possible that you will adapt to the lower dosage as your body/mind/metabolism figures out how much it doesn't need to use.

This could be good in the long run, as these medications have some seriously harsh long and short-term side effects.

I really don't want to be on antipsychotics. To me they aren't medicine, they are psychotropics. There is a difference. Healthy food and exercise are medicine. Stress-reduction is medicinal. Clean air and water are essential for medicine-like properties of them.

Anti-psychotics are not biologically present in nature as far as I know. They aren't food. Our bodies run on food, not exotic chemicals that don't occur naturally in nature. So to me they are synthetic psychotropics which could have some really bizarre effects, and they do.

I look forward to the day that I am able to live long-term not on them at all. In some ways I think me ending up on anti-psychotics was an accident.

We aren't all alike and we don't have exactly the same experiences. So what's good for you might not be good for me. And what's good for me might not be what's good for you. But sometimes maybe they are good for each other, other times maybe not. I think it's best not to oversimplify these things.

I really wish endocrinologists would educate psychiatrists about the effects of these psychotropics. But on the other hand, psychiatrists already have access to too much information about how to trick up the human brain and body. I have a hard time trusting psychiatrists, even those who mean well. I feel that a lot of them are in the wrong business and also that they could fall prey to influences which could often impair their judgement(s).

Overall, the smallest effective dose is a good compromise in situations where it's not clear whether or not a patient really needs a medication or not.

Even placebo pills can be psychotropics. I read that they are typically filled with ingredients designed to affect the body in noticeable ways so that a person could actually believe that it's taking effect. They aren't just empty pills of nothing; they are designed to cause effects. So really it brings a lot of things right back to square one....

Just what are we putting into our own bodies? Do we really know enough to be doing this to ourselves? And animal experimentation to test the effects of not well known substances is pretty cruel if you think about it.

But I am glad that whatever you experience is usually benificent, like you mentioned before. I think if the phenomenon is caused by something not in your own body/mind it's nice to know that it can be nice and kind. The unknown isn't always mean, it's just uknown.

You can have your pharmacist request a TAR (treatment authorization Request) and may be able to get the higher dosage approved if you think you need it. Sounds like you are doing well though. That is good.

I'm really doing fine. I would say my psychosis has dialed up, say, half a notch, not even a full notch, if that is even an effective measure of psychosis.

The thing is, I have this whole philosophy that it's all about finding an acceptable level of psychosis after the doctors told me that there would always be a little bit of it, even with meds.

So I hallucinate visually at times. I see beautiful transparent rainbow shimmery things on the white walls of my apartment that don't scare me. It's okay. I hear voices sometimes too, but I know it's just my own subvocal speech so it doesn't really upset me. I'm currently not having any major delusions that I know of.

So I would say I'm doing totally fine on the lower dose of Saphris, thankfully.

Hi Andrea, what are the side effects of saphris? Did they lessen with the lower dosage?

Hi Andrea!! Have you tried to plead your case on a "go fund me" page?? I think that if you could make a good argument for it maybe some people could donate enough money to cover the cost that Medicare will NOT COVER....just a thought. It couldn't hurt to try!! In the meantime if you would like to PM me....please add me as a friend...I think we have a lot in common!!

I can't and won't do a go fund me for anything especially something I don't need anymore now that I've acclimated to the new dose of Saphris and am doing fine now.

It really rubs me the wrong way when people of means start go fund mes, I have ppl on my FB feed starting them all the time & I just cannot ask my friends who have less money then I do for their $ to cover my medical costs.

I'm fine on the 2 mg of Saphris. It all turned out okay.

Wow, that's not much Saphris. I'm supposed to be taking 10, twice a day, though I only did 10 nightly, so I could get up for work... When I had to lower it to 5 nightly, due to a failure to remember to take care of an insurance thing, things started getting unbelievably difficult for me at work. But that is partly due to the nature of what I was doing. I actually quit because of it, a day before I learned that my new application was approved. Your doctor must think you aren't very psychotic.

There are a few things about Saphris, to those who don't know...
a) (As you know) It has less weight gain.
b) It can cause something called akathisia, which is agitating restlessness.
c) After 8-12 months, it's "significantly superior" to other antipsychotics in the treatment of positive and negative symptoms.
d) It also betters mood better than other antipsychotics.

Andrea, Actavis is the maker of Saphris or they own the rights to it. They have a patient assistance program for those of us who are on Medicare like myself and can't afford the medication. Call 800-851-0758 and ask them to send you an application. Once you recieve it fill out your part then have your doctor fill out his part. Your doctor will have to fax it out with one of his fax cover sheets so they know it came from him and attach your prescription also. They will cover you for one year their year runs from Jan. to Dec. So in Dec you will have to reapply I have been on the program for two years already it's great I get my meds for free. johnnyboy

Hi Andrea, I started Saphris at 2.5 mg in June. Then I went to 5, then to 7.5. Am on 10 mg for one week now and am going forth for the next 5 weeks to see if I can go back to my Navane days where my psychosis was nil (with the exception with one quiet voice of one of my brother's who was not invasive). I am not well right now. The Saphris has no side effects, I have lost twenty pounds in the last ten weeks since I have been off the Navane, however, my hallucinations are harming my well-being. I hope you are doing well. Still a witch?