Tourette Syndrome & Tic Disorders Support Group
This community is dedicated to those afflicted with a tic disorder. A tic disorder is one in which uncontrollable muscle spasms that can range from small annoyances to major disruptive occurrences. .
In a message that I posted in April I mentioned that the 4 mg of Orap that I'm taking has almost completely eliminated my tics. Last week I had to taper off the Orap because I believe that it is making me feel really drowsy during the day. The Orap is sedating me and/or is interfering with my sleep at night. When I say drowsy I mean extreme sedation that lasts almost all day long. Neither taking a nap or caffeine seems to lessen the drowsy feeling to any great extent. Now that I'm off the Orap I feel fairly alert. I recently had a sleep study done to see if I have any sleep disorders. I'll know the results of that study this upcoming Friday.
So far the tics are very mild. It's as if my Tourette's is on vacation. I figure that it will come by before too much longer. It could be that the one or more of the other medications that I take may be interacting with the Orap. This seems likely to me because I take seven other medications. So the Orap in and of itself may not be the problem. It's possible that if I adjust my other meds I may be able to continue taking the Orap. If that's not possible, I will need to substitute the Orap with another drug(s). I'm hoping though that I can continue taking the Orap because it's so effective in tic reduction.
Has anyone else experienced sedation with Orap? According to what all that I've read it tends to not be sedating. Like I said earlier it could be that it's interacting with one or more other meds that I take. If indeed this is the case, I'm guessing that if I took the Orap by itself I might not experience any side effects from it. Unfortunately though I'll have to continue taking all of my meds. My conditions are pretty complex. I have bipolar schizoaffective disorder, OCD, and achalasia (disorder of the esophagus). Except for these things I'm otherwise in good health which I thank God for. It may be possible to adjust medication dosages such that the Orap wouldn't be a problem for me.
I'll be seeing my family doctor week after next. I'm going to ask him if there's some way that I could continue taking the Orap. Supposing that isn't a realistic option, I'm then going to ask him what I could take something in place of it. What I need is something that's good for the vocal tics. The motor tics that I have are usually not very severe. The vocal tic that's of main concern to me is the one where I'm saying cuss words. For example, when I was at my worse I was saying the word f**k over one hundred times a day to myself. Only I knew I was doing this yet it was still bothersome. When I wasn't saying that word I was thinking about it in my mind. By the way, the Orap also seemed to have helped with my obsessional thinking (mainly consisting of thoughts of a sexual nature). The reason I went on the Orap was to try to eliminate these problems and to ease my concern about the social stigma that would surely follow if I began to say these cuss words out loud in public.
--Scott
So far the tics are very mild. It's as if my Tourette's is on vacation. I figure that it will come by before too much longer. It could be that the one or more of the other medications that I take may be interacting with the Orap. This seems likely to me because I take seven other medications. So the Orap in and of itself may not be the problem. It's possible that if I adjust my other meds I may be able to continue taking the Orap. If that's not possible, I will need to substitute the Orap with another drug(s). I'm hoping though that I can continue taking the Orap because it's so effective in tic reduction.
Has anyone else experienced sedation with Orap? According to what all that I've read it tends to not be sedating. Like I said earlier it could be that it's interacting with one or more other meds that I take. If indeed this is the case, I'm guessing that if I took the Orap by itself I might not experience any side effects from it. Unfortunately though I'll have to continue taking all of my meds. My conditions are pretty complex. I have bipolar schizoaffective disorder, OCD, and achalasia (disorder of the esophagus). Except for these things I'm otherwise in good health which I thank God for. It may be possible to adjust medication dosages such that the Orap wouldn't be a problem for me.
I'll be seeing my family doctor week after next. I'm going to ask him if there's some way that I could continue taking the Orap. Supposing that isn't a realistic option, I'm then going to ask him what I could take something in place of it. What I need is something that's good for the vocal tics. The motor tics that I have are usually not very severe. The vocal tic that's of main concern to me is the one where I'm saying cuss words. For example, when I was at my worse I was saying the word f**k over one hundred times a day to myself. Only I knew I was doing this yet it was still bothersome. When I wasn't saying that word I was thinking about it in my mind. By the way, the Orap also seemed to have helped with my obsessional thinking (mainly consisting of thoughts of a sexual nature). The reason I went on the Orap was to try to eliminate these problems and to ease my concern about the social stigma that would surely follow if I began to say these cuss words out loud in public.
--Scott
Unfortunately I have never taken Orap before so I can't tell you what it has done with me as far as side effects, etc. But, I can tell you what is interesting is that I've been on meds for OCD that started to make me worse and when I went off it seemed as if my OCD was cured for a while. Sometimes the docs told me this is because of Seretonin Imbalance and sometimes it becomes balanced out, either too balanced or underbalanced when going off... Some migraine medicines you can go on for only a little while and they actually fix the chemical in the brain for good so you do not have to be on preventatives for life or for years. So, it may be that with other meds, and how long you were on Orap, they fired with each other and have created a balance of some sorts... This could last for a while or could last longer, or could last very short but I'm glad they are giving you a rest and that is great that you are losing the sedation and tics at the same time. I would ask your doc to consider leaving the meds for a bit of trying another one to see if something happened in your brain, etc and you want to see if it could get potentially better? Hope that helps as I have had this happen for a couple different conditions and it is medically factual in why this can happen... pretty interesting.
Hugs and cheers,
Kris