Caplyta

I did respond to you on my thread, but my doctor isn't putting me on it because she thinks there is a big risk of it triggering mania for me (who has pretty reliably gotten manic or thrown into rapid cycling from every antidepressant I've ever been on and antipsychotics geared towards depression like Rexulti) and that risk would outweigh any benefit I could get from it.

It did trigger mania & psychosis in me. I ended up in the psych hospital.

My pdoc doesn't want me on it out of fear that it will cause mania. It caused mania in a few of his patients.

I haven't tried it yet because the insurance required people authorization.

I scanned reddit posts and many people went manic on it, including engaging in reckless behavior that was out of character for them.

I wonder if they're going to eventually change it's indications to be for MDD and contraindicated for bipolar. I know the commercials it initially had advertised it for bipolar depression but if a lot of people are reporting going manic and doctors are not prescribing it for mania risk, maybe people with bipolar shouldn't take it (or take it in the way they take antidepressants--alongside a med that actually prevents mania)? Just a thought from someone who speaks out of whatever hole is working most efficiently that day.

The PA was approved. The prescription will probably get filled early next week and I will begin an experiment, ready to stall it at the first signs of mood elevation.

Definitely watch carefully for mania. I think I only took 3 or 4 doses before mania & psychosis set in. It was very quick.

I couldn't keep it down.

I probably will take Zofran alongside the first few doses, preventatively.

I will start it at 10.5 mg, the lowest dose (25% of the therapeutic dose), on Saturday evening. I will start it while taking Lybalvi as before, to see what happens.

It has not been countraindicated for bipolar yet, but it has been most recently indicated for MDD as an adjunct to an AD.

I have been on it at 10.5 mg (25% of the therapeutic dose) for 9 days and off Lybalvi. My horrible hunger pangs went away completely. I also no longer wake up to pee in the middle of the night, and the percentage of deep sleep during the night, while still abnormally low, has gone up, probably because of uninterrupted sleep.

I have nausea on it and take Zofran daily. I do not know if that contributes to how drastically less hungry I am (nausea does make one averse to food), but I have been eating 50% of what I used to eat on Lybalvi, so much so that it is now non-trivial to meet the daily protein requirements. I have been losing weight and it has been coming off in the right places, around the waist. I feel liberated from hunger and it feels amazing to know that I can fall asleep and not wake up until my morning alarm.

I also have had dry mouth, which went away, persistent low-grade non-migraine headaches, increased dizziness, and odd chills. Also, at the very beginning, it caused urinary retention, but that resolved after about two days.

In terms of clarity of thought and mood stability, I feel exactly the way I felt on Lybalvi.

If it works, I intend to continue on this low dose. Maybe raising the dose will trigger mania, right?

These chills are so odd. I wore two sweaters on my evening walk.

Still feeling cold and nauseated. Still having a low-grade headache most of the time (not a migraine). Lost weight, but I am worried that it is an artifact of persistent nausea. Time will tell.

No longer feeling cold or nauseous.

Occasional low-grade headaches still, but they no longer last forever.

Doing well!

I looked that up when I read this which was funny because it was right after a commercial that was for Caplyta as a bipolar med. It's still FDA-approved for "depressive episodes associated with bipolar I or II disorder as a monotherapy or with lithium or valproate" but I fear for how anyone with bipolar (especially I) taking it as a monotherapy would fare (not based on any of my personal experience other being told not to take it because of mania risk--and that was even with other bipolar meds).

I'm glad you're doing well though! Keep us updated

I jinxrd myself a bit writing the project vious post, in terms of side effects. Today I was back to experiencing chills, a headache, and nausea. Zofran didn't help with nausea and usually it foes. Hopefully tomorrow will be better and eventually the side effects will all fade away. But I am sleeping on it, the same way I slept on Lybalvi or Seroquel, and I do not get hypomanic.

Tonight I am starting the second bottle. Apparently, because it is still such a new med, it comes in branded 30-capsule branded bottles.

I do not watch TV and am curious, what is the advertising message they use to promote Caplyta?

Their slogan is "let in the lyte," and the one I've seen recently was a mom that skipped family dinner, the dad said "she's not feeling well," then the mom opens the door all smiling and neatly dressed (and skinny so I guess she didn't switch from seroquel or zyprexa or anything like that) as they switch to talking about the med.

Oh! So the Lyte in Cap-Lyta is for light. Light at the end of the tunnel? Light as in lightweight, no weight gain?

I continue being stable mood-wise on it, but I got sick a cold that wouldn't go away, reported it to AI and it suggested getting my WBC checked, because Caplyta, as all APs, carries a warning: it can cause leukopenia, neutropenia, and agranulocytosis. And if I have those, I can easily get sick and it would be hard to shake off a sickness. Only a blood test can tell for sure, but at least it is reassuring that I do not have a fever. It would be very disappointing if I have to stop Caplyta due to that side effect. Gemini said that at the same time, it could be coincidental and I might have simply caught a persistent, stubborn, pesky summer bug. It explained that winter viruses are typically rhinoviruses (apparently I do not get them) and summer viruses are enteroviruses and they can be long-lasting. Then an old friend messaged me and I told her about being sick and she told me that a couple of her friends got such violent cough this summer that they required antibiotics. So I am hoping it is that and not Caplyta.

I had an InBody scan that showed excellent results: lots of fat loss and some muscle gain, and overall weight loss. Some of it happened while on Caplyta. I so hope that I will be able to continue on it.

At the same time, I still have nausea and it has been well over a month. When will the nausea go away?

Id think they’re going for light in a more joyful way like get rid of the darkness/depression.

I have paused this trial because the headaches became incessant and grew in severity. The pdoc suggested I take half a capsule to see it remains effective at half the dose and if the side effects go down. It is not a pill that can be cut, it is a brown capsule filled with white powder.

I talked to Gemini about that and based on the advice, ordered a budget jeweler's scale with a calibration weight from Amazon. The idea is to first weigh the contents of a whole capsule and then measure out one half of that, coat this powder with a spoonful of applesauce and eat that.

For the past two nights I have been on 2.5 mg of Zyorexa. So far it is as effective as higher doses of Zyprexa and the painful hunger hasn't returned yet. The headache is not gone and I will wait until it is completely gone, spend several days painfree on Zyprexa, and then experiment with weighing microdoses of Caplyta using the new scale. I sure will feel like a medieval alchemist doing that.

Be prepared for wanting to add something potent like maple syrup to the applesauce. Those powders can have a strong taste. I wouldn’t think with that small a mg it’d be too bad but shots of Everclear can make my face pucker less than the last time I did that with a capsule.