What should I do?
 

Background: Post concussion 20 months. Went thru TBI clinic with some success but could never get over the headache, light and hearing sensitivities. Tried lots of meds including blood pressure meds and migraine meds. About 7 weeks ago I tried amitriptyline to help with the headaches.

Aside from some heart palpitations it seemed to be helping until I went into a psychotic episode with delusions. Had to be hospitalized. Now I am working with psych meds and all do their side effects. The respirdone totally knocked me down being tired to the point of not functioning at all. The doctor wants me on a higher dose but I cannot tolerate it.

I weaned myself down to a very low dose but now am struggling with the sensitivities and head issues again. I am sleeping a lot which is usually not an issue. The psych doc wants me to switch to abilify. My mom thinks we should go back to rehab with multi disciplines and not just psych.

What do any of you think?? This is being typed by mom since I cannot tolerate the computer or screens right now. Thanks in advance!

I am not sure what symptoms you are trying to treat. Are the delusions still happening ? Are the head aches responsive to Tylenol or Ibuprofen ? Have you tried using foam ear plugs for noisy environments ?

Respiridone is a powerful drug. No psychoactive drugs is to be taken lightly. Different psychiatrists have different specialty skills. Maybe there is a psychiatrist who has more experience with head injuries. I was on Olanzapine for a few months. It did a good job of settling my mind down.

Have the doctors done any blood work ? B-12, folate, D-3, magnesium and other levels should be checked. Even hormones should be checked.

I'm very sorry to read how you've been doing.
I agree with your mother about not just relying on psychiatric treatment.

What dose of Risperidone are you on now?
My son took it for quite a while when he was young. It used to be almost automatically dished out to people here at one time for people who were experiencing complicated symptoms of autism ... sadly.

It was very difficult for him to taper off the drug despite how easy the doctors said it would be. I wonder if some of your symptoms are part of your withdrawal from the Risperidone... then again it depends on the strength of your dose. In the end we literally shaved the tablets.