Insurance wanted me to switch meds.

They said my copay for my geodon is high. It’s only $16 a month for each strength. $30 a month is not a big deal for me. But the insurance lady suggested I switch to either seroquel or risperdal. I quickly told her no. I was on seroquel and I gained 30 pounds. Someone I knew was on risperdal and in a month went from being underweight to obese. I am sticking with my geodon no matter what the insurance company says.

Has this happened to anyone where you have had insurance issues with meds and then switched to something and gained a lot of weight?

I find it funny that the only meds insurance issues seem to have an issue with are weight neutral meds and the ones they want you to be on are some of the worst for weight gain.

I gained 20 lb on Risperdal, although I wasn't forced to take it by insurance.

i was prescribed risperidone before insurance would be OK w/ abilify. stoopid. 6 milligrams of that mind numbing cosh..-bleh-

its a cost issue, i suppose. geodon had (has?) a cardio warning. does it help your depression?

Geodon was a lifesaver for me. I am where I am today partially because of Geodon. Seroquel made all my symptoms, depression and bipolar much worse and I was in and out of the hospital when I was on it.

I’ll pay out of pocket for the entire cost before I take anything else. Unless they ask me to switch to Wellbutrin. Which I doubt they would since that actually causes weight loss.

oh yeah. Seroquel is for sure a xhit drug. it almost killed me. with some help from the doctor. take my word for it. i dont have any insurance but even if i did i dont want to take any more of these drugs. i feel like a zombie with a potato brain. i hope ti find someone else on the forum that experienced this ? but i doubt anybody is still alive to talk about it ?

i hear ya. my long term goal is a slow taper off abilify and on to...well, my brain -without- a major tranq. imagine that...

there's a lot of psychiatric survivors flying under the radar at outpatient clinics. sometimes, moving or getting married or...something...helps provide an escape from the stigma, if not...well...the brain damage.

don't give up hope though! i know that sounds cheesy and lame. i had tardive dyskinesia, a kind of odd variant that involved tics that got a lot worse under stress (facial tics), not the typical chewing movements. i was also 110% burned out, largely thanks to psychiatry. and now...

i am one of the psych survivors labeled by the mental health industry as a story of recovery, etc. the 'experts' always get to silence the 'patient' and tell his or her story, unless we/they speak in the stoopid dsm code language.

i have an easier run of things than many psych survivors. even going by the mostly useless IQ scale, my intelligence is back in action. there's more hope for you and other psychiatric casualties than you might think...

'where there's life, there's hope'

That's one of the effects of Cymbalta for me - and maybe others before that, I dunno. I've been feeling really slow, it was hard for me to wrap my head around stuff I was trying to learn, and rememering things was almost impossible. I'd chalked it up to just getting old and brain cells dying, until I went off the Cymbalta and suddenly I was totally sharp again. I can't wait to get that back when I finish stepping down from it.

yeah...lots of people swear by Cymbalta, but...not me. i suspect a -lot- of psych drugs can slow things down, not just the neuroleptics/antipsychotics. and with so many people on high dose, multi-drug cocktails...plus electroshock is making a comeback (its a big money maker in private hospitals)...

its basically the 50s, all over again. :-(

You need your doctor to write your insurance a letter explaining that it's necessary for you to take geodon because other antipsychotics have caused harmful side effects. Insurance companies require that for all kinds of drugs and doctors write these letters all the time. It's prior authorization.

Your insurance company is really chintzy by the way if they won't even cover geodon.

It’s Medicare part D Humana. Which I thought was pretty good when I signed up. My brother is on it too and has no issue. He gets stuff like Wellbutrin covered. They seem to just have an issue with Geodon for some reason.

Yeah, I've seen people have some pretty awful reactions from ECT, even the new "non painful" kind. I can't believe it's still a permitted medical practice

After I immediately told her no to the seroquel and risperdal she said “ok” and didn’t try to push anything else. So I hope it’s settled and they don’t call back and try to do anything else. That was a few days ago and I haven’t heard from them. So I hope I’m good.

My brothers doctor gave him some sort of RX card or something. I don’t really know what it is. But you can get prescriptions super cheap on it. Sometimes cheaper than insurance. I can use it too. You just look online to see what pharmacy has the best price. So far my insurance is still paying for my Geodon but if they decide not to pay for it I can use this magical card and only pay $26 per strength.

So In other words I can stay on my Geodon no matter what my insurance company does.

The website is good rx

Yeah I looked and one of my other meds is usually $160 at Walmart for a 3 month supply but with the card it’s $80 at Target. It seems like a lifesaver.