Information and remedy steerage on Cobenfy is restricted to its use as a monotherapy. Nevertheless, in actual life medical follow, sufferers are sometimes already taking an antipsychotic. How will you finest cross-taper and transition sufferers onto Cobenfy? Gustavo Alva, MD, FAPA, shares his insights.
Transitions ought to be made in a prudent method. There are a number of particular factors to recollect:
- Cobenfy is permitted by the US Meals and Drug Administration for adults with schizophrenia, however solely as a monotherapy. The research all had members who had already washed out of their earlier treatment earlier than beginning Cobenfy.
- Sufferers could also be unwilling to let go of their earlier treatment, as they noticed some enchancment with it or are used to it. It is very important educate sufferers about different remedy choices.
- Sure medicines have a heavy-duty antihistaminergic impact, equivalent to benadryl, atypical antipsychotics, and extra. If layered on Cobenfy, they will exacerbate points like dry mouth, constipation, urinary retention, blurry imaginative and prescient, and extra.
- Drugs like olanzapine, quetiapine, and clozapine are very sedating. Abruptly stopping these medicines could make a affected person appear extra labile or agitated.
Dr Alva is a board-certified psychiatrist, a paid advisor of Otsuka America Pharmaceutical, Inc, and Lundbeck, and Temper Issues Part Editor for Psychiatric Instances.
