My Mom Has Become Very Ill After Stopping Zyprexa

[AlexS]

Her doctor and herself have ecided to stop taking zyprexa. She's been on it for about 2 years and was taken off it for a little while where her dose was decreased a little week by week, well this time he had her cut down in just a couple days. It should be out of her system now and she woke up in the middle of the night running to the bathroom with diareah. She also has a high fever. Is this normal? Is it common for doctors to taper off zyprexa this quickly? She's very concern and lives 1000 miles away so i can't be there for her. Does anyone have any insight?

 

[joeylittle]

Best thing to do would be for her to call her doctor and/or the nurse line. It could be things other than the medication, you know?

It should be out of her system now

This often takes longer than you might think, best to check with the doctor.

 

[Deleted member 1860]

Well, no, it shouldn't necessarily be out of her system!

Zyprexa has a half life that ranges up to 54 hours, so after 54 hours, half of the medication in her body is still in her body. After 108 hours, half of what is left still remains, so she could have 25% of the drug still in her system.....and so on.

It depends on how fast she metabolizes the drug and eliminates it from her system. Some drugs can take months to leave someone's system if they have a long half life.