I thought I would never ask this question as I have been 100% against haldol.

My husband is having much more movement and it bothers him alot. He takes zyprexa and clonazepam, has for a number of years
and has done relatively well.

At his dr appt this week it was suggested that he be put on a minimum dose of haldol twice a day to control the movement. The dr
said it would most likely control his movements quite a bit. The dr said if it didn't work like we wanted he could be taken off with
no side effects.

My husband and I have both been totally against haldol and said we would never use this drug due to things we have read and his
father took it years ago.

We had been told that Zenadine has side effects so are reluctant to try that.

Basically, what are everyones thoughts about this on the haldol?

Thank you for your opinions.

I forgot to mention that we told the dr our negative thoughts on haldol and he said it was a good drug for this particular use - we told
him we would think about it but most likely wouldn't try it.

My daughter has been taking xenazine (tetrabenazine) for 2 1/2 years with wonderful results. She has no movements at all and is quite far along in her HD journey. She has also had ZERO side effects from xenazine. We were at Mass. General yesterday and I asked her doctor if she is the only one with good results from this drug (because I read so many negatives about it here) and she told me that many people are successful with it. The biggest drawback is that after it gained FDA approval the price skyrocketed. My daughter's cost about $4700 per month. It used to be available from Canada for a couple of hundred dollars a month. You have to have the right insurance to afford it. My daughter was on a very small dose of haldol many years back. It's hard to say if she had good or bad results as this was during a very tough time with her HD battle. I do feel that there are better alternatives.

My husband is on Haladol in the nursing home. He was put on it to control his rages as we were pretty desperate to find something.
He's been on it now since the first of November and along with controing the rages, I started noticing his corea is 50-75% less now. It took about 4 weeks and I'm sure he's on a much higher dose then your talking about but I can say in his case I have noticed a difference.
I think you have to decide if the pro's will outweigh the cons in your own particular case.

On the other hand before the rages my husband was put on Ropinirol to control his movements. It helped quite a bit as he was having trouble sleeping at night because of the movement. Maybe something like that would be a better choice if anger or rage aren't an issue?

I was always against Haldol, because I had read that it could actually worsen the symptoms . . . if you look at the archives, you'll probably find some info on it. Ray did end of going on Haldol, though, in the last maybe six months before he died, because of his intense anxiety, confusion and 'episodes' (I obviously just find it difficult to explain -- he was really, really suffering, though, we couldn't do anything to calm him down) . . . in any event, at that stage, it was the only thing that would work for him, but I'd look into more for movements only . . . the xenazine didn't work for Ray too well, because he was already so advanced (it effected his swallowing a great deal), but his neurologist thought it would have really helped him earlier on in his disease progression . . . personally, I'd try that first . . . it seems like I've heard more negative things with the Haldol . . . now I have to go research a little . . . Good luck, though!!

Haldol Link . . . this may help . . . the study is from 2005, I'm not sure if there's more current research . . .



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/19/2012 09:49PM by mjdelcon.

My husband is on Amatadine for movement...no side effects...he is doing great on it...it is a Parkinson drug

Ray was on Abilify and Amantadine together for a while, because he was getting parkinsons-type movements from the Abilify. He had a bad reaction to the Amantadine (a psychotic episode, hallucinations, paranoia - thought people were trying to kill him, etc.) It was very scary. It lasted about 2-3 weeks, 2 visits to the ER and an ambulance trip . . . we thought he was having a heart attack at one point, then the neurologist finally said to try to stop taking the Amantadine and that worked, and he was back to himself. I haven't heard of anyone else having this type of reaction, but just in case thought I'd mention it.

Terry has been on 10mg of Abilify for almost 2 years now. At the time he started it he had speech problems (stuttering), grimacing, hostility and he had just started to develop tremors in his hands-all were remedied by the Abilify. It did not improve his gait or his lack of energy and stamina but those symptoms have not progressed in this time either. Word of warning for anyone wanting to try Abilify though-Terry fell a couple of times when he first started it. Reading up on it I found that is a side effect in the initial weeks of using it. He has not fallen once since those first 2 weeks. Both falls were from him getting up from a chair too rapidly-he's never fallen while he was simply walking. It's the only presciption medication he's been on. I've asked him if he wanted to try something else but he's very satisfied with Abilify and is happy that it has had no other side effects for him. I think we got lucky that it's worked so well for him and it's the first thing we tried.

Best Wishes,
Audrey

Thank you all very much for your input. I am going to put another post up regarding abilify, xenadine and amantadine to see who all is
has luck or side effects with these as far as using them for movement. I never realized abilifyand amantadine could be used for movement.
Again, thank you all so very much. I don't know what I would do without all of you.