Zyprexa is an atypical anti-psychotic in the thienobenzodiazepine
class. Notice the -benzodiazepine part? I know olanzapine (the generic
name of Zyprexa) does not belong to the benzodiazepine class per se,
but it does have some characteristics (weak binding to the BZD and GABA
A receptor) of classic benzodiazepines. Besides, it’s chemical name
ends with 1,5(benzodiazepine). 😉
I have had experience with olanzapine before, but I wanted a second
time before I get around to writing a report. Zyprexa (olanzepine) is
hard to come by, coz the only people who prescribes it are
psychiatrists. I managed to get some off a friend who’s on it as part
of a prescription regiment for bipolar disorder (manic-depressive was
the old name for this condition).
I have to say that I was on about 400 mg of tramadol and probably
have a steady state of tramadol coz I use that on a daily basis to
boost my serotonin levels, with increasing doses towards the end of the
week. There are some records of possible serotonin syndrome due to the
unusual SSRI nature of tramadol when combined with olanzapine and
mirtazapine so be careful if you’re taking this particular combination.
Back to olanzapine, I got two 5 mg tablets from the abovementioned
friend, split into two for 4 doses of 2.5 mg. The blister packs are
silver and unmarked on the top and have “Lilly Zyprexa 5 mg olanzapine”
at the back. The tablets are white coated, with a yellow center.
Olanzapine is used to treat schizophrenia and bipolar disorder and
binds primarily to the serotonin, dopamine, muscarinic, histamine and
adrenergic receptors.
The front of the tablets is imprinted with “Lilly 4115”, some
internal coding scheme. I took 10 mg (two full tablets of the split 5
mg tabs) on an empty stomach and somnolence (people in the medical
profession prefers to call it “feelin’ damn drowsy”) was
uncharacteristically noticed at around T+ 4:00. I used
“uncharacteristically” coz I had not taken any benzodiazepines that day
and I’m on a very high daily regiment. Thus, I took 1 mg of lorazepam (just so not to have any seizures and all that) and went to sleep.
I woke up about once every 6 hours with extremely vivid dreams. I
mean, those dreams are weird ass nightmare-dreams and they’re fucking lucid.
I can’t remember what exactly I dreamt, but it was all in a sequence
and so surreal…I easily slipped back into the warm folds of sleep
after waking up each time and finally decided to get up at noon the
next day (T+ 19:00). I was still very sleepy and would have loved to
get back to bed, but forced myself up anyway. This is one hell of a
long acting psychotropic…reminds me of phenobarbital.
I immediately noticed something when I started to move – my motor
coordination was way off the charts. I had to sober up and go for lunch
and I couldn’t even hold my eating implements without fumbling. I
couldn’t even squeeze a lime without twitching, for crying out loud!
The motor coordination problems (or rather the lack of it) started
to go away at T+ 21:00 and good riddance…it’s a little disconcerting
that you can’t do simple things like hold a pair of chopsticks without
fumbling and making your friends go “What are you on mate???” and
you’ll be mumbling “Nothing, nothing.”. Oh, and one more note about
olanzapine…it seems to affect speech coordination as well. I found it
very hard to express myself.
Olanzapine…is it recreational? Well, it’s not on the top of my “to
do” list, but I’m glad I tried it. I guess it depends on how you define
“recreational” (again). It puts you out for a long time, so it might be
useful for comedowns. It’s one of those “trying for the sake of trying”
drugs that veritas is so fond of… 😉
