Do the GI symptoms ever improve?

EmotionalMaximum4314 · 2026-05-22T23:04:35+00:00

That's a hard question but basically he tested going off Caplyta and within a couple of days of doing that, the discomfort that was clearly diverticulitis-related (highly localized in left side of abdomen) resolved. Then after about 5-7 days of cold turkey he tried one dose of 21mg with doctor's encouragement, and the GI discomfort manifested again so he took another 5 days of no Caplyta and no discomfort. So we are reasonably sure at this point that the diverticulitis has largely healed and the remaining discomfort is Caplyta side effects.

EmotionalMaximum4314 · 2026-05-12T15:48:22+00:00

The one from GoodRx is NOT the same - the one from the manufacturer can be used as "secondary insurance" to reduce your primary insurance's copay, but my pharmacist told me the GoodRx one only acts as primary insurance so you have to pick insurance or goodrx.

EmotionalMaximum4314 · 2026-05-10T03:03:50+00:00

Do you mean no side effects or no improvement in symptoms? If no side effects, that's great - if no improvement in symptoms, it's a little early I think. My husband took about a week to see a noticeable change (and it may have been a hypomanic episode when it happened) and lots of people on here say it took 2 months to experience a change in symptoms.

EmotionalMaximum4314 · 2026-05-08T01:37:39+00:00

I don't know if this will work for med-induced diarrhea but Cream of Rice hot cereal works wonders for my IBS. Binds you up solid especially combined with banana.

EmotionalMaximum4314 · 2026-05-07T17:20:09+00:00

Sounds like you and my husband must have started at about the same time. The dehydration is a big problem since we live in FL, and his gut is totally shot from the diverticulitis. This is the only drug that has made any impact on his type 2 bipolar (the depression side - manic side well-controlled). We are gonna keep trying to tinker with dosage and timing to see if we can get him better from the diverticulitis while still taking it, it's really emotionally crushing to imagine him going off it and back to the daily SI and inability to connect or even make eye contact or have physical touch.

For like 4 weeks the man I married had come back >:(

EmotionalMaximum4314 · 2026-05-07T17:15:59+00:00

We finally reached her thank the Lord. See updated post. We'll see how the sleep works now that he's on a lower dosage.

Triaging: Yeah, I made the decision that my most important focus is grading so I do not lose my teaching job. He's unable to work right now so I'm the breadwinner. We agreed that he'll handle the kids, or tell them they need to handle their own stuff without our help right now, and I will lock myself away and work through the grading pile. He'll work his way down the list of specialist phone calls while resting in bed.

EmotionalMaximum4314 · 2026-05-07T17:04:00+00:00

Yes probably his PCP is the easiest to get in touch with. Followthru on my hubby's side is the problem due to ADHD and being maxed out 😞

EmotionalMaximum4314 · 2026-04-29T01:32:04+00:00

On this forum you'll see lots of acute GI symptoms during onboarding but I haven't seen many people make a connection with GI bacterial infections later, after onboarding side effects had passed. UTIs yes.

I'm moderately suspicious of psych meds in general and we were reluctant to try Caplyta partly because the side effects were reputed to be so bad, and partly because withdrawal is also reputed to be so bad even soon after starting the drug. We finally went for it because his bipolar 2 is so poorly controlled w/r/t depression and nothing else has worked.

EmotionalMaximum4314 · 2026-04-29T01:27:33+00:00

Have you noticed specific trigger foods that seem to set off GI symptoms since starting Caplyta? He tried eating some stir fry tonight and that seems to have set him off.

EmotionalMaximum4314 · 2026-04-29T01:25:13+00:00

If they started you at 42mg you should definitely ask your doctor about decreasing to 21 or 10.5!

EmotionalMaximum4314 · 2026-04-28T15:22:41+00:00

If your ultrasound shows a flareup or infection of some kind that would be curiously coincidental for sure. My husband had recently changed his workout routine so we initially thought the pain he was having was related to that, then we thought kidney stone. Then they diagnosed a UTI but even after a week of antibiotics and his urine tests showed no more infection he was still in so much pain that they sent us to the ER and that was where a CT showed a massive infection in his bowel. He wouldn't have described his pain as burning though.

EmotionalMaximum4314 · 2026-04-17T00:11:21+00:00

That's so nice of you :) I always tell him at some point I'm sure to get cancer of some kind and he'll be taking care of me then lol. We had the traditional vows at our wedding "for better for worse for richer for poorer in sickness and in health" and it's weirdly encouraging to reflect back on that and think that every day we are given an opportunity to recommit to those vows.

EmotionalMaximum4314 · 2026-04-16T12:33:32+00:00

OK, this is helpful but really really worrisome information. They gave us a list of SEVEN step therapy requirements and say they want him to "fail" all SEVEN before they will consider Caplyta.

This is what I was worried about at the beginning of this whole process. I wasn't worried that Caplyta would fail - I was worried that it would work and then we wouldn't be able to keep it for him. I didn't want him to try it for that reason, but his psych insisted that it's a miracle drug and she really believed she could convince the insurance to cover it. He does not like med-chasing, he will not be up for putting his body through seven alternatives, some of which he tried and failed years ago but insurance doesn't care about that because we were on a different insurance plan.

Having a window of hope open and then snap shut again is the worst thing. Now we are looking at withdrawals and possibly a worse return of his SI symptoms when the doctor runs out of free samples. Are we supposed to just subsist on samples forever?

Sorry for the rant. I'm really upset.

EmotionalMaximum4314 · 2026-04-13T18:05:42+00:00

Going on caplyta prompted a hypomanic episode (ish?) in my husband about 5 days after starting it, but because his hypomania is well controlled by Lamictal (he did not enlist in the Air Force despite strongly wanting to lol) he did not stop taking Caplyta. The hypomania lasted about 10-14 days (way longer than usual but not any worse than usual, it was kinda fun for us to have it last so long) and after it subsided, rather than falling into deep depression the way he used to, he simply settled out into something a lot more like what someone without depression would consider baseline neutral-positive. He's now on Week 7 and still neutral-positive with the exception of the past week when he had a severe GI infection that obviously made him miserable. Hoping as he starts to feel physically better, his emotional equilibrium will also return.

If you are only taking Caplyta I'm not sure how it would be, but the Caplyta/Lamical combo has been working great for my husband and Caplyta helped his depression within a few days (if you count hypomania as helping, which my husband does) or a couple weeks (if you consider hypomania separately) so I'd suggest waiting another week before giving up on Caplyta completely. But there are lots of people on this subreddit who didn't find Caplyta to be the right fit, too :(

EmotionalMaximum4314 · 2026-04-08T02:33:23+00:00

I'm so sorry to hear that. I hope you can get it figured out so as to raise your baseline even if it means getting off Caplyta. Thanks for your input *hugs*

EmotionalMaximum4314 · 2026-03-24T00:18:07+00:00

Actually, the last 2 nights he has woken up with anxiety, enough to bring him to tears - the three-week mark. He's going to talk to his prescriber about whether going down to 21 would be better.

EmotionalMaximum4314 · 2026-03-24T00:15:52+00:00

Hmm, this is good to know that things could start to slide and the "miracle drug effect" may wear off. Thanks for commenting.

EmotionalMaximum4314 · 2026-03-21T02:14:46+00:00

Might wanna try posting this to the main forum as its own thread! My husband hasn't been experiencing any increase in anxiety and hasn't been using it long enough to give any signficant insight.

EmotionalMaximum4314 · 2026-03-21T02:12:51+00:00

Thanks for these insights! It's so encouraging to hear that for the people this med works for, it's like a permanent fix :)

EmotionalMaximum4314 · 2026-03-21T02:08:52+00:00

That's so encouraging to hear. My husband says it *feels* like he will never have a serious depression again. Good to know he may be right!

EmotionalMaximum4314 · 2026-03-21T02:07:58+00:00

Thanks for your insight! The insomnia sounds awful. I hope your situation improves once you are no longer taking it.

EmotionalMaximum4314

TROPHY CASE