Abilify

I'm about to change from quietapine to abilify to reduce the weight gain side effects.

I have been on abilify before for a very short period (about 1 week) and I can off because it made me feel sick. My pdoc said that we could try it again with an anti sickness medication for a couple of weeks to see of the sickness settles.

Who else is on this medication?
What side effects did you get and did the calm down after a couple of weeks on the drug?

Thanks x

Hi Betty

How are you? I am on it and I have found it really good. It cut out my psychosis almost totally and also helped with stabilising my mood. I have not had noticeable side effects with it except perhaps increased tremor but it might not be down to that - it could be lamotrigine. Either way lithium is the big culprit with that. So in my experience I have found aripiprazole really good. I know that everyone is different tho

Huge hugs

Cracked

Thanks cracked.
Im still in hospital. Still on my section. Diagnosis up in the air.
But I'm doing ok considering.

Thanks you for your experience. Can I ask what dose you take?

Sounds like things are tough hon - I think it speaks a lot of you that you are doing OK

Huge hugs

I am on 10mg

Cracked

I am on abilify- it made me very tired for the first month or so which was great because I had insomnia before. The sleepiness is gone now though.
Otherwise I had no side effects yet on month 2 but small dose only 5mg a day.

Thank you for the replies.

I just started taking it this morning and I'm wondering how long it will be till it starts to work?
I am in hospital and they will not let me go till my psychosis is under control. But I'm worried because I read in some studies that it can take 6-12 weeks to take full effect.
I don't want to stay in hospital that long

Abilify was my favorite med for long-term treatment. To get on my feet, I used Geodon (60-120mg/day) for 3 weeks while I was transitioning to Abilify. I was taking both Abilify and Geodon during the two week transition period. It worked fairly smoothly, but I was nautious for a few mornings of it. For long-term, I used 10mg/day, which I thought was a bit heavy. 5mg/day sounds much better. I self-medicated by taking a 10 mg pill on Mondays and Thursdays because those were trash days so I could remember easily. Eventually, after months of "long-term" recovery, I transitioned into a more "advanced" recovery stage, which is when I went medication free. It's still working after alamost a year - you can pm if you'd like to know how to do it. I can't advertise my book on this forum.

Thanks that's a really positive story. Well done for getting med free.

Book recommendation would be good thank you x

I was on Abilify in the past and it was pretty effective for awhile. I was on 7.5 mg and it worked well to keep the depression under control. I didn't experience any side effects really except some slight weight gain. When I got really manic and in the hospital, they upped my dosage to 15 mg and the mania got under control within only a couple of days. I'm pretty sure 15 is really high though, and I was only on it that high until the mania was controlled. Overall it was a pretty effective drug for me. I only stopped it because when I had a depressive episode again it wasn't working as well so I switched to Seroquel which is helping more.

Everyone responds differently to everything. I really hope the Abilify works out for you, Betty.

- EGD.

I feel really restless and cannot sleep (mostly because of the restlessness).
Will this calm down over time ?