# Aripiprazole in Depersonalization Disorder Comorbid With Major Depression and Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder: 3 Cases (July 2, 2014)



## bubniakz (Jun 3, 2008)

*Aripiprazole in Depersonalization Disorder Comorbid With Major Depression and Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder: 3 Cases.*

Uguz, Faruk MD; Sahingoy, Mine MD

Clinical Neuropharmacology

July 2, 2014

Depersonalization is a frequent symptom in depression and obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), but sometimes, it may be severe and concurrently diagnosed as a disorder. The treatment of depersonalization disorder both alone and comorbid with other psychiatric disorders is as yet unclear. This report presents the successful treatment with aripiprazole of concurrent depersonalization disorder in 3 patients with depression or OCD. The psychiatric disorders were diagnosed through structured clinical interviews. Assessments were by means of Yale-Brown Obsessive-Compulsive Scale, the Clinical Global Impression-Improvement Scale, and the 17-item Hamilton Rating Scale for Depression. Aripiprazole may be a beneficial psychotropic drug in the treatment of depersonalization disorder comorbid with OCD or depression, which is an important problem in clinical practice.

SNIPPETS:

"...we switched the risperidone with aripiprazole at 10 mg/d. The patient reported that both OCD and depersonalization symptoms dramatically alleviated

within the following 2 weeks. At follow-up examination, 8 weeks from the initiation of aripiprazole... the patient reported that the depersonalization symptoms were completely resolved."

"Aripiprazole at 5 mg/d was added to the treatment. The patient reported decrease in the depersonalization and depressive symptoms in the following weeks... Venlafaxine at 150 mg/d and ariprazole at 10 mg/d were administered during the following 6 weeks, and at the end of this time, the patient described a complete improvement in the depersonalization symptoms."

"The patient was prescribed with ariprazole at 10 mg/d. The psychiatric interview at the sixth week from the start of aripiprazole showed that major depression was fully remitted and depersonalization symptoms were almost completely recovered."

"To our knowledge, this is the first report on the efficacy of aripiprazole in the treatment of depersonalization disorder comorbid with OCD or major depression. Generally, depersonalization may occur secondary to major depression and anxiety disorders, and it is expected that these symptoms are resolved concurrently with the decrease in the symptoms of depressive disorder and OCD. However, our patients had severe depersonalization symptoms, and these almost never changed despite reductions in varying degrees in the symptoms of other diagnoses. We think that the present report may suggest the following important points: first, aripiprazole may be useful in the treatment of depersonalization disorder presenting as the sole disorder. Second, aripiprazole may be effective in depersonalization disorder or symptoms accompanying depression and OCD. Finally, the depersonalization symptoms, as a clinical indicator of resistance to the treatment of depression, may predict good response to aripiprazole augmentation in OCD or major depression."


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## bubniakz (Jun 3, 2008)

Aripiprazole is Abilify or Aripiprex...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aripiprazole


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## MiketheAlien (Nov 7, 2013)

JoshThornton said:


> It's widely available. Aripiprazole is called Abilify in most countries I believe. I took it for a couple months and, in conjunction with lexapro, I was dp/dr free. But the side effects sucked so I stopped taking it.


Could you please elaborate on the side effects you experienced?


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