# Abilify-antipsychotic, neuroleptic



## AllmindnoBrain (Jun 28, 2007)

got a prescription of 5mg of abilify the other day from my psych, i dont know much about this type of medication, only that it is used mostly to help those with schizophrenia and bipolar, and that it is a relatively new drug, FDA approved its use in 2002, plus it costs 400 dollars for 30 pills-good thing i have insurance. If anyone has tried this or any other antipsychotic let me know how it effected your dp, because i am still not sure if i want to try this stuff. Just went off of klonopin after being on it for almost 3 months, it didnt do much for me except take some of the edge off of anxiety and helped with sleep, but didnt do enough for me to stay on it.


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## comfortably numb (Mar 6, 2006)

I was on seroquel for a long time and i found it to be a great drug with little in the way of side effects except that horrible dry mouth and dry eyes. That was very annoying. It also made me very drowsy usually and this was the desired effects since i took it at night time. It just brought me down to normal when i was suffering a mania or mixed episode. It was a very agreable drug all in all for me.

I also took risperdal a few times which is the second oldest atypical anti-psychotic and i found it to be a very worthless drug. It did absolutly nothing to control my mania or mixed states and made my depression much worse. It also gave me bad anxiety, heart palpitations and it made me feel like a total zombie. Yet it didnt make me drowsy at all really. So all in all a very sucky drug.

I took these for bipolar though not dp/dr. My dp/dr and brain fog was already completely under control with clonazepam. So i can't really comment on if they made my dp/dr better but i can say risperdal caused a return of my dp/dr the few times i took it and seroquel made my dp/dr come back the first few times i took it for a few hours after i took the drug. But with seroquel this went away within a few days and even now if i take a seroquel it never returns.

Abilify is different then the other atypical anti-psychotics but that doesn't mean it's better. It's known to not cause much if any sedation which makes it different then the older generation of atypical anti-psychotics. The most common adverse side effects seem to be nausea, vomiting, constipation, headache, dizziness akathisia, anxiety, insomnia and restlessness. So it seems to be more activating then sedating.

One thing i will say about this drug is that it seems to have a higher rate of akathisia then the other atypical anti-psychotics seroquel and zyprexa. This only makes sense because of the fact that it's not sedating wheras seroquel is very sedating and zyprexa is pretty sedating as well.

Akathisia is a sense of inner restlessness that can either be very mild or so severe that some people call it torture. Here's a link describing it http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Akathisia .

Anyway you and your doctor have to decide if this is a medicine that may be good for you. If you have tried other benzodiazepines, anti-depressants and anti-convulsants such as lamotrigine then it might be worth a shot. But from what i have read on this board atypical anti-psychotics don't have a high success rate in treating dp/dr and i personally think they should be left as one of the last options. But that is my own opinion and nothing else.


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## DRyan (Jan 19, 2008)

My doctor dislikes this.. a lot. I think he's seen a lot of bad things happen on it and no so many good things.

For me, It made my slight hypotension disorder serious, I almost passed out a few times.

Certainly didnt make any improvement on DR either.


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## seanhunta (Jan 31, 2008)

ive just been to my doctor, and he prescribed me with this abilify, ive taken 1 tab already, so i dont know the effects as such yet. but im becoming increasingly worried from looking at side effects like you i have a low 5mg dosage. if any one has any information on this drug please im all ears


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## AllmindnoBrain (Jun 28, 2007)

Let us know how it goes


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## algernon (Jul 15, 2007)

I was on seroquel too and the only effect it had on me was to gain a lot of weight...which I lost when I went off it......other that that I couldn't tell I was taking anything at all...  _C_


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## Universal (May 30, 2005)

ABILIFY > GEODON 
ABILIFY > ZYPREXA


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## tektitik (Jul 25, 2008)

Hi! I was just recently prescribed 2mg daily of Abilify (Im also on 300mg Effexor XR, Klonopin and Ambien. The first time I took it I noticed that it was helping alot with my depressive state, which has been caused by the constant Dp/Dr. I'm on the 3rd of 4th day now and I'm noticing that I do, indeed, feel better. I would say the med primarily helps with the depression (which makes sense as the FDA recently approved it for Major Depression) but it also seems to help with the Dp/Dr. If not directly, perhaps it is helping me cope with it better, which in the long run, I would say, would be highly beneficial to the overall outcome in beating this horrible disorder. Hope this helps! 

-Greg


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## Guest (Jul 28, 2008)

oooo memories, the week i was on abilify, i think i slept like 18 hours a day haha


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## glosoli (Apr 29, 2008)

I took 10mg a day, but I got the "Akathisia"-thing so i stopped. Should I ask my doctor for Seroquel instead?


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## AllmindnoBrain (Jun 28, 2007)

Took it for a week and it made my dp worse, i was too scared that it would continue to worsen so i stopped taking it. Im going back to klonopin baby!


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## coffeecup (Jun 29, 2008)

tried every typical and atypical in the book (uk BNF)

only one that did anything was seroquel at 1.2 gram (yep gram..) increased motivation a bit, but gave me panic attacks , along with weird pre sleep hallucinations (with 60mg of cipramil ...your milage may vary...)

but different things work for different people with this damn illness...


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