Posted by med_empowered on March 26, 2007, at 2:53:17
In reply to Re: ABILIFY... what dosage/what condition/effects/, posted by football on March 26, 2007, at 2:36:39
hey. I've taken abilify. Low doses were OK, but I had some intense agitated depression to deal with...@ 10 or above, it sucked. The worst thing was that the akathisia didn't really go away; sometimes, at 10mgs or above, I'd take my pill and just start sobbing. It wasn't psychological, either; Abilify just had this weird effect that was at once intensely blunting and flattening but also strangely activating, so I was stimulated enough to see how blunted I was being made.
Plus...there's no PROOF that abilify has any lower incidence of TD than any other medication. Cases of TD have already been reported (they should be on pubmed if you want to look it up).
Why is your shrink so hot-to-trot with the antipsychotics? I mean, its kind of normal to use a low-dose antipsychotic for a little while with an MAOI--thats an old trick to reduce agitation--but has she/he explained why they want to do this long-term??
Abilify tends to be kind of activating, and there are definite akathisia problems, so its probably not the best choice for reducing agitation, anyway--for that you might be better off with a benzo, a more sedating antipsychotic, or maybe some non-BZD GABAergic drug, like Depakote,Lyrica, Neurontin, etc.
Anyway, Abilify was OK, I guess, at low-doses, but it wasn't particularly magical or anything, and it still carries the same risks as other neuroleptics...its too new on the market for anyone to know just how good or bad it is, so be careful. You don't even NEED an antipsychotic to counter AD-induced agitation; there are other strategies that involve fewer risks and use much less expen$ive drugs.I think you should talk to your doc about drugs that don't have the same awful risks associated with neuroleptics. TD is a less likely with new meds than old ones (although the rate for abilify specifically is unknown), but that's no reason to risk it when there are other alternatives. Its like minor surgery--surgery is only minor when its *not* being done on you.
Good luck.
poster:med_empowered
thread:744261
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20070320/msgs/744274.html