Seroquel or Abilify

Is any one on either of these meds? My psychiatrist is recommending that we add one of these for my rapid cycling bipolar, anxiety/depression, OCD. However, after gaining 20 pounds in one month on depakote (which I am now off of), I am extremely concerned about taking these meds since they are both known to cause weight gain. His other option was geodon, which also has some freaky side effects. Any input would be greatly appreciated. Thank you.

I take Abilify because it is less likely to cause side effects especially weight gain. I refused to go on Seroquel because of the weight gain possibility. For the 6 months I have been on Abilify, I haven't gained any weight.

Seroquel caused me to lose weight! And abilify gave me tardiv diskinesia

seroquel caused parkinson's like syndrome in my dad, so I have refused to take it an am on abilify. a month or so on it so far, and it is OK. side effects like nasty waves of vertigo, some nausea, restlessness, waking up at 4 every morning, then dragging by noon, tongue feels too big for my mouth.....but no weight gain. manageable side effects, but I probably need a higher dose because the mania still breaks through a lot....then I am worried about the side effects increasing....

seroquel the first time i took half a pill i was knocked out for 16 hours and felt so groggy all the time...second time i had a panic attack....i switched to abilify..no weight gain from that and it works...if you take it....for me anyways

beads has taken both abilify adn seroquel. the seroquel makes us to selpy in teh daytime, even when tae it at nite. so we take abilify, it seems to help adn the side effects aint really that bad cvompared ta a lot of other meds.
as far asthe weight gain thing goes, most evrythign beads on causes weight gain includeign lidocaine infusions. altho we have found that ifeen we can actually seep at nite more then just 1 are 2 hours that it helps keep us from gain weight.
hope this helps,
marsidotz

Abilify.............

Seroquel really worked well however gave my shaky leg syndrome and made me sleep all the time.

Abilify is wonderful for me, no side effects so far and I have been on it for a couple of years.

They started me on Abilify (for my depression) after I was on Depekot to level out my mood swings for a couple weeks. I lasted about 2 weeks on the Abilify and had to stop taking it because it was messing up my stomach bad. It even made me vomit a few times.
I am now on SeroquelXR and so far it has helped me immensely to sleep which was a major problem. I haven't been on it long enough to tell if it is helping my depression. But it doesn't upset my stomach either. And I take 100mg of it. I was only taking 30mg of Abilify and had the horrible stomach problems.

Seroquel seemed to do the trick for my symptoms, but it helped depakote make me fat. I tried Abilify and it was too actvating and I had a bad episode. Of course I am in an episode right now, so I'll let you know if they make any changes and if they work.

I am on both of these and they work really well for me.

I take abilify with no side effects. I take it with wellbutrin and ritalin.

I took seroquel and it made me want to eat sweets all the time and gave me restless legs, now Im on abilify and no side effects .
beth

I am currently on Seroquel. Minimal weight gain for me. I tried to take Abilify but I always vomited about 10 min after taking it.

Thank you everyone for taking the time to respond. It is greatly appreciated.

I have not tried Abilify but have been on Seroquel. At first it knocked out for a good 12 hours-being an insomniac, it was nice to get some sleep. Soon, it stopped working and I had to go up on my dose ...it made me sleep and then I was a zombie and then nothing. Oh, but boy did I gain weight. So, for me, not the right thing.

//

I actually take a combo of low dosage depakote and abilify; and there has been no weight gain since I started them last July. So it appears that abilify is a good drug for weight maintenance; but then again everyone reacts differently to different meds.

p.s..............beads also takes trileptal nopw instead of depakote ...it helps not gain so much wieght also ( + plus has controll of seizures first thign what ever work ta stop them) adn helps with the mood cycle thign quite a bit
mary sue

I have tried Abilify but it made me very restless and disturbed my sleep very much. I have taken Seroquel for a good 8 months and although it made me quite sleepy, I didn't have any other problems with it and it helped with my anxiety. (Now that I'm off it I can feel the difference on that respect! But I prefer anxiety to sleepiness....Who would have thought it..!)

Good luck whichever one you try

Seroquel made me groggy and tired all the time, plus I was sleeping up to 14 hours a day and the inability to do much of anything made me more depressed. I was given Abilify during a manic/mixed episode and it made me shaky and nervous and seemed to fuel the mania. I am now on Geodon. It does have the scary sounding side effect some people get of messing with your QT interval (heartbeat rhythm), but I haven't go that and I've been on it for a year and a half. It hasn't caused me to gain any weight. What has caused me to gain 10 pounds is Cymbalta, but it's the only thing that has made a dent (or actually reversed) my depression.

Hope this helps. Good luck.

Hi, I am on 300mg of seroquel everyday and the only problem I have had is feeling drowsy in the morning. I find that the earlier I take them in the evening, the better. For a while I had trouble getting off to sleep so they increased my dosage to 600mg. Again, the only problem was feeling tired the next morning and struggling to get out of bed. To be honest, its a small sacrifice as they have helped me sooooo much!

I was very briefly on seroquel, it wasn't good for me. I would sleep long period of time and wake up eat then go back to sleep. I have friends who it has helped greatly Abilify for me was wonderful until I was given higher and higher doses which led to tremors and was taken off quickly.

Geodon was a total nightmare for me too. I was catatonic for like two months. Seroquel was really good to me for a couple years but it also most likely triggered my way too fast heart rate thing I'm dealing with now so both me and my pdoc decided it was best avoided. I also never used it as my main mood stabilizer though.

Seroquel 25mg knocked me out for 36 hours at a time. I took it only when I was manic and out of control, or had hallucinations. As the Seroquel took effect, I experienced a deep numbing heaviness that felt like a heavy black blanket covered in sticky tar smothering the life out of my soul.
I have been containing mania with Lithium since then, and do everything I can to avoid antipsychotics, even if it means living with some strange experiences.

I had a bad experience with both drugs. Seroquel turned me into a zombie and Abilify gave me cognitive clouding and memory loss. If you have to pick between the two I've heard better things about Abilify in general and the side effects I experienced were not the norm. Good luck.