Abilify

My pdoc recently diagnosed me with dysthymia disorder.

He has added Abilify at 1 mg (will titrate up to 2 mg).
He told me that it will help with the low grade chronic depression as it will augment the Zoloft I take for anxiety.

Has anyone had experience with using Abilify in small doses to augment their anti-depressant?
If so, did you have good results?

not 100% sure... but i think that when they locked me up for a lovely 6day/5night trip in the looney bin - that they gave me that each night.

Calming effect. BUT- am not good at remembering med names, so i could be wrong

There is a section for medication questions. You may get more replies if you post there.

Yes, I was on it with Cymbalta, and it did a great job. The only reason I'm not taking it now is the cost. I have no insurance and it cost $750 appoximately without insurance. I might add that I have been severly depressed since I quit taking it.

Yeah, cost is part of the reason they were hesitant to prescribe it to me. I didn't realize it costed THAT much. Yikes. But when my doctor suggested it, the other doctor in the room asked me how I felt about an expensive medication and then listed the side effects...

I've heard decent enough things about it, anyway.

I'm on it at 5 mg. Started at 2.5 mg. I had been doing pretty darn good on Effexor at 300mg, but was still having mood swings going from feeling about 85% of how I imagine a person normally feels to being suicidal and having no desire to function. Sometimes within the same day.

I've been on the abilify for only about six weeks but it's really made a difference. I'm pretty steady at about 75 to 80% or so. (These number things are completely arbitrary, but it seems to help me communicate with my psych nurse.) I haven't been deep in the pit at all (ok, there was a little while Saturday morning, but I got over it right quick).

When she prescribed it, she gave me an abilify savings card from the company that makes it. As with many other substances I know of, the first one is free. Then, with the card, I only pay $25 for refills. This'll last until April 2015. The card only works if you have insurance for your prescriptions.

I am oh so very glad this exists. I'm doing so much better. I hope it works for you.

Ask your doc or maybe even the pharmacist if they have info on how you can get a card. Or maybe you could get one by contacting the abilify people. The number on the back of my card is 1-888-9-ABILIFY.

Thank you all for your responses. I've been on it now for a few days and I have to say to say that I'm already feeling a bit of a 'lift' in mood. Not that I'm going around spreading cheer and good will but things are looking a bit better. From what I've read on other ADHD forums, Abilify seems to either work great or put people deeper into depths of despair. It is a dopamine partial agonist. So, if the dopamine in your brain isn't doing what it's supposed to, this may help as an adjunct to another antidepressant at low doses.

Touch of gray: thank you so much for sharing this info with us. I found the website.

Nerak67: I've posted in those forums before with only minimal response.

gayleggg and bronzeowl: That is an outrageous cost! Does Medicaid cover it? Maybe Abilify has another sort of patient assistance program you could use.