From Seraquel to Abilify

Hello everyone

I have been on Seraquel 400mg at nite for a while now ,,but I gained 20 lbs in 5 weeks and alot of hand tremors and muscle twitching( very annoying) and have been rapid cycling like a mad woman for a couple weeks now. So my Pdoc is switching me to Abilify 10mg at nite.

Im pretty concerned about side effects .. just wondering what some people have noticed with the new medication.. the good the bad the ugly?

Thanks for any input .

Wishing you all some peace ~

Unfortunately it did nothing for me. I was quite disappointed. It did make me really sleepy, but I would toss and turn all night. It was really weird.

Maggy Jo

Abilify didn't do anything for me either. Fortunately I didn't have any side effects, but it's really rare for me to have side effects from anything. I was not impressed with Abilify at all. Perhaps I wasn't on it long enough. I hope you have better luck.

Thanks everyone

Well I took the damn medication and tossed and turned all nite long.. horrible acid reflux which I usally dont have.. I have also had the hiccups about 40 times thru out the nite and now today same thing . Of course I dont know for sure if this medication is to blame .. This wicked headache really really needs to go away .. My brain is racing like crazy . I know it takes time for the medication to get into your system and all that stuff ,,but ,, so far I have to say I'm not really impressed .

For me the main thing is sleeping ..If I dont sleep thats when I get " stupid" I deal with cutting as a coping tool ( I know not a good one) I havent cut yet ,.,but I know if Im unable to sleep that is usally what I wind up doing.. I do see my T tomorrow and of course will let him know whats going on . Im just hoping that tonight I will take the Abilify and sleep and not have these weird side effects .

Wishing you all some peace ~

Hmm...

Have you had any bad reactions with any other atypical antipsychotics? I hope you don't have a problem with the entire class of meds.

The only medications i have been on thus far is the Seraquel xr and now the Abilify.. Since I started the aAbilify I havent slept but just 2-3 hours and its all interrupted so this isnt a good thing for me, When I dont sleep I wind up doing Stupid things ( suicidal thoughts and self harm..was hospitilized twice this year because of it) I do take Xanax 1mg And Halcion .5mg at nite Yet Im still not sleeping so,,,,, saw my T today and he is going to email my Pdoc and see what we can do to help me .. Im new to this bipolar I diagnosis and I know im stressing ALOT over all of my symptoms and trying to accept that i even have this illness even tho if im honest looking back at my life I have been bipolar since childhood ..for somereason i was able to funtion without medication therapy or an actual diagnosis .. but in the past 16 months or so i have pretty much fallen apart starting with Fibromyagia and what i initially thought was just a "run of the mill " depression due to the constant pain 24/7.. IM glad i found this site as I feel its gives alot of very good information and support .

Thanks everyone

Wishing you all some peace ~

Well I took Seroquel years ago,(and gained weight) and swithched to Abilify and it really helped me. No negative side effects at all! I take at night because it made me a bit drowsy at first. I've been taking Abilify now for about 4 years.

Some of the side-effects are minor common ones from Abilify. However, Abilify is reported to have less frequent side-effects than many other anti-psychotics. Abilify less frequently increases suicidal behaviour but the fact you're having many side-effects, minor and severe may mean you'll become a guinea pig with trying to find anti-psychotics that can help.

You may instead find relief in something such as Tetrabenazine, which is mostly for treating muscle spastic movements, such as in Huntington's disease. It also has a mild anti-psychotic effect. It doesn't use the same mechanisms of action as the atypical class of anti-psychotics you're taking, so it may help either on its own or with another anti-psychotic.

Alternatively, you may find relief in other classes of anti-psychotics, such as Serentil as a type of phenothiazine, which has anti-psychotic and anti-histamine functions.

Tell your doctor about how Abilify is affecting you and if he/she prescribes another atypical anti-psychotic that leads to very bothersome side-effects, you may need to abandon that class altogether and take other types, such as the ones I mentioned (although there are other classes I didn't mention as well).

Anti-psychotics can also be used as a treatment of bipolar disorder so hopefully you can hit 2 birds with 1 stone.

Out of the three meds I was on I think Abilify helped me keep my thoughts together. As mentioned above it kept my suicidal thoughts at bay.