Back up drug for tapering off Abilify and sleeping pills

I am in the final stages of tapering off all 3 meds. I was diagnosed Bipolar 1 in 2006 and put on Lithium and Depakote. After being hospitalized 5 times since I realized the drugs are the problem. With the help of a psych.nurse I am only on 2.5mg Abilify currently and doing well (sleep wise). I plan on stopping all drugs in the next few days and I am nervous after reading all the problems people have getting off Abilify. I also read books by Peter Breggin and Robert Whitaker.
I began my taper 10 months ago when I was taking 1200mg Lithium, 200mg Lamictal, and 10mg Abilify. I had a setback and was hospitalized for about two weeks 6 months ago from tapering off Lithium too fast. They did not put me back on Lithium and my question is what to do if I start to lose sleep.
Currently I have ample supply of Zyprexa to knock me out if I have trouble sleeping. I am debating just using 5mg of Abilify when I have trouble sleeping instead. Maybe alternating 2mg Abilify and nothing every other day.
Does anyone try sleeping pills instead of these strong antipsychotics?
How many people out there have successfully tapered off Abilify for psychosis?
Thanks

Welcome to the Community, confidentiality. I doubt there are any statistics available to answer your question. You would do better to talk to your treatment team.

I wish you well.

I came off of one years use of abilify in two weeks without any problem.

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I had psychosis and am off abilify and all meds for 9 months now....does abilify actually help you sleep? Generally it's considered more activating and has less of the histamine response so it's not supposed to be sedating. I too tapered from 10mg down to 2.5mg with 2.5 mg being my final dose....while I had some minor issues on 5mg the switch from 2.5mg to zero was actually easy. One thing my pdoc recommended for sleep was melatonin...it's over the counter and thus fairly mild but it works for some people and he wanted me to try that prior to other sleeping pills....good luck! It can be done

First of all you need to talk to your doc and/or pdoc about this. I really don't like how people go to antipsychotics , as a first line treatment for sleep.

When there are much safer drugs to use. Trazodone being one of them . You can adjust your dose from 25mg to 100mg
It was originally formulated for depression but it was quickly found out . If you want to use it for that therapeutic doses are in the 200-400 mg range. In other words it would be equivalent to the zombies in 'Shaun of the Dead' but low doses work great for sleep.http://europepmc.org/abstract/med/21870714

Doxepin:Conclusions:

Efficacy and Safety of Doxepin 3 and 6 mg in a 35-day Sleep Laboratory Trial in Adults with Chronic Primary Insomnia

Agomelatine, ramelteon, pregabalin, melatonin.
Otc's like diphenhydramine and doxylamine Which I like neither because they are antihistamines but also anticholinergic .There are plenty of natural supplements like Valerian root and L-Theanine and exercise but I am too drained to get into that Besides isn't this the Psychopharmacology section.
I also forgot a low dose of amitriptyline.

As always talk to your healthcare team!

Thanks for the advice on melatonin before using other sleeping pills sometimes psychotic, but I researched melatonin and it got some bad reviews. It is good to hear you are 9 months strong without meds. Have you had any nights were you couldn't sleep and had to take something and then were fine? Have you noticed any changes in your personality being off the meds?
Metomorphosis your post was a big help as well. I went out last night and picked up some over the counter Valerian root for sleep problems but I feel that for now I will use the Zyprexa if the insomnia comes on once I taper immediately following no meds. I will talk to my psych nurse about the sleeping pills as well.
Good to hear that you tapered successfully off abilify in two weeks zinco. How do you feel now?

Thanks for the advice on possibly taking melatonin for sleep problems sometimes psychotic but I researched it and melatonin got some bad reviews. That is good news you are nine months free of meds. Have you had to take anything for sleep problems since you finished tapering and have you noticed any changes in your personality?
Metamorphosis, thanks for all the tips on sleeping aids I went out and bought some over the counter Valerian root. I am still leaning towards taking the Zyprexa if I have trouble sleeping once I am off completely but I will turn to the Valerian root once I am months into being med free. I will also consult my psych nurse about Valerian as well.
Zinco, glad you were able to come off abilify successfully in two weeks. Have you noticed any changes and how long have you been off meds?

I actually sleep better off meds than on....while I still get the occasional night where maybe I'll get 4-5 hours if sleep it's never more than 1 night unlike while on meds where it would be creeping up to a week and we were considering either a benzo or like ambien....part of this though is that seroquel the sleepiest antipsychotic didn't work for me.

Yes my personality is like how it was before i got sick...I felt slightly not me on the meds...the music, work, reading I liked changed from what I liked before but then it went back after getting off meds...I could also read much better.

I have a whole thread on this somewhere as it happened I'll try to find it for you..

http://forums.psychcentral.com/psych...withdrawl.html

Just to throw this in, it really doesn't focus on sleep but a blog about a person's withdrawal from abilify
Abilify Withdrawal ? Round 1 « Manic Muses
Abilify Withdrawal ? Round 2 « Manic Muses
Abilify Withdrawal ? Round 3: Abilify Wins and Antipsychotic Dependence « Manic Muses

I have not read them. I have only took Abilify for a few days at 5 mgs. I did some reasearch and I did not think an atypical antipsychotic was the way to go with my not having bipolar or schizophrenia. I was going to try it at 2.5 to 5 mg tops for depression and its partial 5HT1a partial agonist properties for GAD. I was also interested in it's partial agonism of D2 instead of a full agonist.
I was on a med. program for low income at the time. They ended up sending me three bottles of Abilify at 90 count. Usually you have to fight to renew your meds. These guys were just shipping them to me. Finally I had to call the med. program and talk to 4 people to say "Stop sending me Abilify. I don't use it"

Only med I ever has through a sliding scale program. That I had to ask them to please stop sending them to me! I just looked and they had sent me 9 bottles of 90ct 5 mg. Why couldn't it have been a med I use . Like Lamictal or Wellbutrin 300 xl or a few others I could use!!!

Thanks metamorphosis that Abilify blog was a huge help. I met with my therapist the other day and he suggested getting some cd's to help you sleep. He also recommended trazodone. He mentioned the author Belleruth Naparstek. She has a non drug use way of helping people get to sleep through guided imagery. I am also doing mindfulness meditation. Read about what Belleruth is doing here below.
As Prevention Magazine recently noted, Belleruth has been quietly creating an underground revolution among mainstream health and mental health bureaucracies, by persuading major institutions such as the U.S. Veteran’s Administration, the U.S. Dept of Defense, The American Red Cross, Aetna U.S. Healthcare, Kaiser Permanente, Blue Shield of California, United Health Care, Oxford Health Plan, GlaxoSmithKline, Ortho Biotech, Roche, Abbott, Amgen, and nearly 2000 hospitals, mental health centers, recovery clinics and vet centers to distribute her guided imagery recordings, in most instances free of charge to recipients.

I am getting the following cd today Healthy Sleep by Andrew Weil & Rubin Naiman

Actually I didn't feel any different on Abilify or off of it. I couldn't tell I was taking it and noticed no difference when I stopped.
Today I am not big on using atypical antipsychotics as an augmenter for depression or for sleep. I think they should be used for psychosis and not for other things.

Today I am Fetzima and Lamictal and doing quite well so far on them.

Lamictal is great IMHO ,as long as you are not allergic and don't develop the S.J. rash. I have used it as a mood stabilizer for years. I don't know anything about Fetzima. I looked it up real quick and it sounds like it is an SNRI, approved 7/13 in the U.S. So it sounds like a relatively new SNRI. If you , zinco, can give me any more info on it? That would be cool. I might start digging out of my own curiosity.

I just want to give an update on my withdrawal from Abilify and all psychotropic drugs.
I realized that 2.5mg abilify is still a full dose and I need to eventually be in liquid form. I am currently on 2mg abilify and I plan on tapering every two weeks or so with Zyprexa as a backup. Thankfully I haven't had to use the Zyprexa in 3 months but the psychiatrist said that I am still not out of the woods if I had to use the Zyprexa that long ago.
So my new taper from Abilify schedule is 2 mg until September 6
1.67mg until September 20
1.33mg until Oct 4
1.0 mg until Oct 18
0.8mg until Nov 1
0.6mg until Nov 15
0.4mg until Nov 29
0.2mg until Dec 13
0.1 mg until Dec 27
Then off after Christmas if able
Any thoughts out there?

I am not super informed on Fetzima other than it is a new SSNRI. It has worked much much better than Effexor and Pristiq for me. Only side effects are a little nausea which I never get but not bad. The nausea could be from the mild anxiety I get once in awhile. The only other noticeable one is a little trouble urinating. Just a little trouble getting things flowing but then no problem. It is not really bothersome. I am lucky with side effects always though. I have a high tolerance for drugs and meds which is a double edge sword because they tend to lose effectiveness over time. Withdrawal I am lucky with too.

For example I quit abilify cold turkey without replacing it with another AAP without any trouble yet the above poster is having trouble. Same with Effexor, no trouble, but I always replaced it with another AD.

Oh and I forgot to mention it made me hypomanic for two months but this I welcomed because it straight lifted me out of a severe depression. Then things balanced out. Also a very short period of body temp regulation. I got hot easy but that went away quickly. I have found it a clean and effective med. The lamictal I started two months before and it lifted my mood for sure but did not elleviate any other symptoms. The Fetzima did the trick.

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Hey sorry to hear you're struggling! I was lucky enough to be able to get off Abilify 30mg in 4 days with no problems. I've battled severe insomnia for about 17 years and the only med that works amazingly for sleep is Seroquel at 300mg. I haven't gained any weight on it, I wake up a little groggy though so I take Provigil, and I'm great for the day. Since Abilify is also an AAP, you might look into to adding Seroquel while discontinuing Abilify. Best of luck!