[ccrown25]

I was curious if anyone had any experience taking Abilify. I have not been responding well to Brintellix after six months so my doctor wants to start me on Abilify. I have read reviews of people who have said it was the best thing ever and then others have said it is terrible and not to take it. I am just curious to hear about any experiences with side effects like Athakisia (sp?) high blood sugar etc. I am currently waiting for my insurance to approve it so I can get the script filled and my doctor has me taking 5 mg at night.

[kecanoe]

I take 5 mg Abilify, along with a cocktail of other meds (Treatment resistant depression). I don't notice any side effects from it. I have dry mouth, but I had that from the AD I take before I started the Abilify. My blood sugar was a little higher this last blood test, but still not in the danger range. My cholesterol has also gone up, but most of that is due to the "good" cholesterol so GP says nothing to worry about there either. Just have it tested yearly. I have read that Abilify is less likely to cause metabolic syndrome and the like than other anti psychotics. Hope you get insurance approval soon. My cost for the abilify with insurance was around $100 (and I have good insurance). I did an online search for abilify coupons and got one that knocked the cost to me down to $5.

I was on 10mg for a while and recently tapered off to 0mg. I didn't notice anything - no effect, no side effects, no withdrawal.
Only thing I've noticed is that my appetite has gone up lately during the last stages of the taper and after the taper, but pdoc is not sure that's related.

[Miswimmy1]

I was on it for about a year. I don't have anything bad to say about it except for that it did have a slightly sedating effect for me. I took it at night though before bed and that helped. I would sleep off most of the drowsiness.

I have heard that one of the biggest problems is weight gain. As for the involuntary muscle spasms (tardive dyskinesia), I have heard that they put the warning on Abilify but it's really not too much of a problem as it's one of the newer atypical antipsychotics. Also, believe the side effect is only reported on high doses. But of course, I'm no doctor and you should talk to your pdoc.

I started 5mg two years ago during psychosis and the paranoia went away within 3 weeks. Works as good as Risperdal for hallucinations.

When I started Abilify after a major psychotic episode, I went on a 5mg increase every day but I got a bit of muscle tightness and couldn't take a deep breath and my hands were shaking really bad so I stopped it and then started it again because it worked so well.

Then they put me on the injection at 300mg and then 400mg from every 4 weeks (Max) to every 3 weeks and added 10mg Abilify a day with 6mg (Max) Cogentin for side effects but I slowly stopped it myself because the Cogentin made my pupils large and I needed glasses and I built tolerance to the Abilify side effects.

I've been on the injection for a year now 400mg every 3 weeks which is about 20mg a day plus 10mg a day oral Abilify and it's amazing. I'm thinking of having the 400mg injection every 2 weeks and stop the oral 10mg which still equals to 30mg a day.

My injection is due today and I've never been this non-symptomatic on the last day before. It took a year for it to build up in my system like this.

Every injection is worth around 500 dollars and used to be 750 dollars but I have it covered under disability which took a really long time. I had to use sample injections from the pharmaceutical company. The oral is around 170 dollars a month but it's covered.

Also, it makes me feel pretty damn good. Very good for the negative symptoms of schizophrenia such as anhedonia which I had pretty severe.

I do get a bit sleepy on the first 1-2 days of the injection.

I also take max Prozac which is supposed to increase the Abilify quite a bit and max Concerta (Ritalin XR) and I'm doing very well.

[ComfortablyNumb5]

I was on a high dose and I found it too activating. I got heart palpitations and akesthisa pretty bad. I was only in it for a short time so I quit taking it completely. Maybe I'd be fine on a smaller dose but it made me so miserable that I don't even want to touch it again. But that's just my experience. I've heard good and bad from others.