[fille_folle]

I am on 5mg of abilify. My dose was upped from 2mg almost a month ago. Since then, I have become extremely restless to the point of agitation. Although my depression seems to have improved, my anxiety is worse. I can't settle to do anything and it's hard to sleep. I know this is a side effect of abilify. I messaged my pdoc saying I wanted to stop taking it. She said ok, but that we could talk about adding ativan or klonopin if the abilify had really helped my depression.

So I guess I'm wondering three things:

1. 1. Has anyone else experienced the horrible restlessness? It's driving me nuts, and I can't wait for the abilify to be out of my system.
2. 2. Has anyone been on Ativan or Klonopin to combat the restlessness? I am wary of taking benzos, but I'm willing to try.
3. 3. Another thing I forgot to mention. Has anyone else who is dependent on a stimulant (Adderall for me) noticed a diminished need for it on abilify? I have, and that's one reason I'm tempted to give it another shot.

[still_crazy]

hi. whenever one is dealing with major tranquilizers ("antipsychotics"), there's always a risk of akathisia. that means a sort of drug-induced restlessness. abilify causes akathisia a bit more often than most other tranquilizers.

benzodiazepines and other sedatives can make it more bearable. there is a risk of long term akathisia becoming a permanent problem, even if the drug is discontinued. tardive akathisia and chronic akathisia are more common in state hospital-type settings, but cases have been reported with the newer, 'atypical' antipsychotics, in outpatients at normal doses.

personally...especially since you're dealing with depression, not psychosis, id ask about tapering off the abilify, maybe trying a different class of drugs next time. but that's just me.

[fille_folle]

What I'm talking about isn't motor restlessness, although there's that, too, but more of a mental restlessness. So I'm not really worried about tardive dyskinesia or akathisia due to my medications at this time. I suffer from movement disorders (restless leg syndrome and some other sleep related movement weirdness), but those also run in my family. I have found gabapentin to be quite effective in ameliorating the effects of the motor restlessness caused by my medications. It's the psychological agitation that's causing me distress at this time.