Squirlygrl Posted May 12, 2006 Share Posted May 12, 2006 I started Abilify around the first of the year, and it was wonderful, at least compared to Zyprexa. Over time, it feels like I've gotten more tired and draggy. I want to continue to love this drug, but only if it's not making me into a perpetual sleepwalker. Shouldn't I be more awake now that I'm used to it? Is it just that I'm less manicky now, so the Abilify has less work to do? It helps to take the stuff at dinnertime, but since it will put me to sleep in an hour, I sometimes wait until later in the evening. Then I am Zombie Girl in the morning; I'm actually on stimulants to get me going, but I fear they are wearing out. I'm only sleeping eight to ten hours, but in that punched in the head way. I'm also taking mood stabilizers, (which have helped me sleep in the past) but Abilify works much better than any of them -- though pdoc is reluctant to keep me on it forever if something else will work. Do you have advice? SG Abilify 10 mg, down from 15 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chimpmaster Posted May 16, 2006 Share Posted May 16, 2006 I started Abilify around the first of the year, and it was wonderful, at least compared to Zyprexa. Over time, it feels like I've gotten more tired and draggy. I want to continue to love this drug, but only if it's not making me into a perpetual sleepwalker. Shouldn't I be more awake now that I'm used to it? Is it just that I'm less manicky now, so the Abilify has less work to do? It helps to take the stuff at dinnertime, but since it will put me to sleep in an hour, I sometimes wait until later in the evening. Then I am Zombie Girl in the morning; I'm actually on stimulants to get me going, but I fear they are wearing out. I'm only sleeping eight to ten hours, but in that punched in the head way. I'm also taking mood stabilizers, (which have helped me sleep in the past) but Abilify works much better than any of them -- though pdoc is reluctant to keep me on it forever if something else will work. Do you have advice? SG Abilify 10 mg, down from 15 Could be a dosage issue. Sometimes with AP's and other psychiatric medications lower doses have greater side effects, especially in the sedation area. I personally take 30mg abilify and find it to be very activating in combination with my prozac. A good comparison would be with seroquel. For most people, up to 400mg causes drowsiness, but over 600mg is activating. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
realitytest Posted May 20, 2006 Share Posted May 20, 2006 Could be a dosage issue. Sometimes with AP's and other psychiatric medications lower doses have greater side effects, especially in the sedation area. 10 mg. is the absolute minimum at which Abilify is supposed to have ANY therapeutic effect And upping it, just increases the side effects (speaking from family experience. No curvilinear relationship here, sadly. Squirley, As others know who've read my comments on this very subject, my son went thru hell with this relatively rare reaction to Abilify, With av. 13 hrs sleep/nightly he was still constantly nodding off all day long. It trashed his school year - and it being THE critical year for college transcripts, basically all his life dreams. (very ambitious, fast track student). No recovery in sight for all this secondary fallout (and indeed, how can there be? - especially with a whole lot of other sz crap he has to deal with, and now much depression) Son was turned into a sleepwalker even (like you) with stimulants to prop him up - and those in massive doses. These, in turn, greatly aggravated his paranoid sz. Our experience: No, the effect does NOT go away. According to a recent study, in fact, except for EPS (Parkinsonian effects) it is seeming like some of the older ones are just as effective if not more so than the AAPs - all except for CLOZARIL. Maybe one other. Of course CLOZARIL comes with its own large can or worms, medically speaking. (naturally the drug companies do not like this publicized! Personally, I hope the study doesn't totally change insurance reimbursement schedules. I favor as large as possible, a palette to choose from, for the pts best -- long as choice it not largely dictated by advertising and doc bribery. Good luck fiunding something that works for you, though as they say aound here, it IS a matter of "what sucks less". This I think is especially so with APs and AAPs. Don't know where you are, but have you tried an oldie like Stelazine? NOT sleepy making, and quite different. (I took it. If I'd been psychotic it might have helped, but even so it didn't hurt - except towards the end when I was getting a bit twitchy from TD) Luck! rt Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Squirlygrl Posted May 25, 2006 Author Share Posted May 25, 2006 Thank you both. RT, I am very sorry about what happened to your son. After my stimulants landed me in the hospital, I went up to 15 mg Abilify and added Lexapro, and feel better. That said, I am still on my emergency Zyprexa, and who knows what will happen when we take that away. I'll keep the Stelazine in mind for later. Regards, sg Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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