Nervous about long-term use of Abilify

[nomi]

Ease my mind or feed my anxiety, someone, please: After reading that Abilify was introduced to the US only five years ago, I'm a little nervous about the long-term effects of continuing to use the med. It's already working well for me at 10mg and the side effects are mostly easing up, but sometimes I think paranoid thoughts (of course I do, it's one reason I'm taking it ;}) about horrible things happening later. On one hand, I don't want to damage my health if I can help it; on the other hand, I know I have to consider the quality of my life.

Is this another case of a med being around for a lot longer in other parts of the world before the US FDA decided to look into it more closely? I'm just looking for something to let me stop worrying about it. It looks like a pretty commonly-used med around here, so obviously I'm not some kind of guinea pig. ;} It would be fantastic to find the right AP on the first try. I've read all the bad experiences of so many of the others and this one looks like a good one for me so far.

/nomi

[invictus61101]

I took Abilify for about 6 months at 20 mg. It was a good med, even helped with my OCD. The only side effects I had was a little jitteryness that went away for the most part after a month or so.

I only stopped taking it because my pdoc wanted me to try something else.

The thing you need to do is have blood work regularly to make sure you're not developing diabetes.

[Roosle]

Hi, I'm new to Abilify after trying nearly everything else and must say that the side effect profile is SO much better so far. After 2 weeks, the only thing I notice is a little extra sleepiness and the occasional headache. Not bad considering the alternatives.

It's a young med and there just aren't any long-term studies. My pdoc gave me the rx and when I went to my gp to get it (NHS complication, but keeps the costs extremely low) he was a bit nervous because his practice had never prescribed it before. However, my pdoc is at the Priory which is really one of the world's best psych clinics and I trust their opinion.

It's going to take time before anything real comes out, but there are long-term studies taking place right now. 60 clinical trials are recruiting right now. It hasn't been around in Europe for long either even though it's manufactured by Otsuka GSK in the UK. If the FDA is under pressure, which it always is, you can rest assured it's a marketing ploy--probably launched by Lily who is about to lose the patent on Zyprexa. Clinical trials and investigations are almost always driven by competing companies. The results of the investigations are always highly biased. What you need is the opinion of a good clinician who has experience with a number of patients and seen first hand the good and bad.

If things are feeling stable and there are no horrid side effects, take a deep breath and relax.

Best of luck and I know the feeling of waiting for something horrible to happen. It's happened to me with a number of meds. I really hope Abilify is one I can stick with, but only time will tell.