Tapering off Abilify - 1 mg

[Emily1684]

This is about Abilify as an add on for an antidepressant.

After the birth of my son, my pdoc added 2.5 mg of abilify to my 200 mg of Zoloft. It has been the best combo I've been on for my anxiety/panic/subsequent depression. However, of course, I've been rapidly gaining weight and I want to get pregnant again in the next couple years so I want to go off of it. I've tried tapering down three times so far. First two times I got very bad restless leg syndrome and return of anxiety. This last time I tapered much more slowly (.25 mg every 3 weeks of the liquid) but as soon as I got below 1 mg, I had a very bad episode of panic and anxiety about 3 days after I dropped the dose.it seems to happen every time I go below 1 mg, but AT 1 mg I'm totally fine. Here are my questions:

Is 1 mg even a therapeutic dose? Anyone else on this? Is it just a coincidence that my anxiety has returned at that magical 1 mg point?

Has anyone had success dropping the abilify and switching to a new ssri? I figure if my AD isn't working well enough, wouldn't it be logical to try a new one rather than deal with the side effects of an AD and an AP? Thanks for your help.

[burial]

once i was prescribed abilify on 15mgs, and quit cold turkey with no noticable withdrawals. As far as the dosage, 1-2mgs are used in treatment when augmenting antidepressants because of its ability to finetune dopamine receptors and open them up a bit, though higher doses would do the opposite. Your gaining weight is a factor to be considered, because abilify seems to be mostly weight neutral. I'm no doctor, but if anxiety seems to be a problem, you could talk with yout pdoc about adding a low dosage benzo or switching to a ssri with most evidende for working on anxiety, paroxetine it is

[jt07]

I also have gone off Abilify at much higher dosages without any bad effects except a return of symptoms after about a week. Of course, that could just be me. But Abilify has a long half life and I think it is unlikely that you would feel symptoms immediately after dropping the dose. Are you sure that it's coming off the Abilify that's giving you the symptoms and not just a return of your anxiety?

[San]

Abilify has a very long half life, so often, tapering isn't necessary. 

[melissaw72]

I also have gone off Abilify at much higher dosages without any bad effects except a return of symptoms after about a week. Of course, that could just be me. But Abilify has a long half life and I think it is unlikely that you would feel symptoms immediately after dropping the dose. Are you sure that it's coming off the Abilify that's giving you the symptoms and not just a return of your anxiety?

 

I'm the same way. When I tried going off of it the only thing that happened was return of the hallucinations after a week or 2.  But that doesn't mean what you are experiencing isn't real. 

 

I agree with taking a low dose benzo, maybe as you are weaning off the abilify, then when you are off the abilify you can try to wean off the benzo.  Just a thought.

[Emily1684]

Thanks for the replies. As a lot of you said, the half life is long, which is why I was wondering if it was just my anxiety about coming off, rather than actual withdrawal effects. Or maybe I really do need the Abilify. I'm wondering if maybe my Zoloft just isn't working as well for me anymore and it's time to try a new AD. I was thinking Lexapro because it works well for my mom.

[melissaw72]

I was just thinking, do you think you get anxious (subconsciously or not) because you know you are going below 1 mg of Abilify? Like ie, just knowing you are weaning off of it will cause you anxiety, even if you aren't really aware of it.  Does that make sense?

[Emily1684]

I was just thinking, do you think you get anxious (subconsciously or not) because you know you are going below 1 mg of Abilify? Like ie, just knowing you are weaning off of it will cause you anxiety, even if you aren't really aware of it.  Does that make sense?

 

I think that's a definite possibility. Anxiety is so frustrating because it seems to come "out of the blue" but if you look more deeply into it, you can usually trace it back to something. 

[Stars]

seriously Zoloft is more likely to cause weight gain than Abilify. I had a friend gain 40# on it. It is not weight neutral. It may not have been the Abilify that caused the weight gain.