BrianOCD Posted June 27, 2018 Share Posted June 27, 2018 I'm actually swapping low dosage seroquel for Abilify per my PDoc for Clinical Depression. Wondering if I could eventually drop Effexor and just take the abilify alone for Depression/Anxiety? That's not the plan yet, but I don't feel like this generic Effexor is working for me. As far as Abilify goes, what should I expect? Side effect? Sexual side effects? What have you guys experienced? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Iceberg Posted June 27, 2018 Share Posted June 27, 2018 You gotta wait cuz even If the Effexor isn't helping now it can "work together" with abilify to produce a better effect than either of them alone Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BrianOCD Posted June 27, 2018 Author Share Posted June 27, 2018 (edited) 3 hours ago, Iceberg said: You gotta wait cuz even If the Effexor isn't helping now it can "work together" with abilify to produce a better effect than either of them alone True, i will be on both of them very soon, just wondering if this is thing, using Abilify by itself... I just haven't felt very well since going to the generic Effexor, but then again, I wasn't feeling very well before that anyways. Edited June 27, 2018 by BrianOCD Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HydroCat Posted June 28, 2018 Share Posted June 28, 2018 When I switched from Cymbalta+Abilify to Effexor+Abilify I was on a slightly lower dose of Effexor than the Cymbalta equivalent and I was feeling awful. Increasing Effexor made things better. Abilify has antidepressant properties but if I understand it right it works best as augmentation and not as standalone. ...On the other hand, I am quite sensitive to the flat affect caused by APs, so I take Abilify in very low doses. My 2 cents 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jt07 Posted June 28, 2018 Share Posted June 28, 2018 1 hour ago, HydroCat said: When I switched from Cymbalta+Abilify to Effexor+Abilify I was on a slightly lower dose of Effexor than the Cymbalta equivalent and I was feeling awful. Increasing Effexor made things better. Abilify has antidepressant properties but if I understand it right it works best as augmentation and not as standalone. ...On the other hand, I am quite sensitive to the flat affect caused by APs, so I take Abilify in very low doses. My 2 cents Yeah. This is right. Abilify works best with an AD. Alone it isn't going to do much. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BrianOCD Posted June 29, 2018 Author Share Posted June 29, 2018 Thanks for response, one other question I had. Will I notice an improvement right away with Abilify? I noticed pretty quickly when I took seroquel for the first time my mood got better. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Iceberg Posted June 29, 2018 Share Posted June 29, 2018 18 minutes ago, BrianOCD said: Thanks for response, one other question I had. Will I notice an improvement right away with Abilify? I noticed pretty quickly when I took seroquel for the first time my mood got better. Eh...YMMV but it's not one of the fastest aps Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
notloki Posted June 29, 2018 Share Posted June 29, 2018 Well, once you find the right dose it kicks in within 2 weeks. Abilify has a narrow window of effectiveness. Too much or too little yields nada. It kicked in for me at 10 and was better at 15 mg after a slow titration starting at 2 mg and doubling no sooner than 2 weeks due to long half life. If you go up fast beware, there is a 20% chance of EPS (Akathisia, torticollis , Parkinson's like symptoms). Better to be at a lower dose if EPS shows up. There is really very very little chance of tardive dyskinesia as it is not a full on blocker of D2 unlike most other AP and AAP's. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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