Posted by med_empowered on April 18, 2005, at 16:31:25
In reply to Re: Abilify - I am jumping out of my skin! Help...., posted by PuppyLove on April 18, 2005, at 14:49:25
Hey! The atypical antipsychotic+anti-depressant (usually either an SSRI, like prozac, or a tricyclic) is a pretty standard combo for severe depression, psychotic depression, so on and so forth. You'd think that the two drugs would cancel each other out, but for some (note: **some**) people, this is just the ticket...Eli Lilly is now marketing Symbyax, a prozac+zyprexa combo pill, for bipolar depression. Anyway, this has some obvious pitfalls...even though the new antipsychotics are a lot better than the old ones, there are still some problems, more so in certain individuals than in others. Again, if you're having problems at 7.5mgs/Abilify, my first piece of advice would be to change to something else. If you're depressed, not bipolar, then Lamictal could have some benefit...you have to adjust the dose slowly, because there is a **slight** risk of serious complications, but once the dose is adjusted correctly, it is just the ticket for some people..it seems to work well for depression and bipolar, although its more anti-depression than anti-manic. Another option would be to try a different atypical antipyschotic. Geodon is kind of like Abilify in terms of a pretty good side-effect profile...little weight gain/loss and no indication that it increases diabetes type II risk...but it does cause some heart weirdness (prolongation of the qT interval) and has been implicated in a couple of "sudden, unexplained" deaths involving its users. There's also seroquel, zyprexa, clozapine, and risperdal. Personally, though, I'd seriously recommend you try a more conventional anti-convulsant mood-stabilizer this time around. Effexor is being used specifically for PTSD these days and is also a pretty good anti-depressant, so that might be a good AD to try if the prozac thing doesn't work out too well. Good luck!
poster:med_empowered
thread:485711
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20050418/msgs/486080.html