Wondering about experiences with Abilify?

[Anonymous]

My son started Abilify at age 10 after having issues with SSRIs and certain other anxiety/ mood stabilizers. After four years he tapered off following a lot of weight gain and a few other side effects. Coming off for him was brutal (night terrors, insomnia, extreme emotional dysregulation, tantrums, etc.) and took several months for his brain to learn to function again without the medication. Not sure this is the same for all but just something else to consider. Also make sure that you really trust your doctor before starting and he/ she has a history of Abilify with younger patients. Good luck.

[Anonymous]

We tried it for a few weeks and my DD woke up at 2am ready for the day every.single.night. She has been through several meds, some of which helped for a time, but ended up off of everything at 17 due to side effects. She’s doing pretty well.

[Anonymous]

We are having a lot of trouble moving off of it after 4 years and extreme weight gain. When we try to taper my child gets suicidal. But they’re also very sad about being obese. They never were overweight before they started this drug. It’s a devils bargain. Hoping to move to latuda soon.

[Anonymous]

OP here. Thanks you everyone for sharing your experiences. It was immensely helpful. His psychiatrist and I mutually decided to hold off on ability.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We are having a lot of trouble moving off of it after 4 years and extreme weight gain. When we try to taper my child gets suicidal. But they’re also very sad about being obese. They never were overweight before they started this drug. It’s a devils bargain. Hoping to move to latuda soon.

Oh this is so scary. Can the doctor start to slowly increase a new med as you taper this one. I hope he is ok

[Anonymous]

My child also had violent episodes at school. Anti psychotics didn’t work and one had to be stopped because of tics. It also caused very quick weight gain. I then found Matthew’s Protocol and his prescriber agreed to it, he’s taking Lamictal and guanfacine and he’s way less reactive. It’s brain based treatment. Www.rdmdd.com

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We are having a lot of trouble moving off of it after 4 years and extreme weight gain. When we try to taper my child gets suicidal. But they’re also very sad about being obese. They never were overweight before they started this drug. It’s a devils bargain. Hoping to move to latuda soon.

We first tried to wean off abilify and it went very poorly, including threatening suicide/self harm. But we successfully transitioned to latuda by going down on abilify at the same time as going up on latuda. We've gotten the same or better mood regulation with latuda with less weight gain.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP here. Thanks you everyone for sharing your experiences. It was immensely helpful. His psychiatrist and I mutually decided to hold off on ability.

Sounds like a smart choice.