Abilify- Stanford Clinic Patients

[Badpack]

The worse you are the less the chance for improvement without intervention. A lot of mild cases can pace themselves out of Cfs. But when you are severe, the body clearly isn’t interested anymore in helping. While pacing is needed to not get worse it won’t improve you.

What’s one year being super strict on yourself for the possibility to get your life back forever ? Seems like a sweet trade off to me.

I now watched some abilify success stories on YouTube and Instagram. All of them still looked very sick, in the sense of being extremely pale. Cfs style pale. So yeah, it’s def. has some success but won’t cure the root of the problem.

 

[BenFromNZ]

Just something that maybe of interest to some following this thread. I noticed some discussion in this thread that the improvements with abilify may be due to abilify helping to reduce brain inflammation. I'd been looking into ways to potential calm brain inflammation down some time ago, and discovered there is research showing psilocybin (in magic mushrooms) can help with that. Psilocybin does not have to be taken in a way that induces trips, but can be used therapeutically at much lower doses.

I was briefly in a situation where I could legally try it about a year and a half ago (Just once). There was a definite improvement in my health for the next couple of months at least (until something knocked me around).
I know more and more countries are researching and opening up therapeutic usage for psilocybin. Oh, btw, even though I had already been researching it, my doctor actually brought it up with me as something to try

 

[mitoMAN]

there are people who have not overexerted or crashed for years without getting better...

Yeah.. sadly I don't think a very severe ME/CFS can IMPROVE again without proper (yet unknown) medication
Especially not with just pacing

 

[leokitten]

For some reason since January my condition has improved. But one thing that Ron Davis said about those recover is stuck in my mind, all those that recover paced themselves, that is the only known route out currently. That and that alone is great reason to keep just sitting there and minimising your energy usage.

I don’t think there’s a single person with ME who doesn’t at least occasionally overexert or crash. It is realistically and practically impossible to not do so.

 

[BananaMango99]

Abilify absolutely does not give you false energy. It just seems to target a major downstream dysfunction causing a lot of ME symptoms, but I can feel it’s not targeting something else central about this illness. Which is ok there are tons of FDA approved drugs that do the exact same thing.

And that central thing about my ME at least is affected by overexertion and other things. Abilify corrects in the brain or elsewhere one part of the dysfunction caused by this illness but not everything. But it’s not pushing you to overexert, to exert is a choice while on it because you just feel much better but not revved up like stimulants etc.

It reduces the negative physical symptoms not overevving any positive feelings to mask symptoms. Hope that makes sense.

I dunno, I feel a bit revved up on it. Based on the fbook group, a decent subset feel likewise. It's mostly at night though, if I could balance it with a sleeping pill maybe it would help

 

[leokitten]

I dunno, I feel a bit revved up on it. Based on the fbook group, a decent subset feel likewise. It's mostly at night though, if I could balance it with a sleeping pill maybe it would help

I already felt extremely “wired but tired” at night before Abilify, and this is a very common ME symptom, so maybe that’s why I don’t notice any difference.

Especially if I exerted during the day the wired but tired and related night symptoms would be exacerbated, but with Abilify it leveled it out and there’s no fluctuation or exacerbation based on what I did earlier in the day.

I also remember reading that many pwME report that this side effect eventually improves after a month or so.

I take different meds and supplements to help sleep every day (even before Abilify), and I rotate different things to reduce tolerance. I think it helps a lot with this Abilify side effect.

 

[gm286]

Has anyone taken Abilify in the evening or before bed? If so, what was the reasoning for this as opposed to when most people seem to take it, during the morning?

 

[mitoMAN]

Has anyone taken Abilify in the evening or before bed? If so, what was the reasoning for this as opposed to when most people seem to take it, during the morning?

Tried both - no difference for me

 

[Martin aka paused||M.E.]

@Martin aka paused||M.E. Martin, How are you?

Very very severe.. on Ativan rn

I read that Cariprazine also works like Abilify. I’m three months off now and really can’t cope with it any more and thinking about trying it

 

[YippeeKi YOW !!]

@Martin aka paused||M.E. .....

I've been afraid to ask, so am grateful that @Yuno did ....

I'm so far beyond sorry, Martin.

It seems that no good news comes on its own, without being accompanied by the inevitable bad news follow-up .... it's one of the many dismal, demoralizing, frustrating, frightening aspects of this illness .... please dont lose hope, and keep trying anything that offers some shred of genuine promise..... and the same to @Push Fwd .... this is so hard ....

 

[nyanko_the_sane]

Has anyone taken Abilify in the evening or before bed? If so, what was the reasoning for this as opposed to when most people seem to take it, during the morning?

Even in minuscule doses Abilify causes side-effects for me at night, I see strobing light in the dark, or light in the room appears to be flickering. At first I though I had a bad LED bulb in my lamp. Imagine my surprise when I found out it was me doing that.

 

[JohnnyMinnesota99]

Hello everybody!

My doctor prescribed me Abilify (aripiprazole), and so I am eager to take it, even though I am always cautious when it comes to side effects.

Here's my question: I have taken Oxymatrine for 10 months. I think it helped me to some extent, and I havent't had any side effects. Does anybody know if Oxymatrine can be taken together with Abilify? Is anybody taking these two meds together right now?

Best wishes and all the very best to you!

Johnny

 

[mitoMAN]

Hello everybody!

My doctor prescribed me Abilify (aripiprazole), and so I am eager to take it, even though I am always cautious when it comes to side effects.

Here's my question: I have taken Oxymatrine for 10 months. I think it helped me to some extent, and I havent't had any side effects. Does anybody know if Oxymatrine can be taken together with Abilify? Is anybody taking these two meds together right now?

Best wishes and all the very best to you!

Johnny

I dont see any specific reason why they should interact

 

[JohnnyMinnesota99]

@mitoMAN So that means you don't see a problem?

 

[jaybee00]

You should ask your doctor.

 

[gm286]

Even in minuscule doses Abilify causes side-effects for me at night, I see strobing light in the dark, or light in the room appears to be flickering. At first I though I had a bad LED bulb in my lamp. Imagine my surprise when I found out it was me doing that.

This EXACT flickering thing happened to me. Really glad I’m not alone.

 

[JohnnyMinnesota99]

@jaybee00

Hey!

My GP doesn't see a problem....

 

[pattismith]

Possibly you may be right, but I have also seen info which suggests amisulpride is a dopamine system stabilizer.

Firstly, like Abilify, amisulpride is categorized as a third-generation antipsychotic, and from what I understand, third-generation antipsychotics are by definition dopamine system stabilizers:

Amisulpride was the very first third-generation antipsychotic, according to this book (page 25):



However this paper contradicts the book, saying that Abilify was the first 3rd generation antipsychotic:


This paper does make clear that third-generation antipsychotics by definition are dopamine system stabilizers.




Secondly, in terms of the mechanism of dopamine stabilization, this article says dopamine stabilization is achieved via partial agonism of dopamine receptors:


Amisulpride is a blocker of D2, so it does not fit the above definition of a dopamine stabilizer.


However, this paper indicates that there may be other mechanisms of dopamine stabilization which amisulpride fits under:

I read that Famotidine has been associated to some old antipsychotics with some anecdotal success in resistant Schizophrenia.

A Randomized Clinical Trial of Histamine 2 Receptor Antagoni... : Journal of Clinical Psychopharmacology (lww.com)



That's interesting because Famotidine is an antihistaminic H2 with no effect on the dopamine action, but lower the adrenergic tone (both central and peripheral).

I'm currently doing a trial Methylphenidate/Famotidine to see if I can increase Dopamine in the mesolimbic and at the same time attenuate the adrenergic tone induced by methylphenidate.

H2 Histamine Receptor Cns Physiology

Histamine H2 receptors are also widely distributed in the mammalian brain (reviewed in Panula et al., 2015).

The highest densities of histamine H2 receptors are found in the basal ganglia, hippocampus, amygdala and cerebral cortex, with modest expression levels in the cerebellum and hypothalamus (Panula et al., 2015; Monczor and Fernandez, 2016).

A similar distribution of the histamine H2 receptor occurs in the brain of humans and rodents.

H2 histamine receptor antagonists decreased significantly the hypothalamic NA (noradrenaline) content by 21–32%.

Activation of the histamine H2 receptor in the brain inhibits nerve cells and blocks long-lasting afterhyperpolarization and accommodation of firing in cortical and thalamic neurons (Haas and Reiner, 1988). However, if this afterhyperpolarization block continues for an protracted period, it can lead to potentiation of excitation in rodent and in human brain, resulting in enhanced synaptic plasticity (Brown et al., 1995).

Therefore, H2 receptor antagonism can suppress plasticity. RT-PCR revealed that while mRNA for the H1 receptor was expressed in 77% of isolated LC neurons, mRNA for the H2 receptor was in 41% and H3 receptors in 29% of LC neurons.

These findings underline the coordination between aminergic systems and suggest that the arousal induced by the histamine system could involve excitation of noradrenergic neurons in the LC (Korotkova et al., 2005).

https://doi.org/10.3389/fphar.2019.00299

 

[leokitten]

I read that Famotidine has been associated to some old antipsychotics with some anecdotal success in resistant Schizophrenia.

A Randomized Clinical Trial of Histamine 2 Receptor Antagoni... : Journal of Clinical Psychopharmacology (lww.com)



That's interesting because Famotidine is an antihistaminic H2 with no effect on the dopamine action, but lower the adrenergic tone (both central and peripheral).

I'm currently doing a trial Methylphenidate/Famotidine to see if I can increase Dopamine in the mesolimbic and at the same time attenuate the adrenergic tone induced by methylphenidate.





https://doi.org/10.3389/fphar.2019.00299

I thought famotidine doesn’t really cross the BBB at all or very much.

 

[leokitten]

I thought famotidine doesn’t really cross the BBB at all or very much.

I checked again and research says it does have some BBB penetration but it’s likely not significant enough.