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Abilify- Stanford Clinic Patients

hmnr asg

Senior Member
Messages
569
@hmnr asg did you find Vraylar more activating or less activating than Abilify?
more activating in my experience. Abilify was only activating in the initial two weeks. After that I just felt like my cfs had diminished. Vraylar is causing me insomnia. I have reduced my dose to 1.5 every other day and it has gotten better.

As for helping with cfs i have no idea! its either zero benefits or tiny, definitely nothing like the honeymoon phase I had with abilify.
 

JES

Senior Member
Messages
1,366
Though there is one major difference between my situation this time and the previous two times. Before I’d been on moclobemide 600 mg but this time I’ve been taking fluoxetine 60 mg per day. Could fluoxetine or any SSRI for that matter reduce Abilify’s effects or worse could this mean Abilify with each cycle is starting to not work? Ugh, I really don’t want to come off fluoxetine to test what’s going on it has a very long half life.
Found this:

Conclusion: Amongst the SSRIs examined, only fluoxetine acutely increases extracellular concentrations of norepinephrine and dopamine as well as serotonin in prefrontal cortex, suggesting that fluoxetine is an atypical SSRI (reference).

As the SSRI fluoxetine can inhibit dopamine reuptake at high concentrations (Sánchez and Hyttel, 1999), it is possible that the enhanced dopaminergic modulation could be caused by its direct action on the dopaminergic neurons (reference).

Not sure what to make of it other than dopamine receptors are indeed affected at least to some degree by fluoxetine. FYI, citalopram or escitalopram is the SSRI that is most selective and theoretically should have the least effect on dopamine.
 

leokitten

Senior Member
Messages
1,595
Location
U.S.
more activating in my experience. Abilify was only activating in the initial two weeks. After that I just felt like my cfs had diminished. Vraylar is causing me insomnia. I have reduced my dose to 1.5 every other day and it has gotten better.

As for helping with cfs i have no idea! its either zero benefits or tiny, definitely nothing like the honeymoon phase I had with abilify.
Are you getting akathisia? I might want to try Vraylar sorry for asking all the questions.
 

leokitten

Senior Member
Messages
1,595
Location
U.S.
That is such a coincidence, I am switching to fluvoxamine as well! I am very scared it might have sedation as a side effect (which i cant afford).
How are you doing with fluvoxamine? is it sedative? any help with the anxiety?
btw I’m not taking fluvoxamine anymore, have been on fluoxetine for over a month and sticking with that after trying many antidepressants. Nothing was wrong with fluvoxamine it didn’t virtually any side effects which was great, but at least for me has a weaker antidepressant effect. Fluoxetine also had no side effects but seems to be stronger and has a greater anti-anxiety and antidepressant effect.
 

hmnr asg

Senior Member
Messages
569
Are you getting akathisia? I might want to try Vraylar sorry for asking all the questions.
Not really, im not. I really cant think of any side effects at this dose of 1.5mg every other day.
btw I’m not taking fluvoxamine anymore, have been on fluoxetine for over a month and sticking with that after trying many antidepressants. Nothing was wrong with fluvoxamine it didn’t virtually any side effects which was great, but at least for me has a weaker antidepressant effect. Fluoxetine also had no side effects but seems to be stronger and has a greater anti-anxiety and antidepressant effect.
Glad prozac is working for you! for some reason it significantly worsened my trigeminal neuralgia pain when i tried it a few years ago. I'm still on duloxetine :(
ps if you want to ask more about vraylar you can also dm me.
 

leokitten

Senior Member
Messages
1,595
Location
U.S.
Has anyone who developed tolerance to Abilify after a few months ever tried taking one of the safer dopamine antagonists like ziprasidone for example for a few months to try and reverse tolerance? This would give a lot of insight as to what part of Abilify’s MOA is causing at least temp relief of ME symptoms?
 

jaybee00

Senior Member
Messages
605
What about this TD med—“ By selectively reducing the ability of VMAT2 to load dopamine into synaptic vesicles,[8] the drug reduces overall levels of available dopamine in the synaptic cleft, ideally alleviating the symptoms associated with dopamine hypersensitivity. ”

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Valbenazine

Seems relatively safe.
 

leokitten

Senior Member
Messages
1,595
Location
U.S.
What about this TD med—“ By selectively reducing the ability of VMAT2 to load dopamine into synaptic vesicles,[8] the drug reduces overall levels of available dopamine in the synaptic cleft, ideally alleviating the symptoms associated with dopamine hypersensitivity. ”

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Valbenazine

Seems relatively safe.

I think though this isn’t generic yet, but it’s a good idea
 

leokitten

Senior Member
Messages
1,595
Location
U.S.
What about this TD med—“ By selectively reducing the ability of VMAT2 to load dopamine into synaptic vesicles,[8] the drug reduces overall levels of available dopamine in the synaptic cleft, ideally alleviating the symptoms associated with dopamine hypersensitivity. ”

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Valbenazine

Seems relatively safe.

Sorry just want to go back a bit, why would VMAT2 inhibition potentially reverse LDA tolerance in pwME?
 
Messages
13
I have been given samples of Rexulti (Brexpiprazole) to try, but I've read a lot of horror stories about it, so I don't know if it's worth trying. Also crazy expensive for no reason, like many drugs in the US. If it has a possibility of helping with ME/CFS, it could be worth a shot, but I've seen little to no evidence that it does (unless anyone can tell me any Rexulti success stories they have heard?). It was given to me for depression, not ME/CFS, but I don't even know if it would be effective for depression on it's own, as it's supposed to be used adjunct and antidepressant.

thank you! Sorry for bumping this older thread.
 

serafim

Senior Member
Messages
107
I have been given samples of Rexulti (Brexpiprazole) to try, but I've read a lot of horror stories about it, so I don't know if it's worth trying. Also crazy expensive for no reason, like many drugs in the US. If it has a possibility of helping with ME/CFS, it could be worth a shot, but I've seen little to no evidence that it does (unless anyone can tell me any Rexulti success stories they have heard?). It was given to me for depression, not ME/CFS, but I don't even know if it would be effective for depression on it's own, as it's supposed to be used adjunct and antidepressant.

thank you! Sorry for bumping this older thread.
what kinda horror stories?
 
Messages
17
I have been given samples of Rexulti (Brexpiprazole) to try, but I've read a lot of horror stories about it, so I don't know if it's worth trying. Also crazy expensive for no reason, like many drugs in the US. If it has a possibility of helping with ME/CFS, it could be worth a shot, but I've seen little to no evidence that it does (unless anyone can tell me any Rexulti success stories they have heard?). It was given to me for depression, not ME/CFS, but I don't even know if it would be effective for depression on it's own, as it's supposed to be used adjunct and antidepressant.

thank you! Sorry for bumping this older thread.
Yes it worked for my CFS symptoms almost as well as Abilify did. I started at 0.25mg, it took about 3 days to notice the effects! Good luck
 

Guwop2

Senior Member
Messages
269
But for me personally sharing what helps feels a bit like being in a defensive situation. I’m not a bio chemist and I’m sorry I can’t tell you more but what I know from Stanford. Then you just have to wait until a phase III study is successfully completed ✔️
A question for anyone who knows; has this phase III study been completed? ..do we know anything more than in 2020 about this drug?
 
Messages
2
Has anybody tried to augment or to restore LDA by adding 1 mg LDN twice a day, as shown in this paper on a small proof of concept study on augmentation of dopaminergic antidepressants?

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0165032716304499

"Filamin A is also found in dopaminergic D2 and D3 receptors, which led Bear and Kessler to propose that low (LDN) or ultra-low (ULDN) doses of naltrexone might reverse or prevent desensitization to D2/3 agonists."

D2 re-sensitization seems to be interesting in the case of LDA pooping out.
 
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