Abilify- Stanford Clinic Patients

[SueJohnPat]

Just easy to remember. I am taking a very low subtheraputic dose. Unlike a lot of people in this site I am not that sensitive at all to medications. I could take it in am . For me I don’t think it matters.

 

[Yuno]

ron davis mentions pilot study of abilify, in which it seems to help ca. 80% of participants to some degree!
unfortunately i’m not among these. after three days of good energy on just 0,25 mg I crashed quite heavily and still haven’t recovered back to baseline. It’s my problem with every stimulant, just crashes me, as if my body was allergic to energy;(.

 

[jaybee00]

Abilify isn’t really a stimulant

 

[YippeeKi YOW !!]

It’s my problem with every stimulant, just crashes me, as if my body was allergic to energy;(.

Ironic. And deeply, profoundly irritating ....

Keep researching, keep experimenting .... there's something out there that'll work for you, and in all likelihood, won't work for anyone else, one of the more irritating characteristics of this vicious little butt-biter of an illness ....

 

[perrier]

ron davis mentions pilot study of abilify, in which it seems to help ca. 80% of participants to some degree!
unfortunately i’m not among these. after three days of good energy on just 0,25 mg I crashed quite heavily and still haven’t recovered back to baseline. It’s my problem with every stimulant, just crashes me, as if my body was allergic to energy;(.

The problem in the illness is EXERTION Intolerance(physical, emotional, intellectual); so if you get (from whatever substance) a little energy, and try to do a touch more, there is a risk of crashing badly. This has been our experience, but Abilify has not been tried; but it has occurred with every med that was tried. Somewhere in the body, something, is making it hard to exert without a payback. When will they find the cause? I heard DR Davis today in that recent video and he says they are thinking it is a metabolic trap issue that is the cause of this illness. I don't know, but the sooner the cause is found, the sooner folks can rise from their beds.

 

[leokitten]

unfortunately i’m not among these. after three days of good energy on just 0,25 mg I crashed quite heavily and still haven’t recovered back to baseline. It’s my problem with every stimulant, just crashes me, as if my body was allergic to energy;(

Abilify isn’t a stimulant.

Regarding dopamine, it works as a dopamine partial agonist/functionally selective modulator: where dopamine is too low in the brain, it appears to function as an agonist (at presynaptic receptors) and where dopamine is too high in the brain, it functions as an antagonist (at postsynaptic receptors). Regarding serotonin, on some receptor subtypes it acts like above, on others it acts as a antagonist. There are also some other functions at neurotransmitter transporters.

I would definitely say most modern antidepressants are way more stimulating than anything the atypical antipsychotic Abilify might do, since modern antidepressants are SNRIs which also act as reuptake inhibitors on norepinephrine receptors and that really ramps you up (which could easily give you the feeling of fake energy that causes a crash)

 

[Jessie 107]

@perrier
I am currently taking 2.5 mg of abilify I do now have more energy than I did,
for example I'm able to have a bath I'm able to go downstairs and relax down there but I have to use a wheelchair and a stairlift but these things would not have been possible before.
if I do crash and then the crashes are much less horrendous than they were.
I have been bedbound for two and a half years, Abilify is definitely helping.

 

[perrier]

@perrier
I am currently taking 2.5 mg of abilify I do now have more energy than I did,
for example I'm able to have a bath I'm able to go downstairs and relax down there but I have to use a wheelchair and a stairlift but these things would not have been possible before.
if I do crash and then the crashes are much less horrendous than they were.
I have been bedbound for two and a half years, Abilify is definitely helping.

Dear Jessie, that is wonderful news. Just wonderful. I hope things keep improving. Thanks for the information.

 

[hmnr asg]

My fiance is a pharmacy student and she said famotidine can reduce the absorption of magnesium , but its not an antagonist.
Anyways yall lets be nice to each other! we are all super tired and should spend our energy on something productive, like watching netflix

As for me I stopped pepcid and my heart palpitation stopped. Also I am still doing well and doing so much more than before. Also my libido is back also. I am on 1 mg and thinking of going to 2 mg and stopping there.

Also i read two worrying stories about two individuals who took abilify, and got better but went back to baseline after a few months. I guess it could happen and I will take my few months if thats all I can get.

Also i believe abilify may act differently if one is on an antidepressant, especially an SNRI. I have no reason for this, its just my spider sense, so please dont ask me for citations.

ps I wish we could stay on topic on this thread, i.e., abilify. Several times it has gotten derailed. We can make new threads and talk about other topics.

 

[leokitten]

Just like food (high fat or other) can reduce or speed up the absorption of particular drugs, it is incorrect to say food as being an agonist or antagonist. Trust me I’m not being mean I just pointed it out in a very professional and polite manner (see post), it’s someone else who can’t deal.

Interfering with absorption in the stomach or small intestine is happening effectively outside your body. Whereas agonism/antagonism is something happening inside your body, typically at the site of action (it gets a bit more complex in the brain where an agonist/antagonist can work at a different site or neurotransmitter type, but still it’s happening in the brain at receptors).

 

[sb4]

@hmnr asg You know if those patients where ablify wore off after a few months ever try letting there system reset for a month or 2 and then trying it again?

 

[leokitten]

@hmnr asg did these people also take Celebrex or similar as well and it still wore off?

 

[andyguitar]

Also i read two worrying stories about two individuals who took abilify, and got better but went back to baseline after a few months.

Not such a suprise @hmnr asg and it must be very disappointing for them. But it does give them a clue as to what might be wrong. There are other drugs which might help. Trouble is without funding clinical trials are difficult and not everyone is keen on anecdotal evidence. Even if it's pretty good evidence.

 

[leokitten]

I’ve read conflicting reports regarding Whitney Dafoe that they actually do not know if it was Abilify which caused his improvement, as he’d been taking it for a longer time before noticing anything as well as other new meds? being added or other changes that could confound the situation.

 

[jaybee00]

Yeah I think it’s starting to wear off for me... I’m about day 70.

Strangely naltrexone or LDN might help here to augment Abilify.

https://ldnresearchtrust.org/sites/default/files/LDN_Depression_paper.pdf

And here

http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20060108/msgs/598956.html

 

[leokitten]

Yeah I think it’s starting to wear off for me... I’m about day 70.

Strangely naltrexone or LDN might help here to augment Abilify.

https://ldnresearchtrust.org/sites/default/files/LDN_Depression_paper.pdf

And here

http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20060108/msgs/598956.html

the second link and testimonial they mentioned using naltrexone 25mg (I guess qd) which I wouldn’t consider LDN as this isn’t a low dose.

 

[Yuno]

Abilify isn’t a stimulant.

Regarding dopamine, it works as a dopamine partial agonist/functionally selective modulator: where dopamine is too low in the brain, it appears to function as an agonist (at presynaptic receptors) and where dopamine is too high in the brain, it functions as an antagonist (at postsynaptic receptors). Regarding serotonin, on some receptor subtypes it acts like above, on others it acts as a antagonist. There are also some other functions at neurotransmitter transporters.

I would definitely say most modern antidepressants are way more stimulating than anything the atypical antipsychotic Abilify might do, since modern antidepressants are SNRIs which also act as reuptake inhibitors on norepinephrine receptors and that really ramps you up (which could easily give you the feeling of fake energy that causes a crash)

Thank you! I didn’t know that. Strangely enough I actually do take an SNRI (Venlafaxin 75mg), but I never had the feeling that it stimulated me in any way, overall it stabilized me and made my POTS better, whereas with Abilfy I clearly have that hyper -stimulated feeling and it crashes me, what Venlafaxin never did.
Who knows, might be due to some individual “faulty settings “ in the brain, or the combination of Venlafaxin and Abilify may not work well for me.
I also was on Ritalin when I became ill, actually I think that it might be one of the reasons I became ill and I’m not sure whether this might have crashed my system somehow into this hypersensitive state, where I’m so easily being stimulated and crashed by so many things. I can’t take cromolyn sodium for example, makes me feel absurd great for 3 hours and then I crash. Don’t know why that is. The only things that work for me energywise without crashing are Ativan and Klonopin.

 

[leokitten]

Thank you! I didn’t know that. Strangely enough I actually do take an SNRI (Venlafaxin 75mg), but I never had the feeling that it stimulated me in any way, overall it stabilized me and made my POTS better, whereas with Abilfy I clearly have that hyper -stimulated feeling and it crashes me, what Venlafaxin never did.
Who knows, might be due to some individual “faulty settings “ in the brain, or the combination of Venlafaxin and Abilify may not work well for me.

It actually might make sense because norepinephrine reuptake inhibition in the brain is also going to increase sympathetic outflow which will likely increase blood pressure and help stabilize POTS.

But may I ask, didn’t Venlafaxine (or any other SNRI) feel absolutely terrible in the beginning for probably the first month or so as your brain got used to it? This is very common and I expect to be the same with Abilify where it might take time for it to stabilize. How long did you take Abilify?

 

[hmnr asg]

@leokitten @Yuno
I also take an SNRI and i found it very activating. I wasnt able to go up to the full dose of 60mg which my doctor wanted.

As for the two instances of people having the benefits wear off, I did not hear any mention of other drugs. One of these was mentioned on the cfs subreddit:

https://www.reddit.com/r/cfs/comments/j7fey0

But you have to take the cfs subreddit with a grain of salt (many of them dont actually have cfs).

@leokitten I actually ordered celebrex from my doctor. Do you think its a good idea to combine with Abilify? I cant do LDN because im on cymbalta (I think youre not supposed to use it along with an antidepressant? im not sure).
Thanks!

 

[Yuno]

It actually might make sense because norepinephrine reuptake inhibition in the brain is also going to increase sympathetic outflow which will likely increase blood pressure and help stabilize POTS.

But may I ask, didn’t Venlafaxine (or any other SNRI) feel absolutely terrible in the beginning for probably the first month or so as your brain got used to it? This is very common and I expect to be the same with Abilify where it might take time for it to stabilize. How long did you take Abilify?

no, venlafaxine felt fine, as far a I remember. It took some time to take effect, but that was all.
I just took abilify twice, but it crashed me so hard, that I feel I need to recover first to the pre- abilify level ( hopefully) before venturing another go at an even lower dosage.