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Abilify- Stanford Clinic Patients

elvira

Senior Member
Messages
146
Probably not a good idea to take an antipsychotic drug for anxiety/insomnia. You may have difficulty withdrawing from this drug.

I’ve taken it for a couple of months so already too late🤷🏻‍♀️ But could the Abilify still have effect? Or would I have to quit the olanzapine first...
 

elvira

Senior Member
Messages
146
I guess i’ll just try with both and see. It was my psychitrist who prescribed it, apparently it is used to ”augment” the effect of antidepressants. And since it makes me sleepy it helps with that too
 

Judee

Psalm 46:1-3
Messages
4,461
Location
Great Lakes

lenora

Senior Member
Messages
4,913
HI @Judee.....Perhaps you'd better write directly to Pyrrhus and he can send your question on to the others.

You're right, we have so many wonderful, helpful people on here....some things are hard to take in, but help is always available. We're fortunate and a big thank-you to everyone involved. Yours, Lenora.
 
Messages
15
Just finished reading this entire thread. A lot of interesting information!

Have there been any reports of how people who have previously taken higher doses of Abilify for non ME reasons performed with low dose Abilify? My wife has had ME/CFS for ~20 years, mild until 2019, currently moderate/severe. She was on 10mg of Abilify to augment other antidepressants from 2012 to 2019, then in 2019 was hospitalized (non ME reasons) and after discussions with doctors decided to ditch her psych med cocktail and try living without meds. She doesn't feel like going off Abilify played any part in her symptoms getting worse, but also never noticed any side effects while on Abilify.

I tried looking on the FB Abilify group but that place is kind of a mess, so I figured I'd ask here if anyone here knew of someone else getting back on low dose Abilify and how they fared.
 

pattismith

Senior Member
Messages
3,931
Yes, for these third generation antipsychotics like amisulpride and aripiprazole, these drugs are classed as dopamine system stabilizers, which means the drug acts as an agonist of the dopamine receptors at low dopamine concentrations, but acts as an antagonist at high dopamine concentrations.

So these drugs boost the dopamine system when dopamine is low, but put the breaks on the dopamine system when dopamine is high. Refs: 1 2



The response to amisulpride is also dose-level dependent:

At low doses, amisulpride blocks the dopamine autoreceptors. An autoreceptor is presynaptic regulatory feedback mechanism which controls how much of a neurotransmitter like dopamine is being released into the synapse (the junction between neurons). When you block the dopamine autoreceptors, it makes the neuron think there is not enough dopamine in the synapse, so more dopamine is released. In this way, blocking dopamine autoreceptors leads to more dopamine release.

But at high doses of amisulpride, then this drug starts to antagonize the postsynaptic dopamine receptor (the normal dopamine receptor), and at these higher doses the overall effect is dopamine antagonism. Refs: 1 2


Aripiprazole behaves similarly at the presynaptic and postsynaptic dopamine receptors. This paper says:

Some more info in the first post of this thread.


and what about mesolimbic D3 receptors?

This paper talks about D3/aripiprazole

If we look at D3 receptors, the action of Aripiprazole on them produces a pro-cognitive effect. Action on D2 receptors means 90% binding, and binding to D3 receptors is also 90%. The clinical correspondent is increasing motivation and preventing diabetes (in a class of medicines where most are at risk of producing diabetes)

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VAPOR LIQUID (upb.ro)
 

GlassCannonLife

Senior Member
Messages
819
Yes, this would be nice, wouldn't it? It still won't fix thyroid hormone imbalances, adrenal insufficiency, lack of testosterone or other sex hormones, B vitamin deficiencies amino acid deficiencies, lack of minerals, active Epstein-Barr or other herpes virus or other viral or bacterial infections, autoimmune processes, hypercoagulation, spinal issues, mast cell activation, and whatever else patients have going on.

I have spoken at length with Robert Naviaux, and he suggested that removing all the cell dangers on his list of categories of things that provoke cell danger response and then moving from winter metabolism to summer metabolism should be helpful, and then only if normal function is not restored, then one would try suramin.

Not sure if you will remember as it was quite some time ago, but do you recall where you saw Naviaux's list of things that provoke the cell danger response?
 

GlassCannonLife

Senior Member
Messages
819
@leokitten @jaybee00 @hmnr asg

How are you guys going? I just finally read through this entire thread, what a journey!

Leo, are you still on the 0.25? And you didn't have a break at all in the end, the sleep fixed itself when you dropped the dose a bit?

Jaybee I can't recall (sorry I read it over a few days), but you stopped because of the effect diminishing, is that right? Did you try again after a break?

Hmnr, I think I recall you saying that you'll take a break and retry, did you do that?
 

GlassCannonLife

Senior Member
Messages
819
I did, six months. It just never worked again. I gave up on abilify.
I'm doing pretty bad right now. Thinking of starting a course of antibiotics ( just a shot in the dark, not hoping for much).
PS I can't believe you read the whole thread!

Haha thanks yeah it took a while! I didn't want to miss any important anecdotes though.

Sucks that it didn't work again.. Sorry to hear you're doing badly atm. I'm actually in a terrible crash atm with covid.. Day 10 today and I have a minimal runny nose, tiny bit of a cough, but am crashing worse and worse every day for some reason.. Fingers crossed it stops soon.

I got some Abilify but I think I will wait a few more months before I try it and try less risky things first based on all your experiences.. We have a nearly-3 year old and I don't know how he'd handle having me improve for a few months then go back to not being able to play properly/at all etc if it stops working.
 

lenora

Senior Member
Messages
4,913
Not good @GlassCannonLife.....and I hope things will improve within the next few weeks.

You have access to people who know a whole lot more than I do about your current state and I know you'll follow what has/hasn't helped them. Feel better...and enjoy that 3 yr. old. Busy little people. Yours, Lenora.