Posted by med_empowered on November 16, 2006, at 22:00:36
In reply to Re: abilify and Xanax » Phillipa, posted by Amandafran on November 16, 2006, at 19:43:05
hi. to me it sounds like your "boredline personality disorder" sounds more like a form of bipolar (maybe type II)...with a lot of shrinks, it seems like a woman with bipolar="borderline".
Anyway...abilify can help that stuff, but it is still a neuroleptic which means risks (tardive dyskinesia, possible death from neuroleptic malignancy syndrome, EPS, it messes with your body's ability to self-regulate temperature) that aren't found with other meds. Its FDA approved for acute mania in Bipolar I, when used with conventional mood stabilizers (lithium, depakote) and for long-term schizophrenia treatment. Any other uses are speculative and "off-label," meaning there isn't always high quality evidence to support the use of the med for that purpose.
I think maybe instead of a neuroleptic you and your shrink should talk about optimizing the mood stabilizer..you can up lamictal, lower the prozac, add in depakote or keppra or trileptal or phenytoin...there are lots of options that don't involve using a neuroleptic. Also, you can try Klonopin (clonazepam) in place of the xanax; its also good for anxiety, and it can act as a mild mood stabilizer, which is a 2-birds-with-1-stone kind of deal.
I dont mean to second guess your shrink but...docs are spraying the new antipsychotics around like they're aspirin. These drugs may be more tolerable than, say, Haldol (that's really not saying much, by the way), but there are very *real* side effects to consider, and we won't know all of the effects until 10 years or so from now, especially w/ Abilify, which is so very new.
poster:med_empowered
thread:704387
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20061110/msgs/704431.html