Posted by med_empowered on March 30, 2007, at 23:46:44
In reply to Re: abilify--what's the skinny?, posted by Phillipa on March 30, 2007, at 20:51:01
If I recall correctly, abilify does D2 partial agonism (basically, boosts dopamine enough to avoid EPS and maybe stimulate part of prefontal cortex) and also does the same at serotonin receptors (check the website; I may be a bit off).
Anyway, its generally "weight neutral"; in studies, it can cause minor weight gain, but it also causes weight loss (also generally minor) in some people. Of course, some people report lots of weight gain, and some people report weight loss so...its variable.
Akathisia is a big problem with Abilify. Physical EPS--stiff muscles, involuntary jerks, that kind of thing, are minor, but akathisia is a very big problem. If you hit 10mgs/day or above, I'd seriously recommend some kind of GABAergic drug (benzos, depakote, neurontin, lyrica...whatever) to minimize the akathisia.
Personally, for me doses below 10mgs/day were OK. 10mgs or above--just a neuroleptic, albeit more tolerable than the other "atypicals" out there. So it really depends. In general, I think the ONLY time you should resort to a neuroleptic is when you're actually psychotic. If you're not psychotic, try something else. The risks (TD, neuroleptic Malignancy syndrome, etc.) are just too high to justify a major tranquilizer in the non-psychotic.
poster:med_empowered
thread:745533
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20070327/msgs/745668.html