Posted by Christ_empowered on May 5, 2012, at 14:53:06
In reply to Re: Irony » Christ_empowered, posted by Alexei on May 5, 2012, at 11:11:30
Phillipa--I'm doing *so* much better now! To be fair, my life was much more chaotic and disordered when I was younger, and I lacked character. So, now, with a bit of maturity and insight and a tad of hard earned wisdom, I'm doing much better. The Abilify @ 30 is good for me, but my new doc says we can go to around 15-20 w/o losing control over my problems, as long as I take the low-dose (300mgs) trileptal.
Alexei--I am sorry you're having problems with Abilify. With the anxiety and restlessness, my first thought would be a benzo for 2 weeks (or so...), kind of like some more thoughtful docs do with antidepressant start up. After two weeks or so, you could discontinue the benzo and see if the Abilify is helpful, or just an expensive waste for you.
Higher doses do tend to be more calming (I guess the tranquilizing aspect overshadows the stimulating part; I dunno...I'm just basing this on experience and what shrinks have told me). However, I have read that sometimes, the lower you can go with Abilify for depression, the better. I read that some docs will give 2ish mgs every 3 days, for instance.
That said, "depression" covers a lot of ground. If you have intense anxiety anyway, agitation, psychotic or near psychotic problems, I'd think a higher dose would be better. If your problem is lack of energy and motivation, lethargy, etc., I'd think you'd want to either low dose it or consider something else, such as an MAOI or stimulating TCA.
Abilify DEFINITELY interferes with amphetamines. When I took Abilify (10-15)+ Adderall, my adderall had to be upped to 60. When I dropped the Abilify, I suddenly developed psychosis caused in part (but not completely) by the adderall. If you up the dose, I would assume that you'd get even less mileage out of your amphetamine. On the other hand, the restless feeling may pass.
What symptoms are you targeting with Abilify? I kind of wonder if maybe you'd benefit from a good ole Tofranil (now available in once-nightly PM formula) + amphetamine. That combo served me well, although since I have Bipolar I w/psychotic features, it also made me angry. Rough situation. Since the Tofranil increases amphetamine concentrations in the brain and somehow does other stuff to make it work better (here comes one of my favorite phrases: adds a bit of oomph), you could possibly do that and keep a lowish dose of Abilify to smooth things over. Just a thought based on personal experience--clearly, I'm not your prescriber.
Thanks, everyone!
poster:Christ_empowered
thread:1017154
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20120425/msgs/1017218.html