![[dr. bob]](/dr-bob-sm.gif)
Dr. Bob is Robert Hsiung, MD,
bob@dr-bob.orgShown: posts 1 to 6 of 6. This is the beginning of the thread.
Posted by always_doing_laundry on September 22, 2008, at 22:29:37
My son (age 16) has been on 10 mg Abilify for several years. During that time, he has been hungry all the time. He says he is never not-hungry. Even so, he is not overweight ... but sleep-eating/night-eating was becoming a huge problem, so doc recommended lowering the dose a bit. The sleep-eating has ebbed, but his recent labs (even having fasted for close to 18 hours by the time they were drawn) showed high blood glucose. Additionally, he urinates (a lot, per trip to the bathroom) ... at least once an hour. Even on Abilify with the hunger and huge caloric intake at night+zoloft, he lost 10 pounds w/o a growth spurt in the last six months.
Doc is thinking diabetes, secondary probably to meds. Is this just abilify, zoloft also? Any experiences that would say whether discontinuation or tapering would ameliorate the blood-glucose and sugar-spilling? The blood draws are trying themselves, as he gets sweaty, passes out, vomits. Compounding the blood-glucose issue is carb-craving ... it's all he wants: carbs, carbs and more simple sugars.
Any wisdom, education, insight, advice? He is on the autistic spectrum, and both meds control his obsessive thoughts/fears and sensory-processing difficulties to the extent that he is high-functioning. Is this just the price for being functional?
Posted by Phillipa on September 22, 2008, at 23:30:07
In reply to Blood sugar, frequent urination on Abilify, posted by always_doing_laundry on September 22, 2008, at 22:29:37
No my feeling is that it isn't. Is he psychotic? If not I'd say get off the antipsycotics see a pharmacologist. Good luck to you. Love Phillipa
Posted by yxibow on September 23, 2008, at 2:10:19
In reply to Blood sugar, frequent urination on Abilify, posted by always_doing_laundry on September 22, 2008, at 22:29:37
> My son (age 16) has been on 10 mg Abilify for several years. During that time, he has been hungry all the time. He says he is never not-hungry. Even so, he is not overweight ... but sleep-eating/night-eating was becoming a huge problem, so doc recommended lowering the dose a bit. The sleep-eating has ebbed, but his recent labs (even having fasted for close to 18 hours by the time they were drawn) showed high blood glucose. Additionally, he urinates (a lot, per trip to the bathroom) ... at least once an hour. Even on Abilify with the hunger and huge caloric intake at night+zoloft, he lost 10 pounds w/o a growth spurt in the last six months.
>
> Doc is thinking diabetes, secondary probably to meds. Is this just abilify, zoloft also? Any experiences that would say whether discontinuation or tapering would ameliorate the blood-glucose and sugar-spilling? The blood draws are trying themselves, as he gets sweaty, passes out, vomits. Compounding the blood-glucose issue is carb-craving ... it's all he wants: carbs, carbs and more simple sugars.
>
> Any wisdom, education, insight, advice? He is on the autistic spectrum, and both meds control his obsessive thoughts/fears and sensory-processing difficulties to the extent that he is high-functioning. Is this just the price for being functional?
These are some of the warning signs for diabetes (II) (and probably I)http://diabetes.about.com/od/symptomsdiagnosis/p/Symptoms.htm
The frequent urination is a concern and that's probably why the doctor is leaning towards that. But blood draws and complicated labs are also needed to figure things out. Large intake of water also is an extra sign.
Abilify doesn't so far appear to be particularly a weight gaining neuroleptic but any rare reaction could happen, as is the same with Zoloft.
If the tests and everything point to that, diabetes can be headed off early, with these warning signs and controlled better.
I don't mean to scare you, I'm just trying to point out some of the facts, because in fact I am also worried about it -- but I did have a very recent physical (normal).
I would see a specialist, probably your doctor will recommend a endocrinologist to further figure things out.
It may be an end to using Abilify, there may be other things that can help instead.
And its tearing, but don't blame it for being high-functional -- that is a very good thing and a blessing for the autistic range which is still very unknown and mystifying to doctors at this time.
-- best wishesJay
Posted by med_empowered on September 23, 2008, at 12:42:29
In reply to Re: Blood sugar, frequent urination on Abilify » always_doing_laundry, posted by yxibow on September 23, 2008, at 2:10:19
Hey. Abilify actually made me crave bad-for-you foods (sweets, high-carb foods, calorie-dense junk food). I thought initially it was all in my head (I could almost hear my shrinks voice "Abilify is the cleanest atypical on the market..." ringing in my ears), but I decided to go off of it anyway, to see how I'd do.
I lost 15lbs, and I'm still losing weight.
If your child needs some sort of mood stabilizer, you might be better off with an anticonvulsant-type mood stabilizer (trileptal, lamictal, even depakote, perhaps) than using an antipsychotic. Antipsychotics are being prescribed like crazy, but they're actually pretty heavy artillery and the side effects can be horrendous.
Good luck
Posted by greywolf on September 23, 2008, at 18:56:21
In reply to I think its the abilify, posted by med_empowered on September 23, 2008, at 12:42:29
> Hey. Abilify actually made me crave bad-for-you foods (sweets, high-carb foods, calorie-dense junk food). I thought initially it was all in my head (I could almost hear my shrinks voice "Abilify is the cleanest atypical on the market..." ringing in my ears), but I decided to go off of it anyway, to see how I'd do.
>
> I lost 15lbs, and I'm still losing weight.
>
> If your child needs some sort of mood stabilizer, you might be better off with an anticonvulsant-type mood stabilizer (trileptal, lamictal, even depakote, perhaps) than using an antipsychotic. Antipsychotics are being prescribed like crazy, but they're actually pretty heavy artillery and the side effects can be horrendous.
>
> Good luckI agree. You might want to see if the doc will drop the Abilify altogether and check if the sugar goes down then. It very well might.
Posted by Zyprexa on September 24, 2008, at 23:29:59
In reply to Blood sugar, frequent urination on Abilify, posted by always_doing_laundry on September 22, 2008, at 22:29:37
When I took abilify. It made me hungry all the time. I would also check my blood sugar and the readings were always low.
This is the end of the thread.
Psycho-Babble Medication | Extras | FAQ
Dr. Bob is Robert Hsiung, MD,
bob@dr-bob.org
Script revised: February 4, 2008
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/cgi-bin/pb/mget.pl
Copyright 2006-17 Robert Hsiung.
Owned and operated by Dr. Bob LLC and not the University of Chicago.