I'm acutally bipolar.. but i thought you guys might be able to help since you seem to know a lot more about anti-psychotics. Do you know what the Side Effects are of Abilify?
I've been on abilify for a year and a half. The only time I've had side effects was when I combined it with prozac and then I got blurry vision and a tremor. Other than that I've had no side effects with it.
I'm neither bipolar nor schizophrenic (I have OCD, panic attacks, and cyclothymia), so I'm not on an atypical anti-psychotic. However, I do know some about the side effects: weight gain is a main issue, as it is, unfortunately, with many of the anti-manic and anti-psychotic agents. Tardive dyskinesia is not an issue, though. That only happens with the traditional anti-psychotics, the really potent ones like Thorazine and Haldol, which are rarely used any more other than in extreme treatment-resistant cases and to calm down a full-blown manic/psychotic episode. Still, with the atypicals, there is a higher incidence of diabetes. I don't know if this is associated with the weight gain or something else, but I'd think something else because the mood stabilizers like lithium and Depakote also cause weight gain but not diabetes. If you have any more questions, feel free to ask! God bless!
-GatsbyLuvr1920-
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"Not everything that steps out of line, and thus 'abnormal,' must necessarily be 'inferior.'"
-Hans Asperger
Handcuffed2Life, I've been on Abilify for a year and I have to say I bared minimum side affects. Even though GatsbyLuvr1920 has stated weight gain was a main issue, I'd have to disagree. I gained absolutely no weight during my time on it and sub stained the exact weight the whole period. Tardive Dyskinesia is a less of the issue, as Gatsby replied. The only side affects I have endured only lasted a couple of weeks in which included dizziness, light feeling, drowsiness and shaking. But again, they all subsided after a week or two. All in all, I think Abilify is prabably one of the best Anti-Psychotics for some people. The sideaffects are less severe and it's much less sedating.
Thank You so much for all of your replies.. It helped a lot. I was really worried because when I was on Zyprexa / Risperdal / Thorozene / Serequel I gained SO much weight and was warned about tardive dyskinesia ... Which frightened me. I was also checked often for thyroid problems.. I just wanted to make sure that this wasn't going to be the case with Abilify. I'd rather be crazy then have all these other heath problems their talking about.
But Abilify seems to be a miracle drug for me. I haven't gained any weight (yet) and I'm not even tired like all the other anti-psychotics that ive tried have made me.
Thank You again for cutting down on my parinoia... haha.
-Amanda
Abilify 
