Abilify for psychosis
 

Anyone take abilify for psychosis?

I just started taking it and I'm wondering how long it will be till it starts to work?
I am in hospital and they will not let me go till my psychosis is under control. But I'm worried because I read in some studies that it can take 6-12 weeks to take full effect.
I don't want to stay in hospital that long :-(

Any experience would be helpful
Thanks

i took abilify for a while. i can't remember how long it took, i don't think anywhere near as long as 12 weeks, but then it never helped 100% so i might not be the best example.

I have tried Aripiprazole (Abilify) before and it didn't really help me, but that's because I need a dopamine blocker rather than a partial agonist for me to be ok. But I have heard of Aripiprazole really helping some people, and it doesn't really have the weight gain/sedation properties that some more traditional antipsychotics have. I think it can take anything as short as two weeks or as long as eight weeks to work, but it really varies from person to person.

What dose are you on? Are they tapering it up or have they just put you on a dose and left it as that?

Thanks guys.

Im having a real hard time on this med. I'm really restless and havnt slept got 2 days. I'm hoping this will pass after a week or so.

That happened with me too. It's due to the dopamine partial agonism.

Will it pass?

Abilify is quite activating thus the restlessness it will pass, varies between each person. Can you be prescribed a sleeping aid to allow you to rest at night. They say sleep is crutial for our mental health recovery.

For me abilify didnt really do anything just make me drool like a baby i had so much saliva.

^ I have zopiclone prescribed but it didnt make a difference last night :-( maybe ill ask for a bit more tonight.

It's good to know it will pass though. X

It will pass.

What dose of Zopiclone were you given?

I was given 3.75mg of zopiclone which has worked fine in the past. But last might I asked for 7.5mg and that worked a lot better.

I have still felt sick and restless today but it had been a lot less than the previous days. Plus I also managed a little nap in the day which was nice.

I have been started on 5mg with the intention of increasing it to 10-20mg. I'm not looking forward to the increase due to going through all the side effects again. :-(

3.75mg of Zopiclone is generally better for people that cannot tolerate Zopiclone well. I found 7.5mg worked better.

Aripiprazole takes time to titrate but it gets easier with time. If you find the nausea unbearable then there are antiemetics that you can be prescribed. Also some meds help with the restlessness too (I forget which ones they are but I will do some research).

I take 30mg of this and get no side effects really.

It takes 2 weeks to build up a steady blood level (longer than most other APs) so improvement will generally be seen after then x