Posted by jedi on March 4, 2010, at 3:06:56
In reply to Re: Abilify » jedi, posted by Elimino Pete on March 4, 2010, at 1:10:48
Hi Pete, Everybody is different when it comes to medications. Your symptoms do not sound like akathisia to me. Sometimes it takes a while to get used to the medications and there are other medications, like the beta blocker proprananol, to counteract the akathisia if that is the problem. Looking again, you are taking proprananol (Inderal) which probably helps with Abilify. I do not see an antidepressant in your current cocktail. With the atypical depression, I would think you need to add something. Of course, my choice is Nardil, but with the ADD and the need for stimulants, you need a very experienced PDOC to guide you through that combination. I have not seen any studies of Abilify as a stand alone antidepressant. It has been approved for augmentation. But maybe your PDOC knows some things that aren't published. The oversleeping is definitely a symptom of atypical depression. If the other symptoms are there, the social phobia goes hand in hand with rejection senitivity, you probably need to add something else for the atypical depression.
I have taken Wellbutrin in the past. I have even augmented Nardil with it even though they are contraindicated. One thing about me and Wellbutrin is it tends to make me somewhat aggressive. I even had an experience of road rage on it, which is completely unlike me. These three guys pulled off the side of the road in front of me. I swerved hard to miss them, stopped, looked back and all three were flipping me off. I got out of my truck and knocked the sh*t out of all three. Again, never before, never again, so I blamed it on the Wellbutrin. I am not a kid, I'm 52 years old.
I'm currently adding 2mg of clonazepam to 60mg of Nardil. I'm trying to get to the lowest dosage that will keep me out of major depression. 60mg with the clonazepam is right on the edge. The side effects are so much better at 60 than at 90 or 105. I went down to 1mg of clonazepam for a while. It was no problem reducing the dosage, but after a while it became a choice of increasing the Nardil or raising the clonazepam up to 2mg, to keep the atypical depression at a respectable distance. The clonazepam does give me some brain fog. But most people I know have a level of CRS(Can't remember S**t) anyway.
Good luck and be well,
Jedi
> Hello,
>
> I had some communication with you about a year ago regarding our medication history (MAOIs mostly) and comorbidities. I have been off this forum for about a year. I have social phobia, GAD, atypical depression and ADD. My daily medications are currently a bit in flux but are as follows:
>
> Klonapin 1.0 mg
> Adderall 30 mg
> Inderal 100 mg
> Abilify (just dropped from 5 to 2.5 mg
>
> Contrary to the report in this thread, my pdoc said there is growing evidence that Abilify could benefit my symptom mix without concurrent use of an antidepressant.
>
> My experiences with Abilfy are odd. After about 2 weeks on 2 mg, I thought I'd found a part of the ever elusive answer. I was feeling stable, activated, more focused and less socially anxious. The only notable side effect was some tolerable insomnia and irritability.
>
> Over the next two weeks, all the positive effects diminished. I've since became what somebody here described -- just hanging around in my apartment with no drive or energy to do anything at all. It's still like that. I am on a furlough and sleep many more hours than I am awake. I thought perhaps Abilify had just petered out, so the doc increased the dose to 5 mg. After about another two weeks at the higher dose, the positive effects never returned and the negative ones only increased. A theory I had was Abilify was at least partially blocking the dopamine agonist effect of Adderall. Pdoc didn't elaborate, but may have agreed, as he switched Abilify to bedtime at 1/2 the former dose, furthest away from my Adderall doses. He also increased the Adderall to twice the former dose. It has been about a week since those changes. So far, I'm still the same zombie and I can't believe I'm even able to write this post.
>
> I don't know if what I'm experiencing is related to akathisia, but maybe. Anhedonia seems to describe how I'm feeling, but there may also be an element of inner angst (while I'm sitting around having great difficulty motivating to keep up even with routine household chores).
>
> My instincts tell me not to give up on Abilify just yet. Something tells me it holds promise (after years of trying 'this and that' with less than good results with anything other than Nardil) either with or without an antidepressant. Other than Nardil (assuming it is contraindicated with Abilify?), Wellbutrin worked better and had fewer side effects than the others. It might therefore be the one to throw in the mix. I just don't want to spend too much time in this state of nothingness I'm feeling right now. I want to believe I'm more than that.
>
> Your thoughts, as well as those of others, would be greatly appreciated.
poster:jedi
thread:938319
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20100216/msgs/938511.html