Posted by Conundrum on January 22, 2011, at 14:18:45
In reply to Re: Abilify and dopamine, posted by Christ_empowered on January 21, 2011, at 10:00:21
from the studies I have seen, it only boosts dopamine in prefrontal cortex. Sometimes you need to know where in the brain the changes are occuring, not just the transmitter. For example increasing dopamine in the prefrontal cortex would help with cognition and drive like the previous poster. It might not help so much with pleasure or a mood boost as a drug that increases dopamine in the nucleus accumbens, like zyprexa.
> I'm not a doctor or all that into the technical aspects of meds, but...here's how its been explained to me, and what I've experienced.
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> Abilify is a high-potency antipsychotic. This mean it occupies a really, really high % of d2 receptors in the normal dose range. The "partial agonism" is a little more complicated. At lower doses, especially mixed with an antidepressant, Abilify can be somewhat stimulating. This happens with older antipsychotics, too; I read a small study once where they found that giving participants a micro-dose of Haldol (of all things!) improved speed, reaction time, and decreased errors on some sort of test they were giving them.
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> The higher up you go, the less stimulating/more "soothing" Abilify is. When I took 7.5-10mgs, I had less anxiety, but I also felt a mood "lift," albeit a minor one. As you go up higher, the D2 partial agonism still works, but its effects seem (to me) to be more in limiting EPS and cognitive dulling---the 30mgs dose I take, for instance, is great for mania and psychosis, but doesn't have any mood-elevating properties.
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> This was completely non-technical and based primarily on my own experience and what shrinks have told me. I hope it helped you a bit.
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Complaints: post-SSRI problems: anhedonia, memory and concentration problems, sexual anhedonia. )
Country:USA
Currently taking 2.5 mg prozac, Multi B vitamin
poster:Conundrum
thread:977580
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20110115/msgs/977687.html