Abilify Tiredness And Improvement In Cognitive Symptoms?

Medications
1

My pdoc recently put me on 15mg abilify for psychosis with reduced clozapine dose.

I have 2 questions:

  1. Although i take abilify at bedtime, i still experience daytime tiredness/sedation which does not go away. How are u able to combat the abilify’s daytime sedation ? I’m 100mg Modafinil but its not helping much with sedation.

  2. At what dose have your cognitive symptoms improved on abilify ?

Thanks

2

If your only complaint is sedation, I’d count yourself lucky. I’m struggling with severe anxiety on abilify.

My memory and concentration have gotten worse on abilify.

But it’s doing a good job otherwise, so I continue to take it.

Edit: I’m taking 10mg of abilify and no other antipsychotic.

3

Abilify destroyed me concentration and focus.

4

I’m on 30 mg of Abilify. I take 15mg at night and 15mg in the morning. It’s a heavy dosage but it helps for my positive symptoms. I’ve tried many times to go lower but then the paranoia creeps in. I’ve been on Olexar before and its very sedating…much more than Abilify

5

What does it do to you? if you dont mind me asking

6

Paranoia is mostly gone, and what little bit surfaces is just in the background, not the foreground. I do have blips every now and then.

Delusions mostly gone. Mostly. The ones that are there don’t bother me, again mostly in the background.

Obsessions gone.

Clear head.

No ideas of reference.
No thought broadcasting/telepathy.

I never had hallucinations, never heard voices, so no change there.

Despite all that, though, I’m kind of low functioning. E.g. I can’t read a book, or anything long. I can’t watch more than 20 minutes of a movie. My memory is non existent, and that’s something that is abilify induced .Anxiety is a huge almost deal breaking , almost. It’s still a massive effort for me to do simple things.

7

10mg Abilify is a very low dose. Psychiatrists usually increase the abilify dose to fix the cognitive symptoms you’re experiencing like memory and concentration problems.

8

I started on 20mg, but couldn’t tolerate it, plus it gave me cardiac issues, like chest pressure. I didnt experience any cognitive benefit on 20mg. It’s actually slightly better on 10 for me. But everyone’s different.

9

Any more inputs ? What can i take to improve abilify tiredness apart from stimulants ?

10

Modafinil is a nonstimulant, what dose are you on?

11

I trialed Abilify for 3.5 months. Would not recommend it to anyone based upon personal experiences.

  1. I am still combating that, and I am essentially bed ridden since taking Abilify. I was doing perfectly fine before, but now unless the weather is perfect I have no drive or motivation to do anything.

  2. No dose worked. I was on a 400mg injection every 4 weeks, and there was no decrease in physical pain or decrease in mood swinging. Angry spiritual hallucinations didn’t disappear either.

12

I take 25 mg. I have no side effects. Doesn’t even help me sleep. If I miss my night dose I take it in the morning I’ve never had a problem. I could notice a big difference in cognition, I just raised it 20 to 25. I have the least symptoms I’ve ever had at 25 mg abilify