Hi everyone, I opened this thread to “collect” information about this drug and its side effects and outcomes. Anyone is taking it? What about the side effects? I am very interested as potential user. Comparisons with Abilify are welcome. Abilify was “heaven and hell” to me.Discussion about topics such akathisia/restless legs, weight gain, depression relief, flatulence and gastrointestinal side effects, skin tone, and sleep patterns would be very appreciated. Any information or documents would be useful. Thanks in advance.
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“Brexpiprazole showed efficacy for the treatment of schizophrenia in the range of 2 to 4 mg/d and as an adjunct to antidepressant therapy in MDD when dosed at 2 to 3 mg/d. Advantages of this drug include once-daily dosing, good tolerability, and lack of effect on sexual function. Disadvantages include the lack of long-term safety data and potentially high cost.”
I think @anon68237654 is on it.
I just started it. .5 mg to start, then 1 mg
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Hi @anon49063606 thanks. If you wish please share with us some information. Regards.
I’m on 3mg in the morning with 400mg seroquel at night. I know that is quite a bit of medication, but I am special. I have been on rexulti for around 12 months. The antidepressant effect is robust and has helped me enjoy life more. It is a tiny tablet too, very easy to take but very expensive if insurance doesnt cover it. My parents insurance is generous but it is like 1000+ a month for my dose. They have a coupon for the first year or so with a tiny copay (to get people dependent).
There is some weight gain, some elevation of blood sugar too. It can be a harsh drug at higher doses, for a while it would just shut off my brain for 6 or 7 hours during the day, all i could do was sleep. It has a long half life so breakthrough symptoms are less common like you would have for a shorter acting drug like geodon or seroquel. It improved my cognition significantly the higher I dosed it, it is procognitive I believe. I am attached to this antipsychotic, it gave me my life back along with seroquel.
I have never tried abilify. This drug is an analog of abilify with a little less akathisia. Because rexulti is so expensive I am trying abilify in this summer to see if they are the same. Hopefully I don’t get anxiety or insomnia, anxiety would be a deal breaker.
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@Dreamy will do. I take it alongside risperidone (4 mg) and lexapro (10 mg)
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Hi @eduvigis I am thankful for your reply. I can report you just my effects with Abilify. I had restless legs, flatulence and poor sleep patterns. On the other hand I was “back to life”, I started improvising music (my hobby from past) and felt more intelligent in this field of action, being more creative. About the weight gain, I became thin/normal again, I lost a lot of weight, which was a big concern and then improvement for me. Dosages started in 10mg and “we” added up gradually until the maximum of 30mg. I could not support the side effects any more, the restless legs and the smell it created on me from fermentation in the gut, possibly. I know many people do not experience this last side effect.
Ok @anon49063606, thanks. Risperidone was a drug that caused me a lot of weight gain, and severe sexual side effects. I was on 50mg of injectable risperidone (Risperdal). Now I am on Xeplion which have less side effects but I have excessive weight gain too due to the high dosage of 150mg and the add on of 50mg of Socian (Amisulpride). That`s why I want to try something different, something like a better “Abilify”. I stopped my activities with Xeplion.
I was on rexulti for awhile now although I’m currently not taking anything, and it worked some for me but the side effects it caused me were not good. It caused me to have severe insomnia and I couldn’t stay asleep once I got to sleep, idk why but I was constantly peeing while on this med. i can no longer afford it also…and I was gaining weight on it which was depressing because it’s one of the main reasons I got on it to not gain weight.
What it helped me the most with is being able to leave the house, go out in public and be around people, my mood was better, and my anger was suppressed. Also driving was a lot easier. Thoughts were slowed down.
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I take 2mg daily. It is my only antipsychotic. I also take an AD and 2 anti-anxiety meds. I have noticed very minimal side effects. The first AP that I took was abilify, which improved my mood but did nothing for my psychosis. I was then on risperdal which worked for getting rid of my psychosis but also got rid of my emotions and libido, and made me exhausted 24/7. I tried seroquel next, which wasn’t much better than risperdal. With rexulti I have gotten my emotions back, and most of my libido, and I’m not nearly as tired as I used to be.
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Thanks a lot @TheStrange. Was the weight gain very significant? Do you have any comparison? When insomnia was severe didn`t you use another medicine? Well I have many questions! I hope you do not mind, it is ok not to answer… Regards.
“Brexpiprazole has a lower intrinsic activity at the D2 receptor than aripiprazole, and as such should induce fewer D2 agonist-mediated AEs. In addition, brexpiprazole has a higher affinity at the 5-HT2A receptor than aripiprazole and as 5-HT2A antagonism may reduce D2 antagonist-induced akathisia (Laoutidis and Luckhaus, 2014), brexpiprazole may have the potential to be associated with fewer EPS-related events compared with aripiprazole. Brexpiprazole also shows higher affinity for the 5-HT1A receptor than aripiprazole, which could have potential benefits on depressive symptoms common in patients with schizophrenia (Blier and Ward, 2003; Celada et al., 2004; Maeda et al., 2014b). Higher affinity at the α1 adrenergic receptor for brexpiprazole than aripiprazole may also mitigate against EPS-related effects (Stahl, 2013), and may also be useful in managing agitation and sleep disturbances. The α1 antagonist prazosin, for example, has been shown to improve agitation associated with Alzheimer’s disease (Wang et al., 2009) and hyperarousal/sleep disturbances associated with post-traumatic stress syndrome (De Berardis et al., 2015). Brexpiprazole has shown robust effects on positive symptoms and cognitive impairment in relevant animal models, with superior effects in cognitive tests compared with those of aripiprazole (Maeda et al., 2014b). Furthermore, brexpiprazole showed statistically significant efficacy and good tolerability compared with placebo in two recent phase III clinical studies in adult patients with acute schizophrenia (Correll et al., 2015; Kane et al., 2015). Systematic clinical reviews can be found elsewhere (Citrome, 2015a, 2015b).”
I’m not sure what to compare it to, the weight gain was not incredibly significant it was like a steady increase in weight over time. But not like gaining 50 pounds in a month or something. It did make me hungry…for the insomnia I would constantly take things like Benadryl, or things like that but i found if I didn’t take something to put me to sleep then I wouldn’t sleep at all.
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Thanks again @TheStrange! I wish you good health.
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"Safety findings
Adverse events
“A similar percentage of patients in the brexpiprazole (57.8%) and aripiprazole (63.6%) groups reported at least one treatment-emergent adverse event (TEAE).”"
“most of my libido” thats great @thewcifer! Whats wrong? Less intensity? Probably AD influences…
“the rate of insomnia for brexpiprazole was half that of aripiprazole, for example, which could guide therapy for a patient already deprived of sleep.”
I don’t have restless legs. Might have flatulence and poor sleep patterns though, I just don’t dwell on those things.
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