I feel the effects of the Abilify I just started going up and down throughout the day. I’ve been on it a week, and I know steady state isn’t achieved for two, but I don’t remember it acting like this in the past. I’m on 5 mg now, have been on 2, 10, 15, and 30 before in the past. Right now I’m also on Phenelzine, olanzapine, memantine, methylfolate, and tryptophan. I had a similar experience with Vraylar a few years back when I was on it for a week: it would kick up and “upshift”/stimulate me, then throttle back throughout the day. Did anyone else have this experience with Abilify, Rexulti, or Vraylar? Does it eventually stabilize out?
Edit: The higher doses were before the phenelzine, and the 2 mg dose disinhibited me last I took it with said drug, whereas I could no longer tolerate anything above 10 mg after being on phenelzine. Drug bank says Abilify, Rexulti, and Vraylar all have their metabolism inhibited by phenelzine but that’s the only source I’ve ever seen say that. My experience bears it out though as 4.5 mg of Vraylar on phenelzine was overwhelmingly stimulating.
Is anybody else on olanzapine and Abilify together? I’m on 20 mg of the former, and the Abilify we’re using for cognition, drive, and negative symptoms. I notice at about the third hour mark after I take it, it peaks and my negative symptoms of anhedonia especially lift like a veil for about two hours. Music sound so much more alive and vibrant, I can feel more, pick up on things I haven’t been able to perceive since childhood. And then it goes away x.x
The effects would intensify occasionally and then die down just as quickly as they intensified. I started the Abilify exactly a week ago btw. Both Vraylar, and now Abilify, do this for me.
Moreso the activating effects and effects on my negative symptoms. I’ll start feeling energized, more sharp, alert, feel more pleasure, etc. and then it will just die down as suddenly as it started. Up and down like a seesaw.
I was only on Vraylar for a week and in a psych ward and we titrated up from 1.5 to 3 to 4.5 over that week. I get insomnia from the phenelzine though, and the Vraylar was so stimulating it made me feel like I was on something (not unpleasantly so mind you) so we switched to Abilify. I had come in on Zyprexa and was originally depending on that to help me sleep, and it’s a long story but they wanted me to only take Seroquel to sleep and when I started getting bad side effects from it they gave me nothing else and I went sleep deprived for a good while. Jerks.
It was mostly the D3 receptor effects that I would notice on the Vraylar, intensifying and then dying down. It made everything look extra sharp and clear and vibrant and made spatial dimensions stand out more strongly and energize me and make me super alert.
5 mg, although if Drugbank is correct it’s metabolism is being inhibited by my phenelzine and my blood levels are probably more like I’m taking 10 mg than 5.
I can’t sleep with Abilify on its own, it doesn’t do as good a job at controlling my positive symptoms, my agitation, or mood on its own, I augment the Zyprexa with memantine because when you combine memantine with Clozaril or Zyprexa it helps even more with positive symptoms so I would relapse without the Zyprexa. I have been on Clozaril because my schizophrenia is treatment resistant, but I cannot tolerate it properly, so I figured Abilify+memantine+Zyprexa is the next best thing.
I don’t dare reduce the Zyprexa. It has a very powerful effect on my positive symptoms, mood and agitation and anxiety and such. I guess we’ll see what happens, if this Abilify’s effects stabilize out after a few weeks. I hope, if I do need to go up, my provider will allow it. I only got the 5 mg dose zi asked for in part because it was supposedly not active as an antipsychotic at that dose. I only realized later that because of my Nardil the 5 mg dose is probably acting like 10 mg, which IS an active dose for schizophrenia.
You need to ask your pdr if the effect of two antipsychotics adds up. I will ask the same question to my pdr next week. If it is I will reduce my Risperdal. If you can’t reduce your Zyprexa then increase Abilify.
There’s a few studies showing Zyprexa and Abilify complement each other, some using the Abilify to successfully counter remaining positive and negative symptoms, and/or attenuate the negative metabolic effects of Zyprexa or neutralize the obsessive compulsions some people get from Zyprexa as a side effect. Abilify has been used to augment Clozaril pretty successfully as well.