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How long after I stop Abilify can I trip?

zizar3

Greenlighter
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Jan 16, 2015
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19
It's been a week since my last (10mg) dose. Will I be able to trip? I don't need antipsychotics and don't have any schizo-typical mental disorder or Bipolar or anything that actually requires Abilify. Just mild depression (that hopefully LSD will kick me out of), so I'm not looking for advice, just an answer to my question please. Also, Abilify has a half-life of 75 hours.
 
The rule of thumb is wait 7 half lives. (1/128 of the original dose remains) Especially if you've been taking it on a daily basis - drugs like abilify will accumulate in the body.

That means you're best off waiting ~21 days before attempting to trip. So mark your calendar for next month.
 
The rule of thumb is wait 7 half lives. (1/128 of the original dose remains) Especially if you've been taking it on a daily basis - drugs like abilify will accumulate in the body.

That means you're best off waiting ~21 days before attempting to trip. So mark your calendar for next month.

I don't think the half life of aripiprazole is the only issue to consider. Aripiprazole is a 5-HT2A antagonist and therefore chronic use will probably result in substantial 5-HT2A downregulation. It is somewhat paradoxical that 5-HT2A antagonists produce receptor downregulation, but that effect has neen observed numerous times. Washing out the drug will not immediately reverse the downregulation, so you will have to wait for the cell surface receptor population to return to normal. I'm not sure there is much that is known about the time-course of that process, but obviously it will be delayed for as long as aripiprazole continues to bind to 5-HT2A in the brain.
 
I don't think the half life of aripiprazole is the only issue to consider. Aripiprazole is a 5-HT2A antagonist and therefore chronic use will probably result in substantial 5-HT2A downregulation. It is somewhat paradoxical that 5-HT2A antagonists produce receptor downregulation, but that effect has neen observed numerous times. Washing out the drug will not immediately reverse the downregulation, so you will have to wait for the cell surface receptor population to return to normal. I'm not sure there is much that is known about the time-course of that process, but obviously it will be delayed for as long as aripiprazole continues to bind to 5-HT2A in the brain.

That's scary. Are there any benefits to these neuroleptic drugs so commonly being prescribed (at least in this country, US)? I can't fathom their being necessary and seem dangerous.
 
That's scary. Are there any benefits to these neuroleptic drugs so commonly being prescribed (at least in this country, US)? I can't fathom their being necessary and seem dangerous.

It's a common effect of some psychiatric medications, such as antidepressants that block serotonin re-uptake. I don't think there is any reason to think receptor downregulation is inherently bad, that is how these systems are "designed" to function, and it is completely reversible. Exactly the same process happens when someone takes a drug that increases the activation of 5-HT2A.
 
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