Mental Health Abilify and Weight Gain

[Disocio0]

So I'm Bipolar type 2 and naturally extremely thin (I was 6 foot One and 145 pounds) before I started taking Zyprexa. I dont have an eating dissorder my metabolism is just rapid. After four months of taking Zyprexs I'm now 180 pounds and feel great. I dont know if it is helping me mentally but I take it just for the weight purpose.

Lately ive felt down in the dumps. I take Zoloft (100 mgs) Adderall (20 mgs) Klonopin (6 mgs) and Zyprexa (15mgs) daily. I want to stop zoloft because it took my sex drive away (Im a 22 year old male so its pretty important to me) and I was wondering if Abilify could replace both zyprexa and zoloft without causing weight loss or depression.

What do you guys think?

 

[iridescentblack]

My psychiatrist told me "there's less risk with weight gain on Abilify (vs Invega)". I know not all of that is relevant to you but that was her wording when I asked if I could switch medications.

I was on Abilify when I was in 8th to 11th grade. It made me gain about 20 pounds. I was short back then so that was a lot of weight. It won't necessarily make you gain a lot of weight but it might help you maintain it.

But a friend of mine recently told me that it's illegal for a doctor to give you Abilify without an antidepressant. This is apparently due to a bunch of negative symptoms that come on, later down the road, after starting Abilify. I don't know if this has any truth to it, but looking back I don't think I had any of those symptoms (pressure on temples and severe headaches).

 

[AlphaMethylPhenyl]

Abilify has minor affinity for SERT (the serotonin transporter), but it's not clinically thought to have an antidepressant on its own.

That said, in lower doses (2mg-10mg?) it's supposed to be effective as an adjunct to antidepressant treatment in treating depression, which it's officially approved for.

I don't know what your friend told you, but abilify is routinely prescribed for bipolar/schizophrenia on its own. Never heard of it causing severe headaches. Certainly doesn't sound like something a nueroleptic causes. Are you thinking of hypertensive crises?

Yes, I believe it has one of the lowest weight-gain profiles of the anitpsychotics.

What jumps out at me is that you're taking a massive dose of klonopin at a pretty young age. That could be solely responsible for the depression you're experiencing. Even .5mg lead to more depression in my experience. You're taking 12 times that much. It could also be causing your reduced sexual drive.

I don't understand the utility of prescribing a hard stimulant and a potent depressant together. That's not a very high dose of adderall, but you might not even need it if you were to cut down on that gigantic klonopin dose. What do I know, though. I'm not a doctor.