abilify for bipolar ii

One of the good ones is "Why Am I Still Depressed? Recognizing and Managing the Ups and Downs of Bipolar II and Soft Bipolar Disorder" by James R. Phelps. Amazon.com has it on sale now for $12.

I was wondering how Abilify added to an anti-depressant affects a bipolar II? Will it cause Mania?

s also approved as monotherapy for BP I, and a lot of people swear by it as the best med for BP II, given that it works really well for depression. You are always allowed to ask your doctor about different med options and risks and benefits, and don't be afraid to ask for a change if after 4-6 weeks (maybe less on antipsychotics, which tend to work pretty quickly compared to other things) it's not working or the side effects are still majorly sucky.

Hi all - I was diagnosed bipolar 9/10..I'm 45 year old woman and there is lots of family history of mental illness on both sides. I was on prozac for 4-5 years for depression. my new physc put me on lamictal..once i went up to 200mg i felt very very spacey so i am back down to 150. about 5 weeks ago she took me off my prozac and on lithium. I started at 300mg then moved up to 600mg..at that dose i was getting very severe nausia. then last week on tues i started to cry and could not stop..

Only side effect I really noticed from Abilify was weight gain but this was because it made me start eating every 3 hours and become obsessed with food I guess. I take Abilify for psychotic symptoms associated with my diagnosis of schizophrenia.

Recently, I went to the doctor for ADHD (after putting this off year after year) I briefly spoke about the depression to him and he mentioned Bipolar II. I said, oh no I was just depressed - I was immature and blah blah blah. So, I get prescribed Vyvanse and nothing - just extreme tension and irritability. I see him again and he offers to subscribe me Lamictal for my "disorganized thoughts".

I got told by my new counsolor to go back to a phsyc doctor the get my meds reevaluated. I'm bipolar type II and she's thinking my 60 MGS of Cymbalta are doing nothing (I know they're not because I've had a couple thoughts of suicide that passed my mind). Well she's thinking mood stabilizers are a good idea as well. I don't know now if this post goes better in general health or here but I have heart problems.

Which bipolar medication works the best? I've tried Abilify at age 12, not supposed to use it under age 18; so it did not exactly work right. Seroquel? Abilify again? Lamotrigine? Carbamazepine? Others or generics of any of them?

I have mixed stat bipolar I so it works great for me. Give it a go, you will know within a few weeks, Abilify kicks in quick. Well it did for me! I love not "swinging" anymore and I feel stable most of the time. I get a little down here and there, but for the most part I am leading a normal life now. Good luck.

You are on a lot of meds. I was like that yrs. ago; way overmedicated and way overweight. I'm now down to 2 antidepressants and 1 mood stabilizer. (I am also a rapid cycler). Everybody is different and responds to medication differently. The best and most all-around useful mood stabilizer for me has been Topamax. It is an anti-convulsant, also indicated for propylaxis of migraines (which I also have). The great side effect, if you're overweight, is WEIGHT LOSS. Be careful, though.

I took Abilify for almost a year for Bipolar Disorder II, both in combination with Lithium and on it's own. When I was on the Abilify alone, I noticed uneasyness and racing thought, similar to what cowgirlnerd said. I felt more hypomanic than usual, so I suppose it had kind of an "upper" effect for me. When used in combination with the Lithium, I felt much more balnanced and steady.

Hope some can relate on here to what I am going through. Has anyone had success/experience with Abilify/Seroquel plus an ssri for bipolar I? If the Abilify doesn't work out, I may ask him about trying Lithium.

I have been on the same mood stabilizer for 10 years and another one since july 2009.If you are diagnosed as Bipolar you have to take mood stabilizers for a long time.

I have been taking Abilify for reasons that the doctor thought it was necessary to put me on it. It seems like there has been some benefits with the drug that others around me have noticed, but there is one bothersome effect that I believe the drug is causing. Although i am not fat, I seem to be gaining weight way too rapidy. Before starting on the drug i was 148 now I am 155 and its only been one month.

Hi everyone, I was wondering if anyone can tell me if Abilify has helped for the depressive side of bipolar II? Also I am wondering about something. I am newly diagnosed and under my psych's care I have only had one hypomanic episode. Preventing hypomanic episodes seems to be what my doc is focusing most strongly on, but what about the depressive side, which is where I have the most trouble.

Hi. I dont know much about the medications because I am so new at this, but if you are not feeling good, you really need to call your doctor back. I was diagnosed with ADHD in the 80's and finally went on medication in the 90's, but when I became more manic on the medications, I was diagnosed with bipolar II. I found that I have to literally badger my doctor when I am not "right." I feel bad doing it, but when he is able to help me and call something in for me....

I have been dealing with medications for bipolar for twenty years now. Although everyone's bipolar is unique to them, I have bipolar I with psychotic features that only appear when I am medication free. I have been on a combo of lithium and geodon now for the good part of ten years, and a high dose of neurontin was added a while back to treat mania, anxiety and fibromyalgia.

But the fog has caused me severe agitation and i was raging all the time.They said in the hospital that my raging was part of bipolar ii disorder. they put me on abilify with neurontin and prozac. The depression lifted and I had more energy than ever, (although mentally i was still in a fog). That lasted about a month and I got of the abilify cause of bad restlessness in my legs.It felt so good to not be depressed and then it came back.

Zyprexa is actually a pretty good antidepressant, but its side effects suck enough that people are reluctant to go on it long term.

I can't get a proper mental health diagnosis. I am a 23-year old female and I have been depressed for 5 years. Abilify helps the cyclical depression and Prozac helps with some anxiety, but I am still easily depressed with suicidal thoughts and get panic attacks (triggered, not random). I feel the drugs aren't doing enough. I am being treated for Bipolar II, but my shrink doesn't know for sure what's wrong.

Hi, I'm dx bipolar II with rapid cycling. I did try the zyprexa in the end and had a horrid allergic reaction, so yet another one bites the dust! Seeing pdoc in about 2 weeks just hope she is a little more receptive this time. She waves her hands a lot at me and tells me I am a typical "Westerner" who expects instant results - which I don't, as I am well aware that these things take time.

Zyprexa is the antipsychotic that is most likely to cause this. I myself gained 35 pounds when I was on Zyprexa. Abilify the least likely but it still can happen. The antipsychotic agent I am on in Phase II FDA study won't do this but it hasn't been studied for mood stabilization yet and I need a mood stabilizer as well. Out of the mood stabilizers, Lithium and Depakoate are more likely to cause weight gain than Lamictal so Lamictal might be one viable option.

Remember that nothing that works will be side effect free for everyone. Lamictal is weight neutral, and is great for bipolar II, and packs most of its weight against depression. Geodon and Abilify are also supposed to be weight neutral, Geodon a little more so than Abilify. Trileptal is weight neutral as well, but its use in bipolar is technically off-label.

I find I am okay with these meds, although not sure if we do need to tweak them or not, I was diagnosed 18 months ago with Bipolar II, and although given the diagnosis and meds to go on (I had been trying for years to figure out what the problem was, and had been on many medications for depression), I was never really told anything about bipolar, or what to expect, what things may happen etc. So This forum is great!

I was supposed to start on 10 mg of Abilify, but my doctor decided to start me at 5 mg at night with the Cymbalta and Valium. I haven't noticed any changes except for extreme tiredness. I can't seem to get enough sleep. I know that the Abilify causes you to be sleepy, but most of the medications do that until they get in your system. I'm sure my doctor will increase the Abilify in the next two weeks.

Abilify for bipolar ii

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