Is anyone's teen on Abilify or other antipsychotic?

amother

Thu, Feb 22 2024, 6:30 pm

My child has some extreme views and the therapist thinks going on an antipsychotic will help ground him to be able to get through to him in therapy.

This son has been through MANY therapists, and taken many types of medicines (for ADHD, OCD etc) up until antipsychotics, to me that was a whole other level of medication and we didn't do it. (We tried a lot of natural stuff too) And now we are at a dead end.

I'm scared of the medicine! But I'm also scared not to try the medicine because my son can't stay status-quo for life.

Please tell me your experience with it:
Was your child diagnosed with schizophrenia? (mine was not, but he does have rigid thoughts and non realistic views)
Did you child have side effects? If yes, did they go away when stopping the medicine?
Did the medicine help accomplish what it was you wanted it to? (And what was that?) And how long until it started working?
Was your child able to come off the medication? And if yes, did all the issues return?

(Did anyone try a different medication for similar issues and did it help?)

amother

Daisy

Thu, Feb 22 2024, 6:40 pm

My teen is on Abilify. She did have very strong, unusual opinions. This has really helped her become more relaxed, and thought out. She can have a conversation and sit through listening to someone else’s point of view. She doesn’t have a diagnosis, but does interesting physical movements due to sensory issues. Her issues seem to stem from anxiety and her psychiatrist doesn’t like the typical ant-anxiety meds for kids, so he recommended this one. If she misses a dose, she gets a headache and feels like she has fever, but doesn’t actually have any.

amother

Acacia

Thu, Feb 22 2024, 6:47 pm

I took Abilify for depression. It's not a real hard core drug. "Atypical antipsychotics" sounds a lot scarier than it is. The real antipsychotics - like Risperidone - are much stronger than other psychotropic medications. Abilify is not like that. I even took it through pregnancy without issues.

amother

Geranium

Thu, Feb 22 2024, 6:51 pm

My son is on Abilify for Tourette’s. Does not have any side affects and it seems to work well. Dr keeps mentioning that she wants him off of it eventually as it’s not as safe long term as other medications but for now he’s on it. I agree with poster above that it’s not as strong as reperidol or other antipsychotics (which we have tried).

amother

Thu, Feb 22 2024, 6:52 pm

amother Daisy wrote:

Thank you for your response! My son can have a conversation and "physically listen" to someone's opinion, but he won't "hear" it or let it change his opinion in any way. Are the physical movements a side effect of the medication, or she had them before?

amother

Thu, Feb 22 2024, 6:58 pm

amother Daisy wrote:

How long did it take to see results?

amother

Winterberry

Thu, Feb 22 2024, 7:30 pm

My daughter was on Abilify for some time as a teen, she has a mood disorder (bipolar II, milder form of bipolar disorder really). She had depression/racing thoughts and also couldn't sleep at night, hypomania. She takes lithium which stabilized the moods but was still having trouble with sleep.
We found the Abilify affected her concentration and made her more tired. Helped with the sleep but too much! Affected her performance in school..... She ended up coming off it and takes a small dose of seroquel now instead.
She did not take it for the symptoms you describe (she's an easygoing sweetheart) so not sure her experience will help you.....
I want to say I understand being scared of medicine - starting my daughter on medicine was the scariest thing I ever did in my life. But I've learned not to be so afraid. Not taking medicine that is needed is scarier.

amother

Thu, Feb 22 2024, 11:47 pm

amother Tanzanite wrote:

We loved Abilify until we didn't. It did amazing things for reducing his rigidity, and he was on it for many years. But it did cause some movement issues and eventually we had to pull him off it.

what do you mean by movement issues? Like Tics? Did they go away when you took him off? did you find a good replacement medicine? My son has had tics that come and go so I'm wondering if that would make him more susceptible?

amother

Alyssum

Fri, Feb 23 2024, 3:13 am

amother OP wrote:

Have you considered that he may be ASD? A hallmark of ASD is mental rigidity, unable to see other people's views, and even appearing to live in their own world. Your son may be HFASD. Very HF but still ASD. Many HFASD kids get diagnosed with ADHD (which they may also have) and also diagnosed with OCD (which they may not have, just the fixations/obsessions are symptoms of ASD), often anxiety as well, etc.

Mine takes Risperdal and it helps him be a calmer person, less agitated, less rigid, less aggressive. We have seen no side effects on the Risperdal, he's been on it for about two years now.

amother

Fri, Feb 23 2024, 4:29 am

amother Alyssum wrote:

Yes he may be HFASD. Would that make a difference as far as will medication work for him to be less rigid in thoughts and less obsessive in his ideas?
(He is not agitated. I know resperidal is often helpful for aggression/agitation)

amother

Geranium

Fri, Feb 23 2024, 8:16 am

amother OP wrote:

My son takes Abilify for tics so I don’t think you have to worry about that.

amother

Acacia

Fri, Feb 23 2024, 9:13 am

The movement issues are called tardive dyskinesia. If your child has tics or tic like movements I would make sure the doctor knows that.

I believe abilify is actually commonly given to children with ASD. It's actually FDA approved for treating irritability in ASD. For all that's worth.

amother

Fri, Feb 23 2024, 5:16 pm

Thanks for all the replies. It was really helpful (until I googled tardive dyskinesia. aah!).

Please continue to post about if abilify caused tardive dyskinesia for someone you know, did it go away after stopping the med?

Also please continue to post if it helped for non-typical thoughts/ideas, and if it made them more grounded?

Thank