Can Abilify Cause Anxiety?

I was on effexor and wellbutrin for depression for many years. It stopped working so the doctor gave me 5mg abilify to take with the wellbutrin instead of the Effexor. The abilify worked very well for depression, but caused anxiety ( which I never had before) I stayed on it for 6 to 8 weeks anyway - dealing with the anxiety because the depression was gone. The anxiety was very very difficult to deal with and finally I couldn't take it anymore and had to stop taking it. I weaned off it and the anxiety went away EXCEPT NOT ALL OF IT. Now I have a new problem that wont go away and I am so scared and frustrated When I go to sleep I have bad dreams or dreams that cause anxiety. I wake up from the dream - still remembering some of it. Than within a second or two I am hit with a wave of anxiety. It usually starts in my chest than I feel it spreading out to the rest of my body. It is strong and intense.Than I cant sleep anymore and I am stuck with this anxiety for most of the day. It usually goes away by late afternoon or early evening, but I go through HELL first. Often crying from the anxiety pain I am having. It gets into my mind ( BUT STARTS IN MY BODY AFTER THE DREAMS) I have wrenching crying spells and feel better after .crying, but than feel drained and still anxious. The anxiety seems to be combined with a kind of hopelessness ( depression?) that makes me feel like I would rather be dead than feel it anymore.If I get busy or go to work it may go away 100%, but than ALWAYS comes back the same way. At night right after some trippy anxiety causing dream.

IS ANYONE ELSE HAVING THIS PROBLEM LIKE ME???? The doctor gave me .5 or 1 mg Ativan to take. When I take that it is much much better.I don't want to have to take it. I keep waiting for it to go away naturally BUT IT DOESNT. I am 45 and never had trouble with anxiety before. It was always clinical depression. I am so frustrated....and scared. I feel like I am loosing my mind and control of my body. Thanks for reading I hope some one can help me

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Hi, Peter! Sorry about the problem that you're having, it really must be terrifying.

There is always a slight chance of something permanent being done when you take medications that alter your brain chemicals, sometimes your brain just never manages to balance them back out again on its own or it can take a very long time for it to do so.

How long have you been off of the Abilify?

And it is also possible that it has just been caused by something else, such as natural shift in your body chemicals from aging, since our bodies do change with time.

I suffer from OCD and took Zoloft successfully for about 7 years, but then I stopped and when I tried to go back a few years later, it caused depression. It just no longer works with my body and I had to consult my doctor about trying something else. I'm just giving this as an example of how much our bodies can change and it can happen very fast.

Why are you against taking the Ativan?

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I was prescribed abilify for 2 years. I have horrible side effects, some that appeared after stroping the drug. I recently read an ad for abilify and now they list all kinds of side effects in their ads that they hadn't disclosed before. Yes, anxiety is one of them. I have been on Xanax ever since i stopped taking abilify. There are legal cases against Bristol Myers for hiding side effects, giving drs. financial kickbacks and exclusive vacations. Three employees of Bristol Myers blew the whistle on them and received 50 million dollars each! I know 1 case has already settled for 515 million, but I am looking for an active one now, as my side effects are embarrasing and permanent. I strongly advise anyone to wait until a drug has been on the market for a while before taking it because long term effects aren't know.

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Thanks for the info. Please let me know if you hear about any action being taken.....

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Hello. I have been on Abilify for about 2.5 years, and I have had terrible anxiety for about the same amount of time. My psychiatrist claims that Abilify doesn't cause anxiety, but I can't help but wonder if other people have experienced this as well. Let me know, thanks!

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Antipsychotics cause brain damage. That’s why some people get TD.

It’s absolutely HORRIBLE that they use them off label for anxiety when there are medications made for anxiety.

It may go away, it may not, you should talk to your doctor and ask for actual anxiety medication.

People who are not psychotic or bipolar SHOULD NOT BE TAKING ANTIPSYCHOTICS unless they’re warned about the brain damage and SI and are willing to risk it.

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Re: Verwon (# 1)

Exactly, why would you not want to take an anxiety medication that works on anxiety? I swear the drug addicts have made people afraid to take medication that’s pretty safe for most people, and it’s driven them to get permanent brain damage from off label medication that is not safe.

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Re: Optimistic (# 5)

antipsychotics can have a post synaptic dopamine upregulation after this drug has downregulated Dopamine receptors as an antagonist and partial agonist, pre and post synaptically. This is a allostatic modulation that should not be permanent brain damage. The benzos are the quintessential postive allostatic modulators of the GABAa Receptors subunits 1-4, 5. After ceasing benzos, GABA in our brain is not able to have the same affinitty to bind to the receptors and calm down our bodies because the benzos modulated the receptor subunits to make it very easy for GABA to bind to them, causing their anti anxiety effect, but the blowback for ceasing these drugs is the same. It is not brain damage, per se, but requires a period of the receptor reconfiguring back to previous states.

Abilify IS an FDA approved drug to treat depression as an add on therapy for an antidepressant to augment the effects. So, it is on label to prescribe Abilify to a patient using an antidepressant that is not responding fully - in these situations the abilify acts as an adjuvant to the antidepressant and can be a lifesaver for many people.

The post about anxiety withdrawals may be because there’s suddenly a few months of the dopamine post synaptic receptor upregulation when discontinuing the drug, as explained above. This causes more dopamine than you’re used to and could produce a state of anxiety as dopamine becomes norepinephrine in the body. Also, being on Wellbutrin increases norepinephrine already, so the two would be highly likely to cause the anxiety symptoms described, but should be temporary while the rebound from stopping abilify runs it’s course.

Lastly, one major cause of bipolar disorders is now thought to be patients presenting with what appears a unipolar depression, being given an antidepressant, and this triggers their latent bipolar - or could cause it all on it’s own. Consider most bipolar patients began on monotherapy antidepressants and then mood symptoms and the mood disorder diagnoses came some period afterward. It is now known that antidepressants can trigger mania or hypomania if used alone in some people susceptible, so a low dose mood stabilizer or antipsychotic is a good practice when initiating a antidepressant in a patient for the first time that the practitioner has not had luxury of half a year or more to track moods and determine suspected bipolar. They want to relieve the depression as soon as possible, and avoid triggering mania, and so oddly enough the prudent thing is start the patient with a mood drug until the antidepressant sets in and the practitioner can have more chances to examine and track the patient, keeping a look out for possible mood disorders or risks of them. Bipolar is 85% hereditary, so factors affecting genes cause nearly all the cases. This is not genetic, per se, it is environmental influences of particular types for particular people who’s combination of genes make it likely that in the face of those environmental factors epigenetic changes and the resultant stress is emergence of bipolar disorder, sadly.

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