exhaustedmumof2

New Member
It has been a while since I have been on because my difficult child was doing really well up until 3 weeks ago.


Just got back from the dr. and he has changed his medications again. He has taken him off the imipramine he was on due to a side effect of not being able to breath thru his nose at night. He was taking 200mg of seroquel at night to help him sleep that has been reduced to 50mg at night and he added abilify 2mg in the morning plus added dexedrine 15mg for his adhd.

I guess what i am wondering is can the abilify make a child drowsy and if it does would it be ok to give it to him at nighttime with the seroquel. I dont want my difficult child to become a zombie on this medicine.

any feedback on abilify would be appreciated since this is a new medication for us.
 

kassy

New Member
Hello James has been on Abilify for about 1yr now at 7.5 for past 7 or 8 months and it does not zombie out at all for him.. only seems to make him hungry... i think??? though hunger has always seemed to be a issue.. it starts to blur after so many years... hope this helps..
 

Janna

New Member
Dylan has been on Abilify for a year now. Started at 5 mg and is now at 15 mg.

The drug has been a good one, with it's ups and downs with side effects. It works great for a good while, then eventually always fizzles out, which is why his dosage keeps going up. It has helped immensely with impulsivity and hyperactivity, but has done nothing for focus/attention. It has helped (in conjunction with a mood stabilizer, my son is BiPolar (BP)) greatly with his moods. It helps him sleep - yes!!!! - give about 30 mins before bed.

Down - huge weight gain (although some is the Lithium too). He also has this problem with holding saliva in his mouth (started as drooling) that is worrisome.

We're considering weaning him off, but it's been good for him in alot of ways. All kids are different, I hope this works for your difficult child.

Janna
 

jal

Member
Abilify has been great for us. My son has been on it for 5 weeks and he is a different child. Whle attention has not increased, impulsivity and ODD have greatly improved. He would crash 2hrs after taking 2mg. He's on 7.5mg now and takes it after dinner. No weight gain yet, psychiatrist said it should not cause gain. No drooling. Wanting to eat and eat, but that's always been an issue.
 

Ltlredhen

New Member
My difficult child has been on Abilify for almost 2 years now. For us, it works great in combination with Lithium. I can tell you that is works well for the aggressive behavior in my difficult child. He started out low at 2.5 and now is at 15mg. Like Janna said, combination of the Abilify and Lithium has cause some weight gain but has been worth it to us.

We tried to cut back his Abilify dosage about 6 months ago and after 3 days we upped it back up. Not a pretty sight. :smile:

Good luck
Donna
 
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