I'll be interested in reading the replies you get, as I believe we are in the same situation. My son was on Risperdal for over two years and was taken off cold turkey last week. Now he's moving so much that it's painful to watch and he is not normally a hyperactive kid.

Amanda

Logan, 6, BP1, NVLD

Lithium, Seroquel

 my son was just put on abilify about a month ago, and taken off of it 9 days ago. he became extremely manic with psychosis and now finally crashed with teh help of zyprexa on tuesday night. i wonder if this is akathisia as well... he was on geodon about 6 weeks ago and developed akathisia from that. akathisia is like the worst anxiety inside and out, with possible delusions. abilify is probably the least likely antipsychotic to cause akathisia, but my son is really sensitive to meds... he was also on strattera - started a week after abilify, so its hard to tell if this was induced by strattera or abilify, or a combination of both.

for us, when he is done with this current episode, we are only doing the mood stabilizer, lamictal, and then supplements. no more antipsychotics or any kind of adhd meds. he will use the omega 3s high in EPA for focus and concentration and he agrees to that. being in this state is terrifying for him. we already know he absolutely can NOT take any kind of antidepressant at all. wellbutrin is an antidepressant btw.

bare in mind that lamictal takes a super long time to kick in - like 3 months. and needs to be titrated up very slowly due to "the rash" possibility. however, my son has not had any other side effects. he did get a rash, almost like sunburn, but then they stopped titrating it up and held him at that dose until the rash cleared, and then increased it again. he is now at 400mg. lamictal is also the only mood stabilizer that covers the current depression. it basically controls future depressive episodes. not really for mania... prior to these adverse reactions to these latest medications, my son was basically more depressed than manic. so lamictal was our choice. trileptal looks like a good ongoing med for mania. we may add that if this current episode doesnt end... we dont like teh side effects of zyprexa for long term use, but it can be used as a PRN for both manic & depressive episodes.

to counteract the akathisia, my son was prescribed zyprexa, propranolol, klonopin and benedryl. it worked in about a week.

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Lara
Mom to:
Cam BP-NOS, Anxiety Disorder (15), Lamictal, Xanax, Lithium Orotate, Omega 3s
Taking the summer off from school, except Drivers Ed - eeeeeeeek! Will have a majorly redesigned IEP once we hit the public school in San Diego!
Suburban Chicago Area soon to be moving back to Southern California
Previously misdiagnosed as Aspergers Syndrome - stimulant ADHD meds & SSRIs brought out BP
Daughter & Sister of BP1.

My ds took Abilify a few years ago.   It definitely caused akathesia for him.  He is hyper to begin with, but he was just restless and felt like he was coming out of his skin.  We used Vitamin E, which did help some, but eventually changed AP's.

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Brenda,50, CABF Parent to Parent Volunteer
Mom to A, 15 1/2, BP, Tourette's, OCD, ADHD: Eskalith CR, Trilafon, Lamictal, Seroquel, Cytomel
E, 14, BP,AS, hypothyroidism: Seroquel, Eskalith CR, levothyroxin, inositol
B, 12 1/2 & H, 10
Married 17 years to DH, 49

FROM CABF: Do not start, stop, or change medications or other treatments for yourself or your child based on what you read on this Website or elsewhere on the Internet. Information presented here should not replace the considered judgement of a doctor who knows you or your child.

I know this is an old post but my son was on strattera and abilify for a couple of years.  He is 6 now, his behavior got worse they took him off strattera all at once said it wasnt addictive.  He then was took off abilify all at once.  It got a little worse.  I learned through this whole thing that these meds are horrible and the doctors almost as bad.  Pharmacists are who I will listen to from now on.  I had 3 doctors tell me the meds werent addictive so it wouldnt matter there would be no withdrawel.  The pharmacist said different.  I should have listened to the pharmacist.  It makes sense that ANYTHING you put into your body on a daily basis for years and then take it away there will be some withdrawels.  We ended up having to put him back on the meds.  Now he has to take Cogentin too because one of the meds gave him akathasia.  We are currently lowering his abilify a little bit at a time slowly to get him off eventually.  He was taking 2.5mg in the AM and 2.5mg in the PM.  He has been down to 2.5mg in the AM and 1.25 in the PM for a week.  He has improved in a lot of ways already such as he is actually playing with his toys now and building lego sets whereas before he wouldnt do it, he would say he couldnt and then cry till someone did it for him.  He also seems to think better and his speech is better.  We are going to keep him like this another week and then take him down to 1.25mg in the morning and 1.25 at night.  We will keep it that way for about 2 weeks as long as he is doing ok then take it down to 1.25mg in the AM and 0 at night then eventually take away the AM.  It is really hard to divide a 5mg tablet less than 1.25mg.  As long as he is doing good then we plan to keep him on the Cogentin for a month afterward and then ween him off of that and hopefully the akathasia will go away.  Then our plan is to slowly ween him off the Strattera. 

Slow weaning is absolutely the best approach.  These pdocs who say you can stop any med cold turkey have clearly  never taken a psych med before!  They may not be addicting, causing craving for the med, but they do alter the way the brain functions, and it's a little harsh to the brain to suddenly stop them.  Good luck with the weaning process.

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Brenda,51, TBMF Parent to Parent Volunteer
Mom to A, 17, BP, Tourette's, OCD, ADHD: Eskalith CR, Lamictal, Cytomel, Allegra
E, 15 1/2, BP,AS: Seroquel, Eskalith CR, inositol, Buspar
B, 14 & H, 11
Married 18 years to DH, 50

FROM TBMF: Do not start, stop, or change medications or other treatments for yourself or your child based on what you read on this Website or elsewhere on the Internet. Information presented here should not replace the considered judgement of a doctor who knows you or your child.

My dd is being taken off Abilify and put on Seroquel. The whole process is like 15 days. We are going down on the Abilify and up on Seroquel every 4 days. Dd had hand tremors and neck movements from the Abilify, and it wasnt working to its potential for her. She only experienced those side effects at 15mg not before. We decided to switch because when she was on 10mg it did absolutely nothing... As far as the Lamictal, its done wonders. It is painfully slow going up on it though. Dd developed a rash almost a year into it but it was not lamictal related so we kept her on it and havent had any problems with it since. I'm hoping this proves to be a good combo for us... Good luck!!!

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Teresa,31
dd,H,11, BP, GAD
Abilify 15mg split a.m/p.m, Lamictal 150mg split a.m/p.m, Tenex 1mg split a.m/p.m

My daughter was taking abilify 2mg it worked pretty good, but by 5pm the effects were gone and she was super irritable and plain angry, so the pdoc increase abilify to 5mg and she got akathasia, we stoped abilify inmediatle and luckily the akathasia went away.  We tried Lithium which increased her depression and motivation, depakote made her manic and restless unstable, it was a mix of depression and restleness.  Lamictal could have worked but he stopped it before we got to a therapeutic dose, because he wanted to try depakote and an anti-depressant.  Currently she is out of meds, we are changing doctors and I am just waiting for the appointment day, in one week.

Good luck!

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Paola MDLM

Paola,

My ds17 did not stabilize until he got on lithium and Lamictal + an AP + cytomel for the depression.  All his thyroid tests were "normal", but the cytomel worked like turning on a switch to relieve his unrelenting depression.  Just something to keep in the back of your mind in the future if he tries lithium again.

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Brenda,51, TBMF Parent to Parent Volunteer
Mom to A, 17 1/2, BP, Tourette's, OCD, ADHD: Eskalith CR, Lamictal, Cytomel, Allegra
E, 16, BP,AS: Seroquel, Eskalith CR, inositol, Buspar
B, 14 1/2 & H, 11 1/2
Married 18 years to DH, 51

FROM TBMF: Do not start, stop, or change medications or other treatments for yourself or your child based on what you read on this Website or elsewhere on the Internet. Information presented here should not replace the considered judgement of a doctor who knows you or your child.