Abilify Index | Brand and Generic Availability ›
Crazy Meds Comprehensive Abilify pages

This is our summary of Abilify. Clicking on a “More…” link will take you to a page with greater detail. The Comprehensive Abilify pages contain the information from all of the “More…” pages.

1.  Brand & Generic Names; Drug Class

US brand name:	Abilify
Generic name:	aripiprazole
What is Abilify (aripiprazole)?	Abilify (aripiprazole) is in the Antipsychotics class of drugs.

More about Abilify’s generic availability, worldwide trade names, and more

2.  What is Abilify (aripiprazole) used for

2.1  US FDA approved treatment(s)

Schizophrenia in adults & adolescents; Bipolar 1 in adults & children over 10; as an add-on to antidepressants for MDD in adults;

2.2  Popular off-label uses

Schizoaffective disorder, bipolar depression, monotherapy for depression-spectrum disorder, delusional disorders without psychoses, OCD, Parkinson’s.

More about Abilify’s approved & off-label uses

3.  When will Abilify (aripiprazole) start working?

3.1  How long until Abilify starts working

Faster than Seroquel, but slower than most other AAPs. I.e. 3–7 days, with 3 days more likely (but not always) when adding Abilify to an AD (or anything else) and 7 days more likely when using Abilify by itself.

3.2  Will Abilify really work for what I have?

Given its activating nature, Abilify is probably more likely to work as an add-on to treat depression or bipolar disorder than as monotherapy for bipolar disorder.

More about how long until, and how well will Abilify work; and how Abilify compares with other drugs

4.  How to take and stop taking Abilify (aripiprazole)

4.1  How to take Abilify

As with many APs, BMS recommends you just start at the target dosage. That’s 10–15mg a day for Schizophrenia, 15mg a day for bipolar (as monotherapy), and 10–15mg a day for bipolar (when taken with Depakote or lithium). The maximum dosage is 30mg a day, and you should wait at least two weeks before increasing the dosage.
The only application where you start at a low dosage a move up is when you add it to an AD for depression. That’s when they recommend you start at 2–5mg a day, work up to 5–10mg a day, and the maximum dosage is 15mg a day, and you should wait at least a week before increasing the dosage.

4.2  How to stop taking Abilify

With its long-ass half-lives, a lot easier than most meds. Severe rebound symptoms are less likely as well.

More about taking and discontinuing Abilify

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5.  Abilify’s (aripiprazole’s) pros and cons

5.1  Pros

As it sort of acts as a Parkinson’s/RLS med, so you’re somewhat less likely to get a couple of the more annoying AP side effects - most movement disorders and those involving prolactin.
The anticholinergic side effects are also less likely than other APs.
The long half-lives of of Abilify and its active metabolite mean you don’t have to worry about a dosing schedule, and you can even take a tablet every other day.

5.2  Cons

Since it kind of acts like a Parkinson’s/RLS med, you can get the oddball side effects of a Parkinson’s/RLS med, like pathological gambling. It also means you can’t take another dopamine agonist to deal with movement disorders and need to take a potent anticholinergic like Cogentin.
Abilify’s long-ass half-lives mean if you two don’t get along you can be stuck with the side effects for at least one, and possibly two weeks after you stop taking it.

5.3  Interesting stuff your doctor probably didn’t tell you

Abilify is the first third-generation antipsychotic (TGA) to hit the US market. TGAs are defined as being partial agonists at dopamine D₂ receptors, and that’s what makes them act sort of like Parkinson’s/RLS meds. So, unlike Zyprexa, Abilify doesn’t just mask movement disorders by being a potent anticholinergic, it tries to prevent them from happening in the first place.
More of Abilify’s pros, cons, and interesting stuff

6.  Abilify’s (aripiprazole’s) side effects

6.1  Typical side effects

Headache. Agitation, akathisia (the inability to sit still), anxiety, insomnia, restlessness; unlike almost all other APs, Abilify is more likely to make you hyper instead of turning you into a zombie.
The Abilify Burp - a type of mild-to-moderate gastric reflux. You’ll know it when you taste it. Abilify so many GI-related side effects that you might as well be taking valproic acid or felbamate.
These side effects are in the “Usually temporary, but they’ll flare up, especially when you change your dosage” category.

6.2  Uncommon side effects

Blurred vision, mania (regardless of your being bipolar or not), teeth grinding & jaw clenching (but rarely progressing to TMJ like Lexapro), muscle aches, orthostatic hypotension (getting dizzy, feeling faint and nearly-to-actually passing out when you stand up).
Unlike most APs, Parkinson’s-like movement disorders (EPS & TD) are uncommon. They can still happen, but they’re just a lot less likely. The same applies to weight gain. Abilify can still hose your blood sugar, though.

6.3  Freaky rare side effects

Rabbit syndrome. Bone pain. Waxing-and-waning catatonia.
More about Abilify’s side effects

7.  What Abilify (aripiprazole) is best known for

The Abilify Burp.
More about Abilify’s black box warnings, noted traits & effects

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8.  Abilify’s (aripiprazole’s) half-life & how long until Abilify clears your system

Half-lives: 75 hours for Abilfy, 94 hours for its active metabolite. Clearance: 20 days!
Drugs.com’s drug-drug and drug-food interaction checker
More about Abilify’s pharmacokinetics & noted drug-drug & drug-food interactions

9.  How Abilify (aripiprazole) works (the best current guess at any rate).

Abilify is a potent antagonist at the dopamine D₂ and D₃, serotonin 5-HT_1A and 5-HT_2A receptors, a moderate one at dopamine D₄, serotonin 5-HT_2C and 5-HT₇, alpha1-adrenergic and histamine H₁ receptors, and even does a little serotonin reuptake inhibition.
Like a few other APs, Abilify is a partial agonist at serotonin 5-HT_1A receptors, but what makes it special (for now) is also being a partial agonist at the dopamine D₂ receptors. Blocking 5-HT_2A, and having a positive effect on 5-HT_1A and D₂ are responsible for fewer movement disorder and prolactin problems, and all those agitating/antsy/activating side effects.
More about how Abilify works. AKA Abilify’s mechanism/method of action, or pharmacodynamics.

10.  Comments

In case you don’t watch enough TV, Bristol-Myers Squibb (BMS) is pushing Abilify as an add-on for your antidepressant (AD). Depression is a far more socially acceptable form of brain cooties than bipolar disorder and schizophrenia, so it’s no surprise that you’ll see way more ads about ADs than mood stabilizers. And recent approvals are always heavily advertized.
More comments As if I didn’t go on long enough here.
Consumer/patient comments about & experiences with Abilify

11.  Discussion board, PI sheet and other allegedly useful links

Crazy Meds’ Abilify discussion board
Abilify’s Full US Prescribing Information / PI Sheet
Allegedly Useful Links. Mostly any official sites we could find for this med and PI sheets from countries other than the US.

Abilify Index | Brand and Generic Availability ›
Crazy Meds Comprehensive Abilify pages

Bibliography

Date created Tuesday, 29 November 2011 at 11:57:45 Page Creator: Jerod Poore Last edited by:

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Abilify Basic Overview by Jerod Poore is copyright 2011

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Almost all of the material on this site is copyright © 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, and 2012 Jerod Poore. Except, of course, the PI sheets - those are the property of the drug companies who developed the drugs the sheets are about - and any documents that are written by other people which may be posted to this site will remain the property of the original authors. You cannot reproduce this page or any other material on this site outside of the boundaries of fair use copying without the express permission of the copyright holder. That’s usually me, so just ask first. That means if want to print out a few pages to take to your doctor, therapist, counselor, support group, non-understanding family members or something like that - then that’s OK to just do. Go for it! Please. As long as you include this copyright notice and the following disclaimer, I’m usually cool with it.

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Very little information about visitors to this site is collected or saved. From time to time I look at search terms used and which pages they bring up in an effort to make the information I present more relevant. And the country of origin, just because I’m geeky like that. That’s about it. Depending on how you feel about Schrodinger, our privacy policy should either assuage or exacerbate your paranoia.
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Crazy Meds is optimized for the browser you’re not using on the platform you wish you had. Between you and me, it all looks a lot cleaner using Firefox or Safari, which is what a plurality of visitors use. And I’m running Windows XP3. On a computer that sits on top of my desk. With a 23 inch monitor. Hey, at least you can make the text larger or smaller by clicking on the + or - buttons in the upper right hand corner. If you have Java enabled. Like 99% of the websites on the planet, Crazy Meds is hosted on domain running an open source operating system with a variety of open source applications, including the software used to display what you’ve been reading. As such Crazy Meds is not responsible for whatever weird shit your browser does or does not do when you read this site².
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¹ While there are plenty of books to help you with hypochondria, for some reason there’s not much in the way of websites. Then again, staying off of the Internet is a large part of curing/managing the disorder.

² Have I mentioned how open source operating systems for commercial applications is one of the dumbest ideas in the history of dumb ideas?
[begin rant] I rent a dedicated server for Crazy Meds. It’s sitting on a rack somewhere in Southern California along with a bunch of other servers that other people have rented. The hardware is identical, but no two machines have exactly the same operating systems. I don’t even need to see what is on any of the others to know this. If somebody got their server at the exact same time, with the exact same features as I did, I’m confident that there would be noticeable differences in some aspects of the operating systems. So what does this mean? For one thing it means that no two computers in the same office of a single company have the same operating system, and the techs can spend hours figuring out what the fuck the problem could be based on that alone. It also means that application software like IP board that runs the forum here has to have so many fucking user-configurable bells and whistles that even when I read the manual I can’t find every setting, or every location that every flag needs to be set in order for a feature to run the way I want it to run. And in the real world it means you can get an MBA not only with an emphasis on resource planning, but with an emphasis on using SAP - a piece of software so complex there are now college programs on how to use it. You might think, “But don’t people learn how to use Photoshop or Adobe Illustrator in college?” Sure, in order to create stuff. And in a way you’re creating stuff with SAP. But do you get a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree with an emphasis on Photoshop?
Back in the Big Iron Age the operating systems were proprietary, and every computer that took up an entire room with a raised floor and HVAC system, and had less storage and processing power than an iPhone, had the same operating system as every other one, give or take a release level. But when a company bought application software like SAP, they also got the source code, which was usually documented and written in a way to make it easy to modify the hell out of it. Why? Because accounting principles may be the same the world over, and tax laws the same across each country and state, but no two companies have the same format for their reports, invoices, purchase orders and so forth. Standards existed and were universally ignored. If something went wrong it went wrong the same way for everyone, and was easy to track down. People didn’t need to take a college course to learn how to use a piece of software.
I’m not against the open source concept entirely. Back then all the programmers read the same magazines, so we all had the same homebrew utilities. We even had the forerunner to QR Code to scan the longer source code. Software vendors and computer manufacturers sponsored conventions so we could, among other things, swap recipes for such add-ons and utilities. While those things would make our lives easier, they had nothing to do with critical functions of the operating system. Unless badly implemented they would rarely cause key application software to crash and burn. Whereas today, with open source everything, who the hell knows what could be responsible some part of a system failing. [/end rant]