Abilfy side effects

[Guest guest]

Hi All -

My son who originally was on Zoloft and Strattera had Abilify added

to his regimen this past August in an attempt to try and unlock some

of the real hard obsessions (example - only eating off of paper

products, refusal to touch garbage can) that the Zoloft hadn't

touched. Since that time he had been increasingly hungry. On

Thursday, before I even had a chance to bring it up with p-doc she

asked to speak with me without my son- She herself noticed he was

putting on weight and said we needed to decrease the Abilify

immediately. He was only on a small dose to begin with 5 mg, now

down to half a tablet daily. I saw some improvement with anxiety

with the Abilify, but it didn't accomplish what we had hoped and the

intended reason for trying it. There's still room to increase the

Zoloft so I think we'll try to do this once he's weaned down the

Abilify.

I should add... my son also has a fear of being " fat " and a poor body

image. He is not overweight, but you cannot convince him of this in

any way. This has been a problem for a few years now. At one point,

he even put the connection together if he exercised hard and drank

water, the weight would drop quickly. He was surely not overweight

then and it was a scary thing. Once on the Zoloft, this particular

thought/obsession decreaed significantly. He himself is noticing the

weight gain with Abilify and I fear it's going to trigger the " eating

disorder " issue once again. He has asked if I can help him " diet. "

I told him we can help him make more healfhy food choices. Since the

Abilify he is craving and eating carbs nonstop.

I guess my question is - What have other's experiences with Abilify

been in terms of side effects. Has anyone noticed weight

gain/increased appetite? If so, how easy was it to correct one the

medication was stopped?