Abilify vs Lithium
 | Abilify |  | Lithium |  |
| Aripiprazole is used to treat certain mental/mood disorders (such as bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, and irritability associated with autistic disorder). It may also be used in combination with other medication to treat depression. Aripiprazole is known as an antipsychotic drug (atypical type). It works by helping to restore the balance of certain natural chemicals in the brain (neurotransmitters). | This medication is used to treat manic-depressive disorder (bipolar disorder). It works to stabilize the mood and reduce extremes in behavior by restoring the balance of certain natural substances (neurotransmitters) in the brain. | |||
Alternatives
Reviews
| Add Abilify review greg.txt;1;3 Until recently, I had been taking Zoloft for years with satisfactory results. Depression and bipolar symptoms returned strongly and Abilify was added to my treatment upon my request. I have experienced significant spotting since starting this drug, but the beneficial effects outweigh this by far. horrible weight gain Too much weight gain I had to stop. I take Abilify at night (5mg) and Zoloft (200mg) and welbutrin (100mg) in am for Depression. Was taking Trazadone with the Abilify for sleep but now don't need Trazadone and find that Abilify makes me drowsy enough. For the depression it worked extremely well with the other meds. Made me feel a whole better | Add Lithium review I have seen or felt no change with my Bipolar, but have had the severe side-effects. NOT worth it to me. Lithium works very fast. Within a day I felt much better. It pulled me out of a depression that wanted to leave me crying for no good reason. It is a very wonderful mood stabilizer. So if you need something to work today and not 6 weeks from now I recommend lithium highly but beware of side effects. At the time this was the best thing for me but after awhile the side effects became worse. I gained 25 lb. in just a couple months. After two months I lost so much hair that my hair got so thin it felt like I had got a haircut. The worst thing of all was the restlessness which will keep you uneasy and twitchy the whole time. I'm sure this is dose dependent. I took 1200 mg daily. If you can deal with the fact that lithium might make you fat and bald then this may be the perfect bipolar medicine. | |||
