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Abilify And Tardive Dyskinesia.

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So my wife has been on Abilify for awhile and she has recently started to have involuntary mouth movements, specifically a sucking motion. It is bad enough that her jaw constantly hurts and her mouth opening is very limited. She also has developed a tic whereby she utters a low grunt regularly.

It appears that she has developed tardive dyskinesia from Abilify and we will be discontinuing the drug after a slow taper. Generally the movements go away after discontinuation, but there is a risk that it is permanent.

I just wanted to let you all know about this side effect of Abilify, and also to see if anyone else has experienced this.
 
It wouldn't let me post a link, but googling Abilfy and tardive dyskinesia will get you started. Wikipedia has a decent write-up.
 
I'm so sorry that you and your wife are going through this right now! Antipsychotics can be scary....well, even the newer atypical antipsychotics such as Abilify, Seroquel, Geodon, etc. I developed issues with Geodon after being on it just over a year or so. I didn't have TD symptoms such as your wife, but my muscles were weakened and in pain. I tried to switch to other atypical antipsychotics but my muscular symptoms always resurfaced quickly. Geodon is the only medication that has been able to stop my obsessions dead in their tracks, so I keep it around for emergencies, as I know that some doctors do prescribe it PRN (as needed).

Its scary how much this class of medication is pushed on people....I really do think they should be reserved for the more difficult cases and not thrown at everyone who isn't "fixed" by their antidepressant (as many of the commercials on TV here in the USA suggest.)

I hope your wife's condition improves. I wish you both the best.
 
I don't know if there's any literature on the subject, (for all I know it could be the standard treatment) but I know that here has been quite a lot of anecdotal success of transitioning tics into conscious control by "using" them / generally like to pass on that info in case it's not common knowledge.

So, a sucking tic, would be transitioned by getting a straw cup and continuing to drink even after the tic has passed. A lolly, and continuing to suck even after the tic has passed, etc. Similarly, when here is any warning of an oncoming tic (known trigger or symptoms) to try and preempt it, but starting it consciously in a useful capacity.

It's not a 100% fix even anecdotally... But from what I've heard its had quite a bit of success in retraining the brain, especially when started early.
 
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