Terrible experience with Aripiprazole for Autism symptoms

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Today, I thought to share with you the terrible experience I recently had, with a medication called Aripiprazole used for schizophrenia and various autism/asperger related symptoms, and such.

Unfortunately, I was a victim of a terrible side effect called Akathisia. Akathisia is a feeling of restlessness in the body, with tendency to think about suicide, terrible general feeling, nausea, vomiting, and other unpleasant issues. I had no idea the medication can cause these side effects, but I took it and gave it a shot after the doctor recommended it. The doctor himself also didnt warn me of this, which to me seems kinda weird. After I took it, I spent a few hours during the day trying to relax somehow, until the effects have disappeared / weakened by time.

Can you explain what you think about this? Thanks.

Didn't the chemist explain possible side effects to you?
Was there a product insert?
I always read those first.

Unfortunately, no. None of that. Sad, right?

? Unbelievable actually.

Didn't you google the product?

Do you have something to contribute to the discussion / the subject itself instead of asking weird questions? Sorry, I had to say it.

I dont do research on every little thing I do in my life before I do something. Its too hard.

I've gone through awful experiences with psychiatric medications, too. The psychiatrists never tell you the truth about the side effects. They just want to make their money and they're horrible. And telling them you want to go off the drugs because you can't sleep or eat or think and you're 150 times less functional than before they act as if you're asking them to rip out one of your kidneys. Even if you're out wandering in the dark outside your home at 2 AM because you can't sleep or even lie still, or even end up going to the ER. I HATE psychiatrists, they don't want people with mental illness to get better, they think we're all serial killers anyway. They just want to drug us into a stupor so we can't "harm" anyone.

And Asperger's itself isn't a mental illness, whoever prescribed it is a huge quack. They need to go to the duck pond, get sick and die from eating moldy bread crumbs.

Funny thing is how in the US they have commercials for prescription medication all the time and the lists of side effects are always so long and always include things like "risk of suicide". Or "anal leakage" and other scary things. But doctors make millions of dollars off their their patients in the US, so of course they don't care. There are even commercials for drugs to take for the side effects of other drugs, which have their own long list of side effects. Go figure.

You've always had a keen interest in psych meds as they pertain to ASD or other conditions.
I'm confused why you would agree to take one without doing any research.
I'm also confused why a doctor and chemist wouldn't give you any info and you were OK with that.

That's my contribution.
I'm sorry you had a bad reaction.


Here's a link about it.

https://medlineplus.gov/druginfo/meds/a603012.html


I haven't taken this med but I took Risperidone which is also for autistic aggression / meltdowns and it has similar side effects.

I've wanted to try aripiprazole for a long time as a replacement for haloperidol. I haven't yet because it's really expensive. But anyway, maybe I should stick to haloperidol. I hate the feeling of akathisia.

Do you have to try a different medication?

Akathisia is listed among possible side effects of aripiprazole.
I had generally awful experiences with anipsychotics - and it finally turned out, I didn't need any, I was just misdiagnosed.
If you have bad side effects, tell it to your doc and try something different.

Did you have any actual psychotic symptoms, like hallucinations or delusions, before you started taking this medication?

I think it underscores the importance of doing one's own research before taking anything. It's often easier said than done, but a glance at the Wikipedia page on Aripiprazole suggests the evidence of its effectiveness is questionable (depending on what it's supposed to treat) and that the side-effect of akathisia happens in over 10% of users. That would be enough to give me doubts about taking it.

Of course anybody with serious symptoms is rather caught between the devil and the deep blue sea when it comes to deciding on an intervention, and there's often no clear-cut conclusion from even the most diligent appraisal of the available data. One possible thing if there's a concern about side effects is to start at a lower dose and be ready to discontinue the moment anything seriously bad happens. But there's no perfect way to go. And as you've discovered, doctors aren't always to be completely trusted. The best ones will point to certain interventions, explain the risks and benefits, and ask the patient what they want to do, while the worst ones will just say "I'm going to put you on this" as if the patient's body belonged to the doctor. I suppose most doctors are somewhere between those descriptions.

Sorry to hear of your experiences with the stuff and with your doctor, and I hope the side effects have gone away now you've stopped taking it.

Ariprazole is an anti-psychotic, and yes it does carry all of those side-effects. Its use in Autism and Tourette's syndrome are off-label however. Most patients do experience mild side-effects, but those tend to lessen over time. Sometime's it works, sometimes it clearly does not - that's true of most medications. Unfortunately, a lot of prescriber's take shortcuts and will try many medications before finding one that is effective for the individual patient. Sometimes its the only way, but you should have been warned. Its a sad state of affairs when we have to do our own research.