Aristada and Depression: What Users Say

• Dai...
• Taken for 1 to 6 months
• January 18, 2019

For Schizophrenia "Successful on Abilify Maintena 300 mg for 5 years, except flat affect, anxiety, and inhibition. Switched to Aristada, hoping to help negative symptoms. First month thought it was a miracle drug... was able to smile, feel more emotion, go to the gym daily (on Abilify, I felt fear going alone). Started feeling agitated slowly, then psychosis started on/off, then full inpatient hospitalization for 2 weeks. Returning to Abilify. Why won’t NIMH reinvest in improved research? Find what was helping in Aristada and remove what wasn’t! I felt so close to feeling normal, but psychosis can take my life away!!!"

• Liz...
• April 30, 2021

For Schizophrenia "I was coerced into taking an injection of Aristada at a psych ward. They don't tend to tell you it takes around nine months to get this drug out of your system after one single injection. The half-life (the amount of time it takes for half of the original dose of the drug to decrease by half) is around 57 days for Aristada. For Abilify Maintena, which is a different injectable of aripiprazole, the half-lives for the 300 mg and 400 mg dosages are about 30 and 46 days, respectively. So, if you happen to experience terrible side effects on the injection, such as extreme akathisia, muscle damage indicators on a blood test, extreme hunger 24/7, rapid weight gain, and depression, don't expect the effects of this injection to just magically disappear after a no-show to a scheduled injection. They will continue to drag out and be overwhelming, only decreasing in intensity slowly, slowly. Nightmare."

• Joe...
• Taken for 1 to 6 months
• January 11, 2022

For Schizophrenia "It lasted way too long, longer than two months for the 1064 mg. Side effects: dizziness and constipation. Depression."