abilify for impulsivity?????

[momster]

We went to a new doctor recently. We talked to him about our son's bad experiences on Straterra. Right now he is on a small concerta dose which is helping only a little bit with impulsivity. A bigger dose would help more, but it makes him way too flat. We've tried other stimulants, as well as tenex and clonidine.

This doctor was retty confident that my son is not bipolar, but suggested that abilify might still help him with impulse control.

I have never heard of anyone going on abilify for adhd. :confused: So my questions are: is this an effective drug for impulse control, and how safe is it for a 12 y.o. to take?

[Southpaw1]

Did you ever try abilify for your 12 y.o.? They want to put my 8 y.o. grandson on it for impulse control. Anyone familiar with it for that use????? Please respond quickly. Thank you!

[tic chick]

Hey momster and southpaw! *bunch

any drug used for anything but it's tested and stated for purpose, is used by a doctor as an "off-label" med.

that means, that he THINKS, because of stories heard or feedback from other doctors, that it has worked for SOME people with that problem (in both of your cases, abilify to control impulsivity).

personally, i took abilify for tourette syndrome. it did get rid of about 85% of my tics. again, abilify was not tested on people with tourette syndrome, but evidence suggested it does work for that purpose, so my neuro gave it to me off-label.

abilify did make my ocd worse. i think impulsivity might be related to ocd, like it might possibly be a smaller component of it.

i would say for children to take abilify for impulse control is like trying to kill a fly with a cannon...over-medication.

having had 2 children with adhd, the impulsivity does diminish with age. i think you can use other techniques to try and control impulsivity.

you don't say how bad the impulsivity is, but unless your child is hitting other children or doing things dangerous to himself or others, i think abilify is too strong of a drug.

let me see if i can find some other resources for impulsivity control for both of you.

i know what you're going thru *smallheart,
jeannie

[MidnightSun]

My children's psychatrist suggested that I might want to try Abilify for impulsivity as well. He has a LOT of experience prescribing ADHD meds and he told me that whenever he has a patient who's responded well to meds for controlling all their ADHD symptoms except impulsivity, that a low dose of Abilify (5mg) corrects it every time. I trust him and his confidence in this med, so I plan to try it. He's not my treating doc for my ADHD so I have to ask for it from mine, but I'll keep you all posted on how it works for me. Guess i'm willing to be the guinea pig! LOL! :p