The Diabetes/Abilify Connection
About a year later he was able to go off of the Diabetes medication all together but for the rest of his life he’ll have to watch his diet carefully.
Shortly after our incident doctors that prescribe Abilify began closely monitoring weight gain in patients, and have even given Metformin to some to prevent Diabetes onset. My son will graduate this year on the honor roll and he’s looking forward to his future without undue anxiety. But the trade-off has been huge.
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It is good that this article is published so that those in the same boat will watch out for the connection between Abilify and diabetes. At least now the physicians who prescribe Abilify are monitoring their patients for weight gain which looks like is the side effect of the drug and could lead to diabetes. We all learn from each other so this is a good thing.
Evelyn Guzman
http://www.free-symptoms-of-diabetes-alert.com (If you want to visit, just click but if it doesn’t work, copy and paste it onto your browser.)
Teri,
What dose did your son take, and for how long?
It's very scary when new drugs, especially the most promising ones, have some sort of negative side effect that turns out to have lifetime consequences for the patient. I'm very glad he was able to lose the weight and get off the diabetes medicine.
For others who use Abilify or who have family members who use Abilify (which is the brand name for aripiprazole), here is the patient information sheet. It's very easy to toss these because they're folded in a million ways and they're printed in tiny type. It's often easier to read on a computer:
http://www.drugs.com/abilify.html
Adam was and still is on 7 mg's a day. His Diabetes is under control and he's doing well mentally. We feel at this point that what's done is done and look to a positive future.
Drugs can be scary it's true but many times the good outweighs the bad for some.
I am surprised the prescribing doctor did not tell you that this drug can cause hyperglycemia, and to know what signs/symptoms to look for?!
Here is more information about hyperglycemia from the American Heart Association.
And, just to make sure that this information is accurate for future readers...Abilify does not "cause" diabetes, but it can cause hyperglycemia (increased blood sugar), which in turn can lead to diabetes (inability of body to properly use insulin to lower increase in blood sugar). Is this your understanding of these two extremely-related diseases as well?
yes and Abilify for some causes increased appetite which can also lead to Diabetes. When we went through this the Diabetes issue wasn't something anyone brought up.