because i take abilify, ive actually done some Google-ing, and...

blah. at a certain level, its just a neuroleptic that happens to be somewhat more tolerable in many respects...for a subset of people/"patients." Brain imaging and such has been mixed...see, over time, antipsychotics tend to cause the brain to become more sensitive to dopamine...so, long term, you see people needing higher doses of tranquilizers, additional drugs, psychotic symptoms get worse or pop up for the 1st time, etc.

Abilify -might- be somewhat better, over the long haul about that...but, then again, the tendency is for people to be on multiple psych drugs at the same time. 10mgs/Abilify long term might be safer than, say, Zyprexa...but what if there's an antidepressant and anti-seizure drugs in the mix, too? stimulants?

akathisia seems common with abilify, which is worrisome for me. i dont have it now, but some people report tardive akathisia, even without tardive dyskinesia or other obvious movement disorders. I think part of the problem is that many shrinks jump to suppress akathisia, with propranolol or benzodiazepines, and keep the offending tranquilizer in place. OK short term, can be disastrous long term.

so there you go. oh, and Abilify is actually very potent, so the 20 and 30mgs doses are often over kill, when one sees the brain imaging studies. and yet...20 and 30mgs doses are quite common, especially in Bipolar I and Schizoaffective labelled-people. For whatever reason, once the problems are bad enough to be labeled "Schizophrenia," the psych people go for seroquel, risperidone, etc. I don't get it.

hope this helps.