Med change to abilify

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Has anyone used abilify in teens to help with anxiety and/or tics? My son was on risperidone for some time and it worked satisfactory, but due to some side effects we have to wean him off it and switch to what his pyschitrist is recommending abilify. He is mildly autistic, and his doctor says parents like this med because it helps socially. I'm not sure I'm buying that, but have heard very good things about it helping anxiety. We're starting tonight on a very low dose, and hopefully onward and upward from here. I know it could be a couple days or so before he might start improving, and that it could take up to a month or so for full results. I'm do nervous and excited/ hopeful about it. Anyone have good experiences with it? Or bad?

Same drug class as risperidone, but not as heavy of a hitter. It may not give you as much trouble in terms of side effects (fingers crossed-- I distrust the whole damn atypical family, but maybe it will work for you).

Watch for it being either excessively sedating or causing weird beliefs (medication-induced psychosis). My cousin got those on Abilify (started hearing stuff in the wind and believing that thunderstorms were the Devil coming to get her) but they were also feeding her Depakote, a couple of SSRIs, and Zyprexa all at the same time, so it's sort of hard to tease out which drug caused what (she was seeing the same people who tried to kill me).

We've had my 10yo on it for 4 years now. I would say that it does nothing for anxiety or tics. We put him on it for aggression and it works half as well as Risperdal, which we stopped using for elevated progesterone levels. I would say the only positive has been that Abilify increased my son's attention span - giving him OCD - but there have also been side effects IMO such as constipation, increased urination, anxiety when due for another dose, self injurious behavior, etc.

In a word if I were offered Abilify as a remedy for what you're looking for I'd say "nope."

He is just on 2.5 mg for just over a week now, and I'm noticing extreme improvement. He's calmer by far, less pacing and stimming. No side effects as of yet, but I'm watching him like a hawk. I don't think he's gonna need the dose raised even. It's just been a short time so far though. His tics are slightly still there, but greatly improved. Praise God.